Hi Humans.
I’m not sure how many of you just love to get your hands into projects and want to use your creativity for the greater good, but I do. I am and have been so many things that have culminated into the words magically disgruntled manifestor. I’ve spent years teaching, facilitating, writing, and presenting on what it means to design a more empowered, sustainable, and inclusive world. In 2019 I thought I was headed to the top of my game, until it all fell apart.
You ever had your life go totally to shit while the world is too?
At the end of 2019 contract I was betting everything on fell through. Then comes 2020 and covid happened. Summer 2020 my studio flooded and I lost a decade of work. Then my partner of over 20 years and I split. One after another I peeled the layers of identity back to nothing.
My practice in design centers on identity design and social impact, which are largely focused on how to create the life we want for ourselves, combined with how to dig ourselves out of our worst situations, to have the opportunity to create a life and community that’s healthy and self-sufficient. When it all fell apart, I decided it was time to develop and publish my design practice for rising from the ashes.
Over the years I’ve been bending design frameworks to hold different, more relevant to daily human life parameters that I call Strategies To Get Your Shit Together. I’ve been combining my practice in identity and social impact to build frameworks that can pull us out of even the biggest holes life put in our path. This is a life practice I’ve woven into all of my work, and the more I share it with people the more relevant I feel it is to people around me trying to exist with the pressures of now.
I’m creating the space to share this work and these ideas in their perfectly imperfect form. Anyone who is looking for actionable ideas on how to engage life with more meaning, creativity, and authentic human connection is welcome here.
Accountability and reciprocity are key.
I’m going to be honest. I let everything in my design career go between 2020-2023 and have been developing this work in intimate company. I keep telling myself I’ll release it when it’s done, but it’s never actually done. I’ve been sitting these ideas and only sharing them in the classes I teach or workshops I lead for years. More and more I feel it’s a shame to wait to release the work when so many people have benefitted in private sessions. I need this space to be accountable to the goal. I need you, the people who want to track with me on this journey and grow on their own creative path.
I’m no longer comfortable just giving this work out to the world for nothing. I’ve given so much of my work and ideas for free, or a cocktail, as social media content with no return, that I put myself at a disadvantage not valuing my own work, and spending my time creating to be broke.
So here’s the deal. I plan to release an article per week to get my writing practice back into a routine. If I’m feeling prolific, paid subscribers may get access to more sooner, but I can guarantee a minimum of one article a week centered on the topics I facilitate workshops and design courses around.
Paid Subscribers Perks
I want you to feel like you’re a part of something. If you’re a regular paid subscriber, you’ll get access to everything I’m working on before it’s packaged and sold.
I’ll hold recurring video calls for paid subscribers to have Q&A sessions.
Flame Throwers, are my ride or dies. If you subscribe at this level, you’ll get personal perks from me, my letterpress studio, and access to online workshops.
And if you don’t know me, you don’t have to trust me… you can trust people who have been in my classes.
“I truly wasn’t sure what to expect of a branding class as I had never heard of it before. Taking Lennies class ‘the brand called you’, has not only opened my eyes better as a creative, but truly helped me hone in on the kinds of work I want to create. I also really appreciated the moments we had in class where we all mentally checked in with one another, so it not only felt like a class but creative therapy if that’s a thing haha I’m glad I had the chance to be a part of this & get a better understanding of who I am as an art director and what kinds of brands I want to work with. Highly recommend taking this class 10/10🌟”
— Erika Bow, M.AD Atlanta Student“Lennie knows what is up on how to mold a brand. She has created such an immersive and self-reflecting personal branding class that it made me ask myself some hard-hitting questions, questions I wouldn't know would impact my career trajectory in a way to understand not only my brand but myself. Another student said he loved this class because it was like career/creative therapy. It was! I've taken a personal branding class previously that helped launch my site and gave me ideas on presenting my brand, but it only partially rooted the ideas. I cannot compliment Lennie enough on their process with this class. With the bones there, Lennie gave me the blood and organs to create my brand entirely. The conversations are compelling and profound—also, a no-judgment zone. The class boosted my career confidence and made me proud of the work on my site. I cannot thank them enough.
—Allison Petroy, M.AD Atlanta Student“I learned so much from Lennie this quarter, particularly how to show off my personality in my book and how to own who I am to the world. The worksheets we did in class were so informative and sometimes surprisingly difficult because they were asking me questions about myself I had never thought of before. Lennie pushed me to look at how I perceive myself and how others perceive me and furthermore, do those two perceptions match up?
I enjoyed coming to Lennie’s class every week. It was a safe space to explore, question, and grow into who I want to be as a creative. If you can’t already tell, I love Lennie! If you have a chance to work with Lennie or just be in Lennie’s presence DO IT! You’ll leave that experience happier, calmer, and more attune to the creative world as a whole.”
—Isabel Paris, M.AD Atlanta Student
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