Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Conner.
Hi Jordan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always been a very creative and imaginative person. Being able to create a visual story in anything that I do is very important to me and feeds into most aspects of my life. I am very attentive to how I dress, how I curate my social feed, the stories I read… and when it came time to pursue a field in college, I immediately knew it’d be art school, specifically design. Funnily enough, my design career started in high school. For an English project, I designed and curated a CD booklet to align with a playlist I created to encapsulate The Scarlet Letter. I guess it was interesting enough that my teacher suggested that design was something I should pursue, and thus my exploration into the field began.
I studied Graphic Design in college and also learned that I am a great illustrator as well. After graduating, I landed a contract as a junior designer for a marketing agency, Oshkosh B’Gosh, and moonlighted (literally—my shifts were 4am–2pm) as a graphic artist for CNN. A few years after graduating in 2014, I landed my first full-time role as an in-house designer for Atlanta History Center in Buckhead. That role shaped me into a well-rounded and flexible designer and really exposed me to so many facets of graphic design—environmental, web, print, exhibition, social media, merchandise, UX/UI—you name it. I even got to design a mural that now is painted on the face of the parking deck at the museum and an illustration of an iconic wallpaper in one of the on-site historic houses sold in the museum store!
Currently, I am a digital designer for a FinTech company based in Illinois. This role is a bit different from the history museum in that it is a completely different industry and requires me to use more human psychology and strategy to make informed design decisions, but fortunately for me I love a challenge and solving problems. My mentor made a comment once that the best thing about being a designer is that you can really work anywhere and any environment, and I’ve found that to be true. I am still doing branding and social media projects (I just wrapped credit card designs for a Major League Soccer partnership) but now my focus has shifted to be more web design oriented and I can’t wait to see where that takes me.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t always been super smooth—one of the struggles that any creative person can relate to is that you can design or draw or paint to your heart’s desire, but at the end of the day you still gotta eat. I took on a lot of opportunities with a lot of different agencies in different industries that I knew would get me to my next goal, whether it be in-the-field enrichment or a specific design role at a certain type of company, and while I may have struggled monetarily wise, doing this got me to where I am now. I am very driven and ambitious and tend to approach the less than savory design tasks I do as learning experiences because a lot of the time it is more about the journey than the destination. I like to know a lot of things and I always want to be up on what’s new in the industry, and you learn how to grow as a designer and person by putting yourself in unfamiliar environments and learning from different types of people. Looking back, maybe I could have moved on from a job sooner than I did or maybe I could’ve spent more time learning how to do xyz on my own, but in the end, I made the choice to advance my career when I felt comfortable making them, and that’s just how it was and is.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a Senior-level digital designer at a Fintech company, but I also do minor freelance work for clients in marketing, medical, and real estate industries. I am known for doing a little bit of everything. Clients tend to approach me for a lot of minor general print design work that people don’t really think about, for example one-sheeters, booklets, postcards, presentation decks, but also branch out into branding, icon and illustrations, and conceptual work. I think when people meet designers, they are interested in the large-scale in-your-face projects they’ve worked on, but there is a lot of value in the minor pieces that tend to go under the radar for corporate companies and smaller businesses. I enjoy focusing on those minor under-the-radar tasks as well.
However, my daytime design job is the complete opposite. I work mostly in Figma in my day-to-day and it’s usually designing pages on our website or researching and building design systems. The branding for the company I work for is still pretty new which allows for a lot more interpretation and exploration of design in all of our offerings. I have been able to design physical products that are circulated and interacted with by thousands of people, so that’s pretty cool. I am currently working closely with our product design team to gain more insight into that aspect of design because I think my next career jump will be into that territory. I have freelanced UX/UI jobs before, but I’d love to do that full-time as well.
I think I am most proud of the breadth of work I’ve been able to accomplish in the past 8 years. I have been able to interpret bold and bright design systems to appeal to vast demographics, and am now doing that same thing with a new system to paint a completely different picture. I am very attentive and have a technical eye that allows me to be able to approach any design problem or need in a completely unique and fresh way, and I think that is highly valuable.
What matters most to you?
Currently, it’s financial freedom. I love the concept of storytelling and have been able to do that in all my major roles I’ve pursued, and want to continue that while also making that money, honey! As a creative I think it is majorly important to find that balance between doing what you love and also being cognizant of the state of the world and how we can survive in it, and I am trying my best to keep that stability in my life and career.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jordanconner.com
Image Credits
Certain photos by Jason Hale Photography
