I had an epiphany during XOXO about why I love design.

I have always loved to do creative things, like draw, or make books, or throw on the wheel. But I never could really make meaningful work on my own without a prompt. I didn’t (and still don’t) consider myself an artist.

I had thought up until this point that that’s why I loved design – because I liked creative work but needed to be given ideas from an outside source. But during Christina Xu‘s talk (about Breadpig – they basically provide a ton of help for people to make their ideas reality) I realized something.

The reason I love design is not because I like kerning, or because I like to Solve Problems™, or even because I like doing creative work (though I do like those things).

I love it because I want to support people’s amazing ideas and help those people unleash and connect their ideas with other people. The thing I can offer is support for the fantastic contributions people can make by way of great design.

I want to help get those things into the world – be it a great restaurant, or an empowering message, or an event to bring the community together – by partnering with these smart and passionate people to make something meaningful.