Meet Margo Stoney | Owner & Creative Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Margo Stoney and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Margo, how does your business help the community?
My business, High Mountain Creative, is dedicated to using design to help save the planet. I work primarily with conservation groups, nonprofits and government agencies to create visuals that help raise awareness and education around causes like climate change, land and water conservation, sustainability, wildlife preservation, zero-waste & recycling. This often involves working together to turn hard-to-understand environmental concepts, science, studies or research into topics that the everyday person can digest. By helping my clients distill these complex ideas into powerful visuals, they can spread awareness, reach more supporters, gain quality donors and share stories about doing good to save the planet.

My dedication to the planet goes beyond my design work, I’m a member of Earth Share, and use this platform to donate more than 1% of my annual sales to environmental nonprofits like the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I’m also a small business member of Leave No Trace.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Twenty years ago when I started my graphic design journey, I knew I wanted to build my career around my passions for design, the outdoors and nature. While my creative story has taken many twists and turns, it’s always included mountains, snowboarding and travel – a lifestyle that has driven so many decisions in my life including my decision to start a creative business that allows me to use my talents as a designer to explore my love for the outdoors.

I spent the first many years of my career focusing on the outdoor industry – working in mountain town publishing and ski resort marketing. When I left my day job in 2014 to run High Mountain Creative full time, my intention was to stay focused on working with outdoor brands. I was at that stage in my freelancing career where I was trying out a lot of different types of client work to see what clicked.

During this process of growing my business, I was starting to become really stressed out about climate change and what humans are doing to the environment. I felt hopeless that – as a graphic designer – my profession was useless in helping with any efforts to help save the planet. I was convinced that if I wasn’t researching clean energy or inventing plastic-free packaging solutions, I wasn’t dedicating my career to anything important. I considered going back to school or making a major career pivot, but something happened that made me realize I didn’t have to.

I landed a few nonprofit clients and, without really thinking about it, soon found myself doing more and more meaningful graphic design work that aligned with my goal to do good work for the planet. I started to see myself as someone helping those on the front lines battle the environmental issues I cared so much about. I became a collaborator and a go-to for strengthening the voices of these conservation groups and nonprofits.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I don’t currently live in Colorado, but when I come to town, I love visiting Butterfly Pavilion, going to a Rockies game and fishing on Clear Creek in the foothills.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
So many people took a chance on me early on and I’m forever grateful. I know this isn’t the Grammy’s so I’ll try to keep it short!

My early nonprofit clients saw my potential for visual storytelling before I even did – Sinjin at American Rivers, Mark at Native Fish Society, Russ at Butterfly Pavilion.

Kelly at Heavenly Mountain – while I was still working as an in-house marketer and designer went to bat for me so many times so that my talent was recognized. She was such a great advocate and mentor and I’m forever grateful for her.

My family – especially my parents and my husband. No one ever bats an eye when I take big risks or make borderline life decisions.

Website: https://www.highmountaincreative.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highmountaincreative/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mstoney/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/highMTNcreative

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/highmountaincreative

Image Credits
Headshot © Isaac Miller Photography