Small Talk: Loretta of Creatively Driven

As an art school student who walked out of there knowing I had chiseled myself into a pretty decent designer (three and a half years of my LIFE I'll be paying back for dozens of years longer for that piece of paper), I also know which of my peers have done the same with themselves.  Loretta is one of them.  Her class project turned freelance career turned blogger has everything I and many others only wish we could be as a designer of multiple medias.  Check out her jealous-worthy blog at http://creatively-driven.com


What is "Creatively Driven?"  How did you come up with the name?
Creatively Driven was originally supposed to be a blog space for me to share my learnings on becoming a creative professional. It took a while to come up with a name I liked. This blog is a very personal project, so I treated it like any branding project: I wrote down words that I would use to describe myself and the two that really stick to my core are "creative" and "driven". Anyone who knows me knows that I have a tenacious spirit, and I push myself and others to be their very best selves. Creatively Driven just felt right.

Loretta of Creatively Driven
Photo Credit

What inspired you to start your blog?
My original blog, www.lorettamaydesign.wordpress.com, actually started as a class assignment. We were to record our projects and our learnings from our first web design class on our blog. I decided to continue posting art I liked and work I had done. I soon outgrew the .wordpress.com platform and decided to rethink the name of my blog to be it's own entity, not connected to my portfolio site, www.lorettamaydesign.com.

I started my career freelancing and quickly realized I had not been prepared by my school on how to "be a business". The blog documents my learnings on freelancing, staying inspired and keeping a healthy work/life balance.


Which topic do you enjoy writing the most?
It's hard to say. I go through phases. When I first was starting out, I was really keen on documenting my freelance client experiences. I called them "freelance trial and error." They were client horror stories but with a lesson learned at the end.

Now I'm more into staying positive and mood boarding and sharing my client process, which I use as a tool to gain more work. I also really love posts that allow me to do more collage based illustrations.

"Creatively Driven" has had a recent redesign transformation.  What was your greatest challenge in the re-styling and managing your blog from your previous layout?
The greatest challenge in a complete redesign was making decisions. I kept going back and forth on styling because I hadn't made a mood board to pin point my style. I let myself get over-influenced by other people's blogs and I found myself wanting to do it all.

My new blog captures that subtle sketch book look that I wanted. I didn't want it to look "scrap booky", but more experimental and mixed media inspired like anthropology.


What advice do you have for those running blogs or wishing to start their own?
1) Just because you put the post out there, doesn't mean people will see it. You must market it with Social media. Use tags in all your posts, write alt tags for all your images, and install a good SEO plugin so that Google can find your posts.

2) Be Authentic in your writing. People want to see a little bit of YOU coming out.

3) Develop your "niche" and only write about what you're truly passionate about. Don't try to be everything to everyone.