Part of an ongoing series highlighting the amazing people in the Portland creative community.

Darsey Landoe has attended so many of our events that we’ve lost count! We’re featuring her because she’s amazing, because she’s shown us tons of love, and because she tweeted an awesome snapshot of her notes from the Mark Lakeman talk.

See Ashley Forrette's photos in all their glory on Flickr and check the interview below.

You do a lot of work with non-profits and small businesses. What attracts you to working with these kinds of clients?

There’s a pulse to non-profits that can’t be matched. The grit that people have, the fight that they exhibit every day, the necessity of it all—it’s purely for the sake of the people or the mission they serve. They don’t work for sales or awards or any sort of cool factor. They work insanely hard so that the cause they’re fighting for can progress. I love that. I love helping people do that. And I do better work when I care about what I’m promoting. 

Sometimes I get to interact with people that receive the benefits of the work these non-profits do. I’ve taken photos, conducted interviews and written stories about really inspiring people. It gets me out of my bubble. 

Same goes for a lot of small businesses—business owners put their entire lives into their work, and they believe in it. That really comes out in the work I get to do for them. Working for good causes with people who love what they do and are changing the world is an incredible gig. 

What has been your most rewarding project lately?

About a year ago, I connected with a marketing group in Portland whose main clients are Goodwills in various cities across the country. I create fundraising campaigns for those clients a few times a year. Each campaign is such an all-encompassing project—there are multiple pieces of mail with lots of moving parts, web designs, emails—and I get to create all of these pieces from scratch. The biggest challenge is speaking the language of all our audiences, which go from Millennials all the way to the Greatest Generation. So we push a more modern visual style while employing some age-old tactics with the text. It’s a really cool challenge, and I’ve learned a ton. 

What brought you to Portland?

Same things that bring everyone here—creative community, walkable neighborhoods, incredible geography, food, culture, the whole bit. I grew up in south Georgia and went to school in South Carolina. I visited PDX while in college with some friends and just couldn’t get it out of my head. I had to be here. I wasn’t brave enough to make the leap without a net, though, so I worked at an ad agency in Greenville, SC, for two years while I looked for work. The ad agency was the perfect place to cut my teeth as a designer—intense hours, high profile clients, crazy-creative staff—but I didn’t have time to do much else, particularly volunteering, so that was part of my criteria in my job search.

I landed a job at Portland Rescue Mission and figured I could grow as a designer while, essentially, feeling like I was volunteering full-time. Kind of the perfect balance. I made the move in 2009, worked at PRM for three years, then went out on my own as an independent designer in 2012. My husband and I bought a house here last year, so we’re sticking around for a while. 

You’ve attended so many of our events! What keeps you coming back? 

It’s free education, people! I love learning from other people’s experiences and applying their wisdom to my own life, whether they’re designers or not. I’ve really begun to see “creatives” as such a broad category of people—essentially, if you’re problem-solving, you’re a creative—and Creative Mornings recognizes that and showcases such a great range of professionals. Beyond that, it’s a great way to learn about what’s happening in Portland. 

I go to lots of other talks and events, too. I’ve audited art history courses at Portland State, gone to a handful of AIGA events, taken classes at ADX, hopped around during Design Week, just gotten into WeMake. There are so many great events for creatives here, and that’s part of the reason I moved here, so I do my best to take advantage of them. 

Which talks have been your favorites?

Oh gosh. That’s so hard to say. I was fascinated that Camas Davis of Portland Meat Collective called herself an almost-vegetarian. I cried when G Cody QJ Goldberg talked about the inclusive nature of Harper’s Playground. I think I had a spiritual moment when Brad Cloepfil talked about Allied Works’ process for designing the new Sokol Blosser space (which is breathtaking in person). But the one that’s stuck with me the most is Liz Forkin Bohannon’s talk about Sseko Designs. She really turned my world upside down when she suggested that capitalism might have more potential to do good than traditional non-profits, simply because people like buying things. There’s less of a guilt/obligation factor that way. They’re participating. They tell their friends about it. They receive a product that others can see. Obviously, because of my work, that gave me a lot to think about. I also went to Rwanda a couple of years ago, so her work in Uganda hit home. 

See Darsey Landoe’s work here! Photos by Ashley Forrette.