Everyone wants to tell their story, everyone wants to be heard. The artisan baker, the printer manufacturer, the modern art museum, the car company. I’ve collected their thoughts and their powerpoint presentations, their screenshots, their chandelier drawings and their favorite napkins. Everything is sacred. Everything plays a part in their tale. From those eclectic collections, I find the patterns within and weave together the interplay of the expected and the unexpected alike. 

I work in tangible designs and know how to manage them. My shoes get inky from press checks, my arms get stiff from holding bounce cards on photo shoots, I ask and then answer ten million questions from my design team. I whirl like a dervish, and compel others to not be afraid to find the foolish core of the creative process. We will find it together.

—Melissa Nickles