Collaborate and Listen
When it comes to collaborative work, like-minded focus, ideal portfolio expansion, visibility, and monetary gain are the four touchpoints of a perfect project.
While I love design, I don’t always love being the single creative mind on a project. Designing in a vacuum is just not as fun. When I started DomiCile Magazine I knew I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) get it off the ground without some help from my friends. I recruited a team of passionate editorial staffers, and then expanded that team to include a rotating group of writers, photographers, and content creators. Having so many creatives who were passionate about localism is one of the reasons I was able to create six issues of a free, completely volunteer-based publication from 2013 to 2015. It felt really good to be creating for and with people who appreciated reading the magazine and making our collaborative vision come to life.
Once I started Reidy Creative, one of the reasons I gravitated toward renovations is because there were always other trades involved—people to solve problems with, listen to, and bounce ideas off of—people with different perspectives. So when I was asked to do my first collaborative project since DomiCile, I jumped at the chance.
In 2020 Annie Howe pitched me the University of Maryland New Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit project. What made this perfect was that Annie was given architectural plans from the design team which she wasn’t familiar with. She was also asked to create digital mockup files with Pantone color selections. Typically Annie’s work is one-dimensional and single-color, but she knew I had a background in digital and that architectural drawings and color selections are my life. Annie was being paid by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts for her work on the project, and then subcontracted me for my part of the work. This allowed me to give the project full engagement, and we together we worked with the UMMC team to create something positive and unique for the patients.
Like-minded focus
Ideal portfolio expansion
Visibility
Monetary gain
I have always wanted to create a line of ceramics. Ideally, those would have been thrown by me, but I never ended up taking the wheel classes, and I have a few too many hobbies and collections at this point to start dreaming up an at-home clay studio. So because I don’t create, I buy mugs, lots and lots of handmade mugs. When I was in the American Craft Council show they had a local maker area where I discovered and fell in love with Hollow Work Ceramics. I quickly followed them on Instagram, and when I saw an announcement that they were interested in working with a local artist of color I immediately sent a DM asking how we could collaborate. Since then Kate and I have become friends, and have created two collections thus far in our Bogolon line, with plans for more (hopefully in 2022!) We have sold our mugs twice through Wight Tea Co. The first time they sold out in three days, and the second sale was pre-order only, which ended up being more mugs than the first run. Our planters were sold through The Greenhouse at Good Neighbor and were also a huge hit. The process has been amazing, and I would love to work with other makers to create more products.
Ideal portfolio expansion
Visibility
Monetary gain
Reidy Creative itself is intended to be a collaborative studio, and I’m hoping to expand it with more designers, architects, branding experts, and other team members who make sense for the breadth of projects we take on. Are you interested in collaborating? Start your project here and let’s chat about how we can create something awesome together.
