The Studio Alexia Story

You’ve gotten to know a little bit about me, but now it’s time that you learn more about the creation of Studio Alexia. Maybe you already know that we’ve been around since September of 2021 if you’ve worked with us or read our About Us page. But the road to creating this business was such a beautiful series of connected events, and I want to share them all with you so you can see how meant-to-be some things are. It might be a long one — so grab a London fog, get cozy, and let’s get to chatting.

Let me set the scene. One random afternoon last May, I was getting ready to walk on my treadmill. I can’t listen to music when I walk or run, or else I’ll get super distracted by the music and end up tripping over my own feet. Anyways! I decided I would find an interesting podcast to listen to. I thought: okay, let’s get physically and mentally fit today. Two birds, one stone, right?

The thing is, I’m not a huge podcast girl, so I didn’t really know where to start. I had been thinking about my future a lot in that season, and didn’t really know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Any college student can probably definitely relate to having one of these existential crises every now and then (see: once a week). But I’ve always loved design (thanks, high school yearbook!) and I was considering a future in the freelance world, so I just looked up “design” in the Spotify search bar and scrolled through the hits under the podcast category.

As I scrolled, I came across a podcast called The Design Diaries podcast. It had a visually interesting cover, and when I learned that the podcast was essentially meant for creatives and business owners to find their place in the design industry, I was sold. I pressed play on the first episode and got to walking.

It turns out, the host of the podcast, Alyssa, had a very similar story to my own. Like, close enough that I was considering DMing her and asking if she wanted to be besties. You know when the vibes are just right? We were both roughly the same age, in our last years of studying literature, with a similar temperament. Her introductory episode was so authentic and captivating, I ended up following her on Instagram to learn more about her and her design studio.

Fast forward two weeks and I’m casually scrolling through Instagram. The podcast host, Alyssa, posted about something called Designers’ Summer Camp, which was starting up in July. At that time, I didn’t know what brand design even was — like, I had never even heard of it — but I was immediately in. I told everyone I know about it and asked what they thought about me joining it. It was a resounding “go for it.” At first, I wasn’t sure if I could afford it, because I was a broke college student living at home with literally zero income. But I made a plan to DoorDash for a few months just to make sure I could afford the investment. I knew I needed to make it happen. I thought this would be a promising avenue to explore, as I figured out what the next chapter of my life would look like.

When I say that enrolling in Camp was the best decision I ever made, I am not at all exaggerating (though I am known to be a pretty dramatic gal). In just a few months, I went from having literally zero knowledge of brand design to having a mini portfolio of brand identities ready-to-post on Instagram. After a mentorship call with Alyssa during the summer, she recommended that I fight against my fear of “putting myself out there” by just starting to post on Instagram.

So. I did! I had a handle put aside (@studioalexiaxo, the same as it is today) during my time at Camp, just in case I decided to actually commit to this industry. I pulled up my alternate Instagram and got to posting my work. I had at least 12 posts on the queue, just from the projects we worked on at Camp. Most of my followers just being my best friends and my besties I met in my Camp cabin, but hey, at least I did it! I consider the studio’s birthday to be September 7th (my half-birthday!) because that’s the day that I decided this would be a real business.

If you’re following the timeline (I hope I haven’t lost you!), I found Alyssa’s podcast in May of 2021, started Camp in July where I learned everything I needed to feel confident in freelancing, and started officially calling Studio Alexia a brand design studio in September. I got my first brand identity client in October (which was such a blessing) and have been growing and learning ever since! Now we’ve worked with a number of women to make their dreams a reality, and we’ve developed a bunch as a studio in the time since we launched. We’ve gone through one major brand refresh, launched our first website, added web design to our services (thank you, ilovecreatives Squarespace Design Course), and we’re still growing every single day.

All this to say: things work out. You may not see the whole picture yet, but every moment is unfolding for you exactly how it should. That one day in May, I found the thing that blends my purpose and joy… on a treadmill.

I’ve grown so much in the past year, that I don’t even include those projects I did during Camp in my portfolio anymore. I still have them up on my Instagram, if you ever need a boost of confidence in your brand design business. I promise, whatever your design experience is, whatever you’re making… it has to better than my very first brand identities.

But that’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? We’re always going to grow, get better, learn, fail, succeed… you get it. The important thing is that you do the thing. Take the risk. Learn the new skill. It could be the start of the rest of your life!

I’m so thankful that every step has led me here. I couldn’t be happier doing what I do.

Thanks for reading, if you got allll the way down here. I know it was borderline novel length (sorry!), but I hope it resonated with you in some way.