Finding gals who are insanely creative, enormously talented, and brimming with genuine love for others isn't easy. I’ve hit the jackpot with my Design Squad – Whitney Hawkins and Jessa Bray! They have become such precious friends that push me to be a better working mama and leader for our team. Not to mention, we share one immense love for genius design, bold colors, and Beyonce. Whit’s second office resides outside in her ever-growing garden with her husband and sweet, open-smiled Baby Rob. JB can create magic on the page, but I’ve heard her cooking skills are magical too. I feel so grateful to work with these extraordinary women every single day!

It’s quite common for creative minds to be more concerned with finding inspiration and creating a vision than they are with maintaining an organized workspace, but the three of us agree that a clear space encourages a clear mind for a flow of design plans. Everyone works differently and no single space can define anyone’s creativity! If you’re having a brain block lately, try to change it up, and don’t worry – ideas will come to mind with fresh eyes and a clear focus!
-Emily                

Whitney's Top 3 Tips:

1. Create an inspiring environment! I have a GIANT inspiration board that I made for under $50 (tutorial on my blog here) where I hang up what's currently inspiring me. I have a file folder that I keep favorite inspiration for the next round (pretty packaging, magazine pages, swatches, etc.), and when it's time to change up the board, I recycle everything currently on it and add the new things from the folder. I feel like this balances my desire to hoard all the pretty things (I'm a sucker for thoughtfully designed packaging) with keeping my space functional and fresh.
2. Utilize what you already have! After last year's Ruthless Declutter Challenge, I ended up with an entirely empty dresser in our guest room (heck yea!), so I moved that into my office to organize all of our product samples. The top drawer has one of almost every product we have, organized by type (all notebooks stacked together, all page markers, etc.). The middle drawer holds all of my photography props (paper clip dishes, tape dispenser, ribbon). And the bottom drawer houses production samples. I get a TON of samples during the product proofing process. I keep every sample related to a particular product so I can refer back to them, and then when we receive the final products into our warehouse, I recycle the samples or give them to friends. The blank planner proofs (with printed covers and blank inside pages) make awesome sketchbooks and journals!
3. Organize and name your digital files while you’re working to save so much headache later!  A huge part of my work is digital, so keeping my files organized is really important. I use Dropbox (shared with all of team Simplified) and have two design-related folders: 1) Design Resources, which has subfolders for fonts, Procreate brushes (the iPad app I use for drawing), stock photography and textures, and photoshop mockups; and 2) Art, where I keep painted elements, vectorized lettering, and icons. I try to keep my files themselves organized by keeping naming conventions consistent and really descriptive.

Jessa's Top 3 Tips:

1. Prioritize what you actually need. I think as artists we tend to feel like the more tools, colors, and mediums we have, the more opportunities we have to create beautiful things. After years of hoarding supplies, I’ve found this to be untrue. Keeping my creative artillery stocked with minimal yet high-quality supplies is what helps me create my best work. This means throwing out dried/expired paints, donating unused tools, and realizing that you probably will never ever use 423 shades of green. That’s why Jesus gave us the color wheel, we can make any shade if we keep our palette primary and vibrant.
2. If it isn’t digitized (scanned into your computer) and it’s just sitting in a drawer, it’s time to bless someone else with that piece. I wouldn’t consider myself an artistic hoarder anymore, but parting with drafts and rejects that I poured my heart and soul into is still tough. I use two rules to decide if it’s time to part ways: 1) Can this be used down the road? Is it a general enough design to be used for multiple things later on? If so, scan and save. If not, frame it and give it away; 2) Is this piece a core part of my portfolio? Is it a design that reflects a style that I'm super proud of? If so, scan and save. If not, it’s been fun, it helped me grow, but now it’s time to say goodbye.
3. Have a “go-to” grab bag of supplies. Because we live in an apartment, I don’t have the luxury of sprawling all my colors and tools out — and it’s probably for the best, otherwise my husband Tyler probably would have divorced me by now. So I keep 3 paintbrushes, my folding watercolor palette, an Apple Pencil, a Tombow pen, and a ruler in an oversized felt zip pouch. This allows me to easily have my core supplies almost always close to me. My tubes of paint, other brushes, paper, and pens are stored in one tub in my closet and are taken out when a special project calls for a new color or different size brush.

Team Simplified: What do you do with sentimental pieces and samples?

Whitney: I try to hang up and display as much of the sentimental pieces/products as I can. Otherwise they really aren't serving a purpose hidden away in a closet somewhere! For example, I kept the first Simplified Planner I ever bought (long before being on Team Simplified!) and have it displayed on a shelf with our new 2019-20 collection. It makes me smile seeing the old and new together!

Jessa: Sentimental pieces, almost every single one, are scanned and saved properly so I can digitally clean it up and love it later if I want to. I give them as gifts to team members, family and friends — it’s one of my most favorite parts of creating. Give that joy! Don’t just hold on to it for yourself! Luckily, I’m not a sample girl, but I do have my fair share of products from our shop in case I need to mock something up. And I have my storage tub for products I need to have available but not necessarily in my daily workspace.

Team Simplified: Do you declutter / clean / organize your desk regularly? What's your routine?

Whitney: My desk only has two drawers and I'm honestly pretty bad about cleaning it out because I rarely add stuff to it! In one drawer, I have extra pens, notepads, notebooks, washi tape, stickers, and a ruler. In the other I keep my inspo folder, charging cables, iPad and pencil, my secret chocolate stash, AirPods, and too much other random stuff. What's most important to me is that the top of my desk is clean and has just the essentials on it. Computer, pen cup, large monthly desk calendar, Simplified Planner (open!), headphones, and that's it. I don't like a bunch of stuff on my desk while I'm working!

Jessa: My desk is teeny tiny and on display for our entire apartment to see. This was intentional, forced accountability. I also bought a desk with small, shallow drawers. Only what I need lives there, including extra batteries, cords, sticky notes, paper clips and of course Happy Stripe Pens. This helps me stick to our "best, favorite, necessary" mantra!

Team Simplified: How do you balance "fresh / clean space to create in" with "inspiration covered?"

Whitney: I feel most inspired and energized in a light and bright space, so keeping my decor all white with pops of color is what works best for me. Having such a large inspiration board makes it easy to corral lots of clutter (if we're being honest here!) into something that feels organized and a bit more intentional. I also never buy random filler decor for my office. My space is decorated with shop products, found pieces that stopped me dead in my tracks (ex: the first gold pineapple candle I found at Anthropologie 6 years ago), or things that have been used in a photoshoot (the Happy Stripe felt ball garland and 5-foot-tall paper flowers). I intentionally keep the decor in my office extremely simple, so the things that surround me invite reflection and emotion but don't distract. No meaningless doctor's office artwork here!

Jessa: So unlike Whit, I don’t have my own office. Our apartment spaces do double duty. During the day, my dining room table doubles as my art board; my couch and a favorite throw become my nook to draw something on the iPad; my small desk is a place to knock out graphics. Instead of having a bulletin board of inspiration, I intentionally decorated our apartment with pieces that give me life. Our space has plants, big windows with lots of life, and abstract art pieces that make me think outside the box. The flipside of double-duty spaces is that you want to keep them tidy and decluttered — which means both my home and my workspace are inviting and inspiring.