Today we’d like to introduce you to Serra Miller and Taylor Jones.
Hi Serra and Taylor, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
We grew up in a house of artists, so the idea of creative entrepreneurship never seemed out of reach. Our mom runs her own graphic design business and our dad is a painter and owns an art gallery. We both always knew that we’d eventually work for ourselves. In 2020, we had the time and space to reflect on what we wanted our lives to look like and to think about what role we wanted work to play. During that time, we realized that we weren’t fulfilled in our corporate jobs and decided we needed to make a change.
One late night call, after another week of feeling burnt out, we made the decision: we were going to take the jump and do our own thing. Our biggest goal was to work with other people who love what they do. We wanted to use our backgrounds in brand strategy and graphic design to help business owners turn their good ideas into beautiful brands. We feel lucky that we both had similar aspirations and could team up to create something together. We landed on a design studio focused on branding & identity.
Over the next year, we planned out our business in the odd hours we could find outside of our full-time jobs. And then we took the jump and quit those jobs, realizing that it was the only way we’d be able to make Salt & True more than a well-thought out idea on a Google doc.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We feel fortunate to have a lot of resources in our circle who have been able to answer our (many) questions and provide guidance on starting a business. Even though we had a solid foundation for our strategy and design services, we’ve run into a lot of unknowns when it comes to the administrative side of things, like licensing, taxes, and bookkeeping. Thankfully, we’ve been able to find a community of other women entrepreneurs online who have been incredibly helpful with navigating this new space. One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned in entrepreneurship so far is that you need to know when to ask for help.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Our design studio, Salt & True, exists to turn good into great. We work with businesses with heart to make their good things even better through thoughtful branding, compelling design, & impactful content. We’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing people to develop intentional identities for their businesses.
While we specialize in branding and identity, we also offer social media strategy and design, brand photography, website design, and a la carte graphic design services.
We pride ourselves on truly partnering with our clients to get a full picture of their business and audience so that we can translate that into strategic and impactful designs. We love any chance to create something bold and we welcome any opportunity to push the limits of design.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
We both quit our corporate jobs to make this dream a reality, but we knew that it would require stepping outside of our comfort zones. One of the biggest things that has helped us so far is confidence, even when it doesn’t feel natural. We realized early on that we didn’t have room to doubt ourselves or our abilities. The bills depended on it. The other thing is pushing ourselves to make decisions. There’s safety in planning, but at some point, you just have to launch the thing, whatever that thing may be. It’s the only way to know if it will work.
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@saltandtrue.com
- Website: https://www.
saltandtrue.com/ - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/saltandtrue/
Image Credits:
Amanda Migliaccio
