Meet Danielle Spadinger | Brand and Web Designer

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

Hi Danielle, how has your work-life balance changed over time?

My work life balance has changed a lot over the last 10 years. When I first started with graphic design, I was going to school for it, coaching gymnastics, and doing freelance internship positions. I felt like I needed to constantly be busy with work and school because that is what we’ve all seen our parents do. I barely had a social life at the time but still tried to have one. I was in the ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality which gets old quickly and easy to get stuck in.

The last few years I’ve changed how I want my work life balance to be. Every year I look back on the entire year and how it went. That has helped me make some big decisions. One of the biggest moves was quitting my corporate senior design position to go full time with freelancing. I went from juggling multiple things daily to juggling designing by day to coaching gymnastics at night. I had a really good balance between the two until coaching gymnastics became a 6 to 7 day a week job since I wasn’t just coaching little kids, I was coaching team athletes with meets all over the state. Don’t get me wrong, it was a blast to do and I loved every second of coaching but design ended up shoved under rock. I spent a lot of time writing lesson plans, workout plans and training athletes that I was turning down a lot of design jobs. I was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted.

2020 hit and I found out I was pregnant with my first child and wanted to change my coaching schedule to limited hours and to eventually step down from my director role and team coach role. My end goal was to just do freelance graphic design once my child was born and work during naps and some evenings. But then the pandemic hit in March which changed everything. I went from coaching and starting to take more freelance projects on like I wanted to receiving messages of “we don’t know what will happen with the pandemic so we are going to put rebranding or our website build on hold until we know more.” For the first time in my life, I had absolutely nothing to do. I took that time to enjoy doing nothing. I read books, I walked and played with my two dogs A LOT. My lazy hound dog even learned how to play fetch finally after refusing for years.

During that year, I also took a few Skillshare courses and took a deeper look at my business, processes, and did research on how to make them better. Once my child was born in the fall, my time and energy went to her. Around the beginning of 2021, I started illustrating and posting on instagram for fun. Then I started finding creative briefs for branding and making my own to get my head back into the design game. I was still mainly focused on finding a balance to motherhood and attempting to work during naps. By end of 2021, I went from doing creative briefs for fun to new clients finding me, old clients coming back from the pandemic fog and having me do their branding and websites. Not only did my business start blossoming again, I went from using my personal name to market my business to using Timberline Design based off the illustrations I was doing for fun and posting.

With 2022 coming to an end, I’ve finally found a balance that works for me. I get to be the freelance graphic designer I wanted to be back in 2017 and raise my child. This year is the year I’ve been waiting for business wise, I’m not doing anything but those two things. I’ve been asked to come back and coach a few times but I’m happy with the balance I finally have in my life. I take only a few clients a month like 2 to 3 clients a month. Which many of my clients like they get more 1-on-1 attention for their project. Not only that, it’s helped me create better relationships with clients that keep coming back and referring other businesses to me.

This year has been great for my business but hard in my personal life. I managed to find a balance that worked for me and the boundaries I needed to set for myself and my business. Some of that was being able to step away from my business to be with my family.

Finding balance can be whatever you want it to be. No one is going to have the same balance as the next person. Another graphic designer mom isn’t going to be able to work like I do and I may not be able to work like she does. It’s what feels good for you mentally, physically, and emotionally. This balance has helped me take care of myself mentally by not pushing myself to the brink of burnout. In the end, do what works best for YOU.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

First off, graphic design wasn’t what I originally went to college for. I wanted to do something within the sports medicine field. After awhile I realized, the school I was attending wasn’t for me. I decided to transferred to Metro State in Denver, took a variety of courses including digital art. Here is where I met with the Communication Design teachers and advisors which made me feel like I found my calling. It wasn’t easy but it was the challenge I needed.

I’ve learned a lot about myself in my design journey and that most times you need to tell yourself ‘just do it’. Don’t hesitate but do put some effort into researching how to market yourself, finding a designer to help with your branding and other design needs that your idea might need. And share the idea with a close friend or family member, they might be the encouraging force you need to feel motivation to keep going some days or to help you problem solve if you’ve run into a roadblock.

What I’ve learned with my business this last year or two has been that I can help people in ways I didn’t think would make a big impact. I’ve helped clients connect with their audience better than before. I’ve helped one client get double the amount of traffic to her website with good branding and brand new web site for her clients to access. I’ve helped other clients make their dream idea come true with the help of meaningful branding and constantly cheering them on as they go. I get messages from a few clients expressing how happy they are with the branding month later and how it’s helped them in so many ways and if we can work on more projects together. I learned I can make meaningful connections with my clients that help them make the meaningful connections they want for their businesses.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love taking people to Golden, Golden is such a fun area with great breweries to stop by, hiking trails near by, and a beautiful downtown area. My husband went to school at Mines, I worked at CoorsTek for awhile, and we had our wedding in downtown Golden so we have a deep love for Golden. All our friends and family love to meet up in Golden when they’re in town. I love hitting up North Table Mountain trail or driving a bit further up the mountain for a trail to hike then hit Holidaily Brewery on the way back (I’m gluten free so that’s were I end up most times in Golden) and we love many of the restaurants in Golden. D’Deli is amazing for sandwiches, Woody’s is always crowded but the best place for pizza, and Ali Baba Grill is great Mediterranean food. It’s always fun to do the lookout mountain drive and get up to Buffalo Bills grave for the views. Golden never disappoints me when anyone is in town.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are many people that deserve credit in this process. The biggest group being my friends and family, My husband has been a huge support in wanting me to be happy with what I’m doing and always supporting me just doing it. My parents that showed me what working hard can do. My dad always worked hard and I always saw that in him. His dedication to never give up and keep going. We just lost him this year which has been one of the hardest things to go through. My mom and her patience for good things to come. It might be a long road but it will come in some way. My friends have all been a big support of wanting to see more and encouraging me to share more of my design work and art work. They always want me to make more designed shirts and prints which I did for a short time. And I can’t forget my design journey truly started at Metropolitan State University of Denver with some amazing teachers that helped guide me through this design world.

Website: www.timberlinedesign.co

Instagram: www.instagram.com/timberlinedesign.co

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/danielle-spadinger

Facebook: www.facebook.com/timberlinedesignco