I was highlighted by Shoutout Michigan in a recent shout out. As a newly established freelance designer, no less!
Read more on their website: Why did you start a business?
Hi Derek, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
It kind of just felt like “it’s time,” to be totally honest.
I’ve been working at different levels of graphic design jobs since 2010. I wasn’t entirely aware of how to work in web development, but I did know how to code at a basic level after some practice. During and after college, I held some marketing & branding jobs up until around 2014-ish, when I started adding more and more web development into my work. That led to working at an agency where I was doing 50/50 design & development, and eventually another agency where I made it all the way up to full-stack web developer—while doing my own logo & branding design as an occasional freelancer.
Lately I’ve been feeling the tug of my work/life balance coming a bit unraveled. I leaned into both areas of interest as much as I could, which doesn’t exactly lend itself well to resting and refreshing ideas. I slowly began to realize that I was really starting to damage my mental psyche by adding every last thing I could think of to my plate. After having my first longer-than-a-week break in nearly a year, I finally had a moment of clarity (probably from actually being forced to do nothing).
That moment was telling me that I can do the work that I want to do, on my own time. I had never dreamed of making myself into a studio before, but suddenly it was the most obvious thing I could think of to do. I decided I’ve had the design experience necessary, and also the development experience necessary to actually pull this crazy maneuver off. So, here we are!
You can read the full article here: shoutoutmichigan.com/meet-derek-mohr-designer-developer/
