DESIGN

I learned Illustrator from
a 30-day free trial.

I was looking for a very specific design for an event I was planning and I couldn’t find it. So I decided to download a trial of Adobe Illustrator to see if I could design what was in my mind and figured it out. Both Posh Peacock and Brave New World Designs started the same way everything I've built has started: a gap, a willingness to learn, and no patience for waiting until conditions were perfect. These businesses are retired — but the from-scratch instinct that built them is still very much my operating mode.

GRAPHIC DESIGN · BRAND IDENTITY

Posh Peacock

Not long after launching my first blog, I figured out that I had a lot of fun creating vector graphics. So I started a design business.

I created stationery, wedding materials, editorial design, and brand identity work — all of it self-taught, all of it built from a 30-day Illustrator trial and a willingness to figure it out as I went.

I ran Posh Peacock from 2007-2014. My paper and digital designs were featured in Bride's, Boston Magazine Weddings, Pregnancy & Newborn, and more.

APPAREL

Brave New World Designs

I created Brave New World Designs within weeks after the 2016 election, as a way to take creative action amidst my despair — the sale of each design triggered a donation to a related charitable organization. While I did know how to create cool designs, I did not know how to make vinyl transfer teachers or use a heat press. I figured it out and set up the studio in my basement.

From 2016-2020, I donated thousands of dollars to 20+ nonprofits. The designs were featured in ELLE, The Boston Globe, and InStyle, and were worn by Alyssa Milano, Whoopi Goldberg, and thousands of resistors around the world.

A NOTE ON THESE BUSINESSES

Both Posh Peacock and Brave New World Designs are retired. I include them here not as a portfolio but as part of the story — evidence of what happens when you're willing to learn something new, make something from scratch, and trust that the gap you're seeing is real. That instinct is still the operating mode. It just shows up differently now.