My name is Kaitlyn and I am from Miami Florida. I am a 23 year old graduate from Florida International University with a Bachelors of Business Administration and a concentration in marketing. My career started soon after graduation when I joined one of my dream companies in the travel industry (I love traveling and have been fortunate enough to travel to many of my bucket-list destinations at a young age, but that’s a story for another time) working in marketing strategy and branding! However, 2020 happened and the pandemic drastically impacted many industries, especially travel. Unfortunately, the company I work for was heavily affected, causing me to go on furlough (temporary leave-of-absence).
There were two ways I could have approached the situation:
I could have looked at this negatively and have a “why does this have to happen to me?” mentality
Use this unexpected “down time” to focus on developing a new skill
I chose option 2, and this led me to finding my new hobby.
One day, I downloaded the app Procreate Pocket on my iPhone. I drew my first digital illustration that night, and let’s just say it was a little rough, but I thoroughly enjoyed drawing digitally. I started my Instagram account, @kcdesign.co, a few days later and fell in love with the digital art community on Instagram. My first few posts were done on my iPhone, but I decided to invest in myself and purchase a new iPad and Apple Pencil (and downloaded the full Procreate app) to take my art to the next level.
My account started gaining traction and within the last month and a half, I have a gained a following of 900+ (I never imagined I would have this many people interested in my art). Small businesses looking to up their branding game, people looking for custom portraits as gifts for loved ones in their lives, and friends of mine have reached out asking me to create something for them. Most importantly though, I have connected with so many incredible female artists that I never would have known had I not taken this leap.
Since late May, I have treated this account like my full-time job. I do my best to post every single day, which means I’m drawing something new basically all the time. On top of that, I’m creating custom portraits, branding kits, and everything in between. In all honesty, I’m much busier now than I was before, but since I have SO much fun utilizing my creativity to come up with new design ideas, and then having them come to life digitally, I never feel like I’m “working”. If you’re to ask me where I see kcdesign.co headed, I’d answer that I literally don’t know, nor do I have expectations. I can confidently say this will be my “side hustle” for a long time, but if this turns out to be my full time job, I would be thrilled.
The most valuable thing this experience has brought me is that I have learned so many lessons, especially since starting kcdesign.co. Here are a few:
Unexpected situations don’t define you; how you handle them does
There’s no time like now to start something new
It’s better to have a small following that is incredibly engaging, than to have millions of followers that don’t engage at all
If there’s anything you take away from this, I hope it’s that sometimes the most unexpected situations can have the biggest impact on your character development in this little thing we call life.
~Kaitlyn
For more of her pinkalicous designs make sure to check out her Instagram @kcdesign.co!
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