Dealing with Your Growth Plans

The Creative Party has major growth plans for 2014. I’m currently growing (mostly outward) but come Independence Day, mine will be the second tiny Creative Party member added to the crew this year. Very exciting of course, but as a good designer friend of mine once said, “babies is hard!” Babies PLUS work can be an even tougher feat for some.

It’s a demanding work environment and expectations can be high enough, with projects and deadlines, that factoring in a tiny bundle of joy just seems, well, not really joyful at all.

Thankfully, Ms. “M” and Mr. “P” have created a culture here at M+P that is incredibly supportive. We all collaborate and communicate like true homies, so my “how’s this going to work when the baby comes?!” woes are next to nonexistent.

Bum deal is: the mass majority of workers in the U.S. aren’t as fortunate. They don’t feel supported when a bambino announcement is made. This can be especially true in the design world. It’s a demanding work environment and expectations can be high enough, with projects and deadlines, that factoring in a tiny bundle of joy just seems, well, not really joyful at all.

Buck up though! For those who are considering or struggling through a recent family addition, there is hope. I recently ran across this blog post on AIGA’s website written by Ashley Rundall, a designer in Houston, Texas who also happens to be a mother of two. Boy, does she have some good thoughts around how to live in the design and mommy worlds at the same time.

Party on, working parent designer types.

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