I’m still pinching myself that Willaby Way is officially my job! My journey to Willaby Way has not been what I planned, but like all great stories, it’s turned out so much better than what I could have ever dreamed. Before I get into the nitty gritty, I want to start back with 9-year old Jordan who had a love for design and a dream.

Designing from a Young Age

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been fascinated with home and design. Even as a little girl, I preferred watching HGTV over Disney Channel and spent more time on Sims than I could even explain.

I grew up on a farm in southwest Minnesota with my parents and two siblings – my childhood was an absolute dream. Growing up in the middle of literally nowhere allowed for many days of creating our own fun. For me, that meant rearranging my bedroom that I shared with my younger sister. I would take measurements of our furniture, draw it to scale on graph paper, and then present the grand idea to my mom in hopes of convincing her to move the furniture around AGAIN. 

One Christmas, my sister Carmen gave me the sweetest gift – An Interior Design Book. She had filled a trapper keeper with sketch paper, paint swatches, and furniture selections she found on Google photos. She also included “design projects” from our friends that included their vision and style for their rooms. I would spend my free time designing out detailed spaces. I brought that trapper keeper with me everywhere. Little did I know at the time that someday design would be my full-time career.

 

And we can’t forget about my first computer rendering software, you know it – Sims! I would spend HOURS on our big Microsoft computer building houses with floor plans I perfected. I even went as far as using the prebuilt houses on Sims and fixing them up because I thought they could be better.

My First Real Client

As I got into high school, my love for design continued to grow, and my designs became a bit more intricate.

My high school offered a SketchUp class during my senior year where I learned how to create renderings. Once again, I would spend hours finding the right floor plan, building the house, and then filling the home with furniture and decor. When my teacher saw my passion for design, she gave me an even bigger project – to help design a kitchen for an actual client. After getting the measurements and figuring out what they were looking for, I created the new design in the SketchUp and gave the family their design. The craziest part is that they took it and made it a reality, making them my first real client.

 

College Years

When college rolled around, I thought I had my life all planned out, but of course God had better ideas in mind. I planned to attend South Dakota State University for Interior Design. Since SDSU was close to home and, maybe more importantly, my high school sweetheart was already there, it seemed like the perfect option.

I went through my first semester and although I loved my classes, I realized the big university life wasn’t for me. In December, I decided to transfer, change my major, break up with my boyfriend of 4 years, and chop my hair. Looking back, it was a bit dramatic, but I really grew in that season and it made me the person I am today.

Following Christmas break, I started my second semester of college at Northwestern College in Orange City, IA. I wasn’t quite sure how I would still be able to pursue interior design when Northwestern didn’t offer it as a major, but I still knew it was the right decision. During that spring, I took a class called Layout & Design that gave me a love for graphic design.

Throughout my college years, I was able to work with real clients and provide graphics and marketing for them. I also worked for a graphic designer during the summer, learning skills in Photoshop and Illustrator. During college, I also started hand-lettering cards + chalkboards and designing invites for friends’ weddings.

One of my jobs during college was the Marketing + Media Coordinator for the Campus Ministry Team where I created posters, developed and designed a website, and ran the social media account.

As I was nearing the end of undergrad, I had the opportunity to have an internship at Holland House, an interior and clothing boutique. During that internship I created marketing materials, wrote blog posts, worked with customers at the boutique, and learned so much from the owner, Marie.

It’s crazy looking back seeing how each of these experiences provided me with tangible skills and were small, but impactful steps on the path to starting my own design company.

Moving to the Twin Cities

In the summer of 2017, I graduated from college, married my high school sweetheart, and we moved to the Twin Cities.

Even though I had my degree in Graphic Design and a minor in Public Relations, I knew I still wanted to pursue interior design. I connected with construction2style, a home remodeling company, during the summer of 2016 and was working part-time while also attending Dakota County Technical College for my interior design degree. Below is one of my favorite projects I designed while in design school.

After graduating from DCTC with an Associate’s degree in Residential Design, I began working full-time for construction2style as an Interior + Graphic Designer. My role included a wide variety of tasks, which grew me in so many areas and allowed me to learn so much. During my time working for construction2style, I was able to build relationships, learn about the design industry, and continue to grow in my design skills. Working with Morgan, Jamie, and Topher at c2s was such a blessing and an opportunity I am forever grateful for. Below are a couple of my favorite projects from my time at construction2style!

Starting Willaby Way

Coming to the decision to go out on my own and start Willaby Way was not an easy decision, but one that had a lot of thought, prayer, and planning behind it. Since this has been a dream of mine ever since I can remember, it’s so exciting that it has become a reality. My whole life has been pointing toward this decision and career, and I can’t believe this is what I get to do for a living!

Matt and I had been talking about names and ideas for design company for awhile. After tossing out different names, developing logo options, and checking into available domains and LLC’s, Willaby Way was the winner. I love that it almost sounds like a street name, giving a nod to residential design. It also includes our last name, which I loved. Plus the double W’s and Y’s made for a pretty cool logo 🙂 

The tagline for Willaby Way is “creating beauty out of the ordinary” because I love incorporating beauty into all aspects of life and aim to do that through this design company. The official launch of Willaby Way happened on August 10, when my website went live and I was ready to take on client projects.

In the past few weeks, it’s been so humbling and amazing to see the support people have shown. Being able to spend my days designing work for incredible people is just the best. I am so thankful you’re following along on this journey and cannot wait to continue to share what all comes next!