Suite 7 Creative: creativity

I was excited to find this article about living graffiti on the inhabitat website. What a novel idea. Artist Edina Tokodi is taking standard graffiti to a whole new level...

Creating living installations made entirely of moss, Tokodi is interested in the tie between man and nature and how people (specifically city dwellers) feel a disconnect with the environment. A large part of her art simply involves watching how passers by react to the living pieces. Do they stop? Do they walk right by? Do they dismantle the pieces or begin to care for them?

This idea of art as a living thing, having a life of its own and ever changing really intrigues me. Adding to the environment's beauty and bringing nature to places where natural beauty is sparse...what a creative idea!

Yes, hard to believe but Suite 7 Creative has now officially been in business for one year! As I congratulate myself on making it through the ups and downs of a year of entrepreneurship, I find myself reflecting on what it took to get here and imagining what the future holds. Well my friends, with this being my first blog post, I thought I'd take you all along this journey.

Here is a bit of my story...

It all started when I was but a wee one...living in what my friends liked to call "La-La Land". What is this magical place you ask? Well, simply the world of imagination I was blessed to grow up in. Being an only child for most of my life, I spent a lot of time entertaining myself and truly created an amazing dream world of my own. I flourished in an environment of creativity and wondered as I grew older, how can I harness this childlike world and continue it into my adult life? Graphic design of course! Well...if only it was that easy...

I started off my college career at the University of Washington...dead set on being the next Jane Pauley. When I realized the road to the Today Show would be an extremely long one full of exciting bouts of broadcasting as the weather girl in Podunk Nowhere, I re-evaluated and went back to my original dream of maintaining a creative and fun lifestyle. What is the answer? Well, a transfer of schools of course...straight to Bellingham and to Western Washington University.
I'd be a teacher of course...sharing my love of creativity with the children of the world! Well, easier said than done. I of course (being the dreamy dreamer that I am) didn't consult with the powers that be to ensure I would transfer seamlessly into a new school. I ended up having a year to make up required course work and in the mean time got a job at the ever fantastic WWU newspaper...The Western Front! Well, working on the layout of this beauty really changed my life. We were in a world of manual paste up with blue lines, jazz drives and waxers (that is REALLY old school for you non designers), but none the less it seemed cutting edge and fun. What was this industry I stumbled upon? Well, finally I made my way to graphic design. I entered the amazing design program in the Department of Art and adored it. I could finally be an artist and the way it was described to me...make money! What a concept.

Well again, life threw me a few curve balls. I graduated in 2000 and at the time, the design world of Seattle was completely saturated. I couldn't find a job for the life of me! What to do? Well, move home of course. I moved back into my Mom's house and quickly became addicted to the budding new TV genera "REALITY TV". I was a total TLC junkie, "Wedding Story", "Baby Story", you name it, I watched it. It took a strong kick in the pants to get me out into the real world where I became a florist, designed furniture sales tags for Leathers (a now almost defunct leather furniture store) and made a complete turn into event planning when I met my mentor Kelley L. Moore at the Seattle Wedding Show. I was Kel's first assistant and learned so much from her. We planned weddings & corporate events and had a blast. She taught me how to work hard and the power of having attention to detail.

As Kelley moved on to building her multimedia empire, I moved on to CRG Events. From there, I planned corporate events for several years, always maintaining my love of design and beautiful things. Soon, the opportunity arose to start a Creative Department at CRG. I was just about ready to move on from events anyway, so this transition back to design to lead our budding new department was a dream come true. The dream lasted for a couple of years before it became apparent that from a business perspective, it would be best for me to go out on my own. On July 1, 2007 Suite 7 Creative was born and I've been on cloud 9 ever since! (Note: the #1 asked question...where did I get the name Suite 7 Creative? Simple...I live in apartment #7 in my building and "suite" sounded much swankier than "apartment 7"!)

Don't get me wrong, owning your own business can be stressful, but the flexibility and freedom I have with Suite 7 is well worth it. I get to design amazing projects...
travel to fantastic places like Florence....
London (hey, are my eyes closed?!)...
Paris...
and am leaving for Holland and Spain in two weeks! I might not be that bright eyed little girl anymore, but I have found a way to make fun and creativity part of my daily life. I feel blessed to be able to do what I do and am constantly amazed by the love and support of my family and friends. With one year down, I can't wait to see what the future holds for Suite 7 Creative. Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted!

xoxo Chelsea