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

Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I have a heart for nonprofits. In my Master of Science Degree in Communication, I ended up studying Nonprofit Marketing & PR, in addition to Visual Communication theory and Health Communication. After graduating, I was a PR/Marketing Manager for a national nonprofit, where having a heart that wants to help others benefitted me professionally. I got to refine my skills both as a graphic designer and content marketer, as well as manage a team of personnel. I then used my balance of academic and professional experience and applied it to being an entrepreneur. With my own business, I still gravitate towards working with nonprofits without even meaning to. I love the idea that what I do makes a difference with every client, but particularly when a good cause is involved.

Sometimes work is most rewarding when it is a cause near and dear to you. I am a survivor of mental illness, where I have volunteered for a national mental health advocacy nonprofit at county, state, and national levels for the past few years. In addition to writing at all levels and facilitating a local support group as a volunteer, I care so much about the cause that I volunteered my graphic design services to help build and elevate the brand of a walk fundraiser for my state chapter, in advance of their largest annual fundraiser.

Based on that volunteer work and building that rapport, they have hired me to do a visual rebrand of all their materials and marketing collateral. It involves choosing a new color scheme, developing an icon graphic, and redefining the look of their organization in a way that clarifies its mission, making collateral visually compelling and branded with each other, and highlighting the concept that their organization emphasizes their updated mission as an inclusive organization.

I’m still working on this long-term project with them, where I am putting all my effort and passion into this work in defiance of what I went through. I am taking everything I went through and using it for good. Creating an exciting new brand for them is one way to me that I am part of this movement to help others like me. Since I am self-employed, I have the flexibility to work on this project and be there for as long as they need me as part of a contract. I can come in there and help as needed, without needing them to hire me full-time.

Sarah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve always been a drawer since I was young, as that is what always came naturally to me. Graphic design became a new category for artistic competition in grade school for me, and I won an award in elementary school. I was playing with my dad’s computer at his company after school when I realized that digital art and design interested me. When I was 10, he even had me recreate the original Macintosh logo on his computer in order to make a decal of it for the front window of his store.

I’ve also always liked to write, both academically and creatively. So when I was picking a major in college, I chose the Visual Communication sequence in the Journalism School. I saw it as the best of both worlds, and this School is also is a professional school with career services. In that sequence, I enhanced and improved my photography skills, graphic design process, and learned advanced multimedia programs related to web design.

After taking an initial different direction at first in my career, I did go back and get my Masters in Communication, focusing on Visual Communication Theory. I then landed a PR/Marketing Manager position at a National nonprofit, where I got to do both graphic design and writing. I then decided to strike out on my own as an entrepreneur, with the skills and experience I had acquired.

Now I use my writing skills, graphic design skills, and experience and education in marketing with my own business. I have experience doing just about any kind of marketing collateral: logo design, infographics, magazines and newsletters, social media images, PowerPoints, presentation posters, postcards, trifolds, posters, car magnets, patches, etc. What separates me from other designers is that I can do the writing for all these types of collateral too, which also makes me a strategist.

For content marketing, I blog, write magazine articles, press releases, write resumes, craft writing for any type of marketing collateral, SEO, e-blasts, web content optimization, copy edit, mission and vision statements, taglines, annual reports, fundraiser names, and more.

Being a writer and designer for an organization enables me to help position a brand, be a consultant for a new organization, and also advise on the strategy behind branding with new or established organizations. I have experience establishing a new brand but also helping organizations rebrand.

I truly am involved and committed when I work with an organization on strategy, writing and design. I am proud of helping organizations start and flourish from the bottom up or working with existing organizations to see their brand take off and grow. I truly feel that with my approach to work, I feel like I make a different through what I do, and I always work so hard to do work I am proud of myself.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

One thing I have learned is that the best source of new clients for me are through word of mouth and coincidence. My advice is to be positive in every interaction you have with people around you, especially professionally. Always have business cards in your pocket or purse, no matter where you go, because you never know when you will run into someone you want to have your contact information. Be someone who is talkative in public and not afraid to start up a conversation with someone you don’t know. Always have your elevator pitch ready – like a thirty second summary of what you do, and say it with enthusiasm. No matter how big or small a job is, take it – you never know what one small job could eventually lead to as a long-term revenue stream or at least boost your portfolio.

Some of my biggest clients have come from a friend or family member talking to a random person about what I do, and then we got connected. I think that even with Google and online searches now available, people trust a face or a referral from a real person they feel comfortable with. Sometimes the best business is networking, and it may not even be the actual person your speaking with – it could be a person they know who has work for you.
If you happen to have a marketing idea or inspiration for someone, like if you are in their store or something, share it with them, then share what you do. Sometimes just your enthusiasm for helping someone sells.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

No matter how good of a designer you are, you cannot always make everyone happy. Sometimes an art of graphic design is creating a logo, for example, for someone who can’t describe what they want in visual terms, but they say they will ‘know it when they see it.’ That is a difficult situation. They cannot tell you what they want at all or what they want something to look like, and they still can’t after you provide them with multiple logo options. Twice this has happened to me, and since I put so much heart and hard work into everything I do, I was disappointed that I couldn’t give them a finished product. Even though I really catered to these clients and did everything I could do to accommodate them, it just didn’t work out. It caused me to question my logo making ability.

When my next logo job came up, I was apprehensive. But I stood by my process, and the method and way I design logos. Sure enough, this next time I designed a logo, the client loved all three options I created and was able to pick a basic concept that we then developed further. This client was so pleased that he recommended me for a CanvasRebel interview.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yourdesignstrategy.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourdesignstrategy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmerrittryan/

Image Credits

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