Meet Karissa DeDecker | Elevated Brand Designer + Illustrator

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

Hi Karissa, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
I always like to remind myself that what’s going on around me is not reality. What’s real is my thoughts and imagination. What I’m thinking right now is creating what’s coming. What I think is real is just a manifestation of what I thought before.

I know I am a creative business owner with a python and a paddle board living in the middle of a vast canvas of canyons right now because I imagined life that way. What we think is the most powerful way to succeed or fail in our lives and either is possible.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I got my degree in San Francisco and was soon desert bound to Moab, Utah thereafter. Never thinking I’d stay long, I was sucked into wild west adventure tourism. This landscape really took hold of me. It broke it all down to a horizon line and required of me what it requires of itself: the carving out of one’s path. So that’s what I did. In 2020, I successfully started Issa Designs, a design & illustration studio specializing in web design and creative branding for outdoor, food & beverage, & retail based brands. Though I can be introverted as a creative, empathy is inescapable for me. My career lets me connect and experience all that is important to people. I work with a variety of clients catalyzing all these incredible dreams and goals. I get to be a part of that and hold gratitude that they chose me to manifest that with them. Breaking even the molds of who I am as a creative, I step into their world and their style. I like being creatively fluid like that. In doing so, I know this path I am carving will inevitably guide me to the greater parts of myself.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When you arrive in Moab, Utah for the first time it can be a surreal and magical experience. It hosts natural wonders that can take your breath away and becomes a place that you long for. To really share this with friends and family, I love taking them boating down the Colorado River, canyoneering into sandstone slot canyons, or pitch a tent out in Canyonlands and watch the sun’s shadows undress the cliff walls. These things slow time down in contrast with fast urban environments. If they’re wanting something delicious they have to get the pork banh mi nachos at 98 Center, the surf & turf elk roll at Sabaku Sushi, or the scallops at Desert Bistro. For their last day I like to take them to Moab Made for local artisan goods and Back of Beyond Books to check out their western rare books section and pick up a book for the road. If they don’t manage to do all of that I know they’ll be back.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am extremely grateful for the mentorship of women I have in my life. We call ourselves the ‘Fristerhood’ and these women go beyond the word family, friend, or tribe. Most of them had a hand in raising me in some way or another, and even now continue to believe in me, even when I don’t. They inspire and guide me and will always be my beacon in all my transformative moments. We are what we surround ourselves with and I’d like to hope I have a little of all of them within me.

Website: issa-designs.com

Instagram: @issa.designs