The Branch & Bay Design Story
Nothing is more powerful than creativity! To use our imagination, perseverance, and problem-solving to dream up solutions for a better world is a precarious path, but one we must tread nonetheless. And that is why I started Branch & Bay Design Studio. The road to getting here wasn’t easy, and of course the way ahead of me is long, but I am confident that this boutique design studio can make a big splash in the world of sustainability- and it already is!
I’m here to help bring joy, color, and heart to the process of branding, design and marketing for sustainable and ethical businesses and organizations. There is nothing more exciting to me than creating a unique visual identity for brands that are changing the world. Ready to learn how I got to this point? Let’s rewind the clock!
A Junior Environmentalist
It all started when I was born… Just kidding! It actually started in third grade, when I created an environmental club in my class. One of my earliest examples of marrying creativity with activism, I drew each of my classmates their very own environmental superhero persona so they could feel included and empowered. Fast forward to my junior high school, when I took a life changing AP Environmental Science course.
It was there I met my mentor and friend Chris Freeman, now head of the Virginia Beach Environmental Studies Program (and he is killing it!) It was like everything clicked into place. This was what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my life!
Encouraged by Freeman, I decided to plant 2,000 trees in my home of Virginia Beach and in Haiti in my senior year. Because why the heck not? But seriously, I was disheartened by the massive deforestation going on in our area and around the world and wanted to do what I could to mitigate flooding in town. I worked with the local government and school system to use art to educate kids on environmentalism, and hosed tree planting days across the city. It was a wonderful year for me, and such a special memory. I am so grateful for all I learned from that project, and it truly reinforced my mission to help protect the earth. This project was also the very first time I created a website and ran a social media page, which are now cornerstone services of my business!
Me With Elementary Students Planting Trees on Earth Day
Students in Haiti Planting Trees I Donated Through New Earth Farm
Me With Elementary Students Planting Trees At My High School
College years
I continued to study Environmental Studies at Virginia Wesleyan University, which was an excellent program. I received the education I needed to become more specialized in environmental communications, and loved all of the professors and mentors I met during this time. I interned with my friend Chris Freeman to help create lesson plans and a website for his Environmental Studies Program, and it was such a rewarding experience for me! Getting the feedback from him and his staff meant the world to me. “You could do this professionally!” they had told me. “I could?” I wondered. I had no idea that web design was an actual job. The seed was planted.
Upon graduating, I felt like I was missing a connection to my creative side, and the positive feedback that Freeman’s team gave to me rang around my mind. I have been an artist all of my life, and wanted to discover how I could harness that skillset to educate people on climate change and help organizations communicate important messages on sustainability.
I had also been experimenting with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop during this time, creating passion projects like posters and magazines. This was when I decided that graphic design was something I wanted to learn more about!
I enrolled in the online Graphic and Digital Design Graduate Program with Parsons School of Design with the goal of learning how I can use design to support nonprofits. I was so excited to be attending such a well-known university, and loved the program. It was here that I built my foundation of graphic design, branding, web design, and social media management, and I will forever be grateful for it!
Freeman teaching me how to core trees (no trees were harmed)
Tree planting day I organized at my college
Me Planting a Cypress tree sapling with friends
Joining The Professional World
College was over, and I was excited and ready to use my creativity take on climate change- until I realized how difficult it was to find your place in the job market as an entry-level designer. I relocated to the midwest with my family, where I lived during my elementary school years. Everything was new and old again, and I was more determined than ever to find work that mattered.
The good news is, I was hired as the communications and design specialist at a great local non-profit that works to support and uplift youth. Working here was such a learning experience for me, where I discovered the working world and what it means to be a full-time communications professional.
Also during this time, I was exploring freelancing on the side in hopes to continue working on passion projects. I continued to find clients that matched with my through-line of supporting people and the planet. My first freelance gig was with a sustainable salon that let me run their social media and design posts, and I loved it!
Throughout all of this, I began to realize that what really lights me up is working on multiple projects at a time, helping a variety of people to translate their personality and mission into colorful visuals, and feeding my multi-passionate heart. With the encouragement of my friends and family, I took the leap from my non-profit job to become a full-time graphic design business owner!
Me With Youth Ambassadors At My Nonprofit Job
The Website I Re-Designed for My Job!
Hello Sarah’s Palette Art and Design
It was my first year of freelancing, and everything was new! Taking this leap was scary, but I learned so much about working with clients, business operations, graphic and web design, and marketing! I freelanced as “Sarah’s Palette Art and Design”, a name I had in mind since high school. This time was all experimental, which was uncertain and scary at times. But it was also freeing! I had control of my schedule and could take on lots of exciting projects. I sought out business mentors and asked them a million questions, soaking up everything like a sponge. I registered as an LLC, and everything became official.
I was thrilled to work with Green Schools National Network, an excellent non-profit working to make schools more healthy and sustainable places for students. I had actually written an article for them during my high school tree project, and loved working with them again as a design, marketing and communications freelancer. This was also when I began working with the lovely Charity Design Co, where I am thrilled to be assisting the fabulous Dani MacGregor with non-profit web design and branding! Her passion for her mission and her encouragement toward me has taught me so much about running a design studio. I am so grateful to have met her!
My first business card and mailer.
My design for the Wild Geese Bookshops’s blankets!
Branch & Bay Design Studio Is Born
Every day was different, every day was a new experience, every day was exciting. But something was still missing… I thought back to my environmental superhero drawings, the look on the Virginia Beach students’ faces when I told them that they could change the world, the tug I felt in my heart when I looked at the ocean. I hadn’t been back there in years, but it still fills my eyes with tears.
I had put my professional mission to care for the planet aside for the time being. Trying to start up a business, feeling uncertain of my path, and taking on any project that came to me had put it a bit on the back burner. I love this earth that we live on. And so do so many other people working to combat climate change, uplift communities, and make a safer and more sustainable world for every living creature on earth. With everything going on in the world, it was time to take a stand and return to my original calling. I decided that it was my mission to help the planet in the way I knew best- by empowering changemakers to find their people and spread their mission through design and communications! And thus, my business evolved from Sarah’s Palette into something even more me… Branch & Bay Design Studio was born!
I am proud to have made scores of websites and brand identities throughout my career, and have loved the opportunity to work with some amazing clients. I’ve designed for children’s charities, environmental programs, national non-profits, salons and studios, pride centers, spiritual groups, schools, coffee shops and bookshops, and many others. It has been so rewarding to see each of these brands come to life.
I am still evolving and learning to this day, and I’m excited to share that I am in the process of receiving my Green Designer Certification from Little Fox Design. This program will allow me to live my values even further by becoming an expert in the most sustainable and green design practices, allowing my clients to further make a positive impact on the planet!
Looking back on my journey, it is incredible to see how there has always been a through-line of working to help others, and I want to maintain this ethos for the rest of my life. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be running this business and working with such incredible clients. It is a lot of hard work, but a dream-come-true to be using my design skills to create branding ecosystems that will in turn help real life ecosystems! Every one of my clients matters to me, and it fills my heart to know that they have specifically sought me out to work with. Thank you all for all of your support!
I hope to share this message with clients and everyone who is in this wonderful sustainability space:
This work matters. Your work matters! You, who are traversing the untravelled path and putting yourself out on a limb to protect the planet in the way you know best. You, who stop and listen to the birdsong even when you’re in a rush to get to meetings and events and strategy sessions. You, who has created something meant to help connect people with nature and remind us all of our place in this world. You deserve the best branding that truly reflects who you are and what you do!
I’d love to be your creative partner, ready to help you make an impact and amplify your mission for a greener planet. Through both strategy and creativity, we can create branding, websites, design, and marketing collateral that champions your vision for a cleaner earth.
Together, we can create a more sustainable world, one brand at a time!
If you think we might get along, I invite you to hit the button below to start our partnership! Thanks so much!
