We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rhoda Miller a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rhoda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

My partner Jon and I talked for years about starting our own design company and were constantly tossing around ideas for what we would name it. We are both Enneagram threes (achievers) and are generally efficient and productive people. We talked for quite awhile about calling our business Three and Three Design with the tagline “annoyingly efficient”, which was kind of a joke but also likely to be an accurate description of us and our work. During the pandemic, we spent a lot of time at home, our pace of life slowed significantly, and we learned to enjoy a more relaxed approach to living. We eventually decided that leaning in to our proficient and over-productive tendencies would not lead to a healthy lifestyle for us or set a good example for our child. We wanted to live more intentionally and with ease…and At Ease Design and Consulting was born. Our goal is to make our clients feel confident in their decisions by helping to navigate some of the stresses that come along with big decisions. We hope that living a calmer personal lifestyle will reflect in our professional world and help our clients feel more at ease as well.

Rhoda, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

After spending over 15 years working in the nonprofit and human services sector and making it through over a year of Covid, I was ready for a shift in my life. I had finished my masters in Restorative Justice in 2020 and was eager to pursue a career more in line with my education. In the summer of 2021, I left my job of 12 years and took a position that unfortunately ended up being a terrible fit, along with it being a completely different role than the one I was hired for. I discovered that once I had left one thing behind, it was much easier to identify a toxic situation and choose to remove myself from it. I resigned after 9 weeks with no plan in mind other than to find something that worked better for myself and my family.

I reached out to a former boss at a custom framing shop in our town and inquired if she needed holiday help for the season and she asked if I wanted to buy the business. I had zero interest in being a business owner but thought it wouldn’t do any harm to meet with her and learn more about it. After our meeting, I felt something sparking for the first time in a long while, as I could see so much potential with the business and what it could grow into and decided to go for it. I purchased the Frame Factory & Gallery in early 2022 and haven’t looked back. There is something much less frightening about purchasing an existing business than creating a new one and I am so grateful to the former owner for her willingness to let me shadow her and learn the business side of things as part of our purchase agreement. The shop has been in business for over 40 years and has continued to be successful in the framing industry.

My goal in purchasing the business was to cultivate an art community and lean more into the gallery side of the business to promote local and regional artists. We now have two dedicated gallery spaces and have bimonthly rotating exhibits as well as featuring over 20 artists and vendors in our gallery shop. I am constantly inspired by the wealth of creativity in our community and surrounding areas and have a particular intention to seek out and encourage artists who are reluctant to share their work. There can be so much hierarchy and pretentiousness in the art world and my goal is to make it feel more approachable and welcoming to everyone.

As part of our renovations, I created an office space for my partner and I with the eventual goal of sharing the space for our design business, which we officially launched in 2023. We provide a full menu of design services from web and graphic design to home and interior design and everything in between. We love working with small businesses, individuals, and nonprofits to create beautiful spaces and materials to promote their brand or enhance their lifestyle.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

The business that I co-own with my partner, Jon is a well rounded design business and at times, we wonder if we are offering too many services. We have both been offering graphic design services as a side hustle for years before bringing our skills together with At Ease Design & Consulting. In addition to graphic design, we also offer website design and branding, illustration, photography, and home and interior design. It may seem like too much, but many of the services feed into each other or work in tandem with certain clients. Our favorite projects are those that utilize our design skills to improve a space through color and product selection, or the application of environmental graphics and/or addition of artwork.

We decided to have our design office within the custom framing shop and gallery that I own. This way, I am able to be present with both businesses, which while separate, also complement each other. We have many design clients who end up needing framing services or framing customers who need design work as part of their projects, so much of the back and forth ends up feeling pretty seamless.

We also love variety and appreciate the cycle of projects that we see through from start to finish.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Something that has continued to become clearer to me as I age and as I lead others is that I want to be present with a mindset of abundance. The art world can often feel competitive or ostentatious and I’m not interested in perpetuating that environment. I really strive to create an approachable and inviting space where all can appreciate and enjoy creative expression and be inspired. There seems to be a myriad of reasons for why many artists chose not to share their work (past negative experiences with critique, imposter syndrome, feeling excluded, etc) and I want to push past these barriers to open our galleries to all kinds of expression. I love nothing more than stumbling upon an artist/maker who is reluctant to share their work and encouraging them to consider otherwise. I would not have described myself as an encourager in my past career, but it is something I have fully leaned into in the creative realm. I love seeing how people shine when they share their artistry with the community.

Contact Info:

• Website: ateasedesignco.com, framefactoryharrisonburg.com, inkberryridge.com
• Instagram: @atease_design, @framefactoryharrisonburg, @inkberryridge
• Facebook: ateasedesignco, framefactoryharrisonburg, inkberryridge

Image Credits

photo of standing couple can be credited to The Commoneer