Today we’d like to introduce you to Betty Ko.
Betty, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve spent over a decade working as an agency designer & art director, working in incredibly fast-paced, high-pressure environments with unreasonably quick turnarounds, while also managing junior designers, interns, and freelancers. I worked primarily on branding projects, but also did Ul/UX, packaging, environmental design, ad campaigns, motion graphics & video art direction, etc… from merch design for big entertainment companies to hotel brand ecosystems to interactive annual reports – you name it, I’ve probably done it.
I learned invaluable skills being exposed to so many aspects of design & different industries, and it taught me to be extremely efficient, versatile, and constantly pushed the limits of what I thought I was capable of. But that lifestyle wasn’t sustainable and after almost a decade I was fully burnt out.
At my last job, I felt overworked & undervalued, no longer proud of the work I did because juggling so many projects meant I couldn’t devote as much time & creative energy to turn out quality work, plus felt creatively stifled by the agency. I was so stressed and unhappy that I was having a mini breakdown once a week, though I couldn’t show it because l’d always been trained to think that this was just agency life & you need to have thick skin to survive the design industry (which is true).
In June 2020, during the height of Covid, I got laid off without so much as a thank you because the agency could no longer afford to keep me. I was upset for a lot of reasons, then depressed as I hit rock bottom of my burnout and I took some time off to rethink whether or not I wanted to still be a designer or pursue a new career entirely. Even thinking of designing made me incredibly anxious and depressed. But despite all that, somewhere deep down I was still passionate about it and wasn’t ready to let it go.
I had gotten married a few months before in January 2020 and designed our invitations & day-of items myself; this was the first time in a long time I’d created something that made me happy, that I was proud of. Thinking back on that feeling, I decided to start UME with the intention of doing meaningful design that impacts people on an individual level, whether it’s helping couples celebrate their biggest milestones by bringing their vision to life with unique, personal wedding stationery or helping other entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and goals through intentional branding. l’ve always been most excited by brand design, packaging and print, so this shift felt more aligned with me as a person and as a designer.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely has not been smooth or easy! It took months for me to just work up the nerve to seriously pursue this fully – there was a lot of self doubt/imposter syndrome that kept telling me I didn’t have what it takes. I had tons of experience with branding, but no experience in wedding stationery, so it required a lot of up front research, investment in materials/equipment etc…and to be honest, I took a “fake it to make it” approach and spent my first year just designing semi-custom stationery, doing test prints, and doing styled shoots with wedding vendors to build up a portfolio. Looking back, I spent a LOT of time creating stuff that may never see the light of day too lol but it was all essential in my journey to figure out what my brand is, and how to differentiate my work from other designers’.
I think the biggest challenge is that I’m doing all of this alone – everything from designing to marketing, and all the back end business stuff that nobody enjoys doing. Thankfully I do have the support of my amazing husband, but he has his own job to worry about so I can’t really put him to work lol. When I tell people I work for myself they always say, “That must be nice, you get to work your own hours!” And I always respond, “Yes I get to work ALL the hours now.”
I’m also really ambitious. Like, probably TOO ambitious. I literally have an entire Notion list of ideas/products I want to make. I’ve been working on designing my own font. I’ve been researching tabletop letterpress machines I can fit into my 960 SF condo because I want to start making & selling predesigned lifestyle stationery. I just launched a digital art print shop, the first of many digital products I want to eventually release.
Somewhere in between all that I try to have a life lol.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I design artful, modern, unique wedding stationery and meaningful brand design for businesses & entrepreneurs.
I approach wedding stationery like I approach a branding project – so I generally don’t like to follow trends but feel the design should be a reflection of the couple & their story. I feel that with design, you are ultimately creating an experience for people, and the details play a big part in that. I love mixing cardstock textures, colors, printing techniques, materials…it should be a sensory experience as well. If I had to sum it up, I want people to be surprised & delighted. I want people to feel like…I’ve never seen that before…but that’s so spot-on for that couple.
I think brand design is not really about the logo or the color palette, though yes it’s important to develop a strong cohesive brand ecosystem. It’s more about what your business does, what your values are, what purpose does your business serve in the world or what problem does it solve, who is it for, and how do we connect with those people? So I think that is where brand design comes in – all the elements in a good brand ecosystem should work together to convey all of these points in order to reach that audience. People should look at your brand and feel it, identify with it, see themselves in it. So when I design a brand, there’s a lot of research & thought put into every step of it. I’m very intentional with everything.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I truly believe that while we’re very much in control of our own lives & decisions, everything happens for a reason and things tend to work out the way that they’re supposed to. There’s just been a lot of times in my life & in my career where something negative has happened, I feel terrible about it, then after some time I realize it kinda paved the path for this other really positive thing to happen.
This perspective does bring some level of comfort when things go wrong, I think, though I still freak out about small things sometimes lol.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.u-me.design
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ume___design
