Meet Meg McConnell | Owner + Lead Designer, Due West Design

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

Hi Meg, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
I love this question! While our design studio is a for-profit business, we donate a percentage of revenue each year to animal rescues and LOVE working with nonprofits and folks who are doing innovative things to help the greater good. Some of our recent work has helped brand campaigns for affordable housing, create web sites for first time female community leaders running for office, and support nonprofits serving people with disabilities, early childhood development, and the formerly incarcerated. We’ve been able to work with everyone from lawyers who specialize in social justice to a nonprofit mobile health unit that serves rural communities. Our clients are the ones changing the world, but design can give such an impactful edge when it comes to building trust, memorability, and ultimately donations and other forms of support. It brings me so much joy when we can partner with and help these types of clients confidently put their best foot forward.

What should our readers know about your business?
I think our business story ties to the idea of slow and steady wins the race. I graduated college in 2002 and immediately started moonlighting as a freelance designer, in addition to my full-time work in various corporate, nonprofit, and small business communications roles. I slowly built up a solid freelance business, in addition to learning a lot of practical things in my full-time jobs and earning my master’s degree. In 2016 my husband and I moved across the country, from Charleston, SC to Colorado Springs, CO and instead of finding a new 9-to-5 job I took the leap to freelancing full-time. Thankfully all of those years of working on freelance projects and making professional connections paid off and in 2020 I launched Due West Design, a boutique studio with a small team specializing in branding and web site design. We’ve been really fortunate to continue growing and working with lots of really cool clients all over the US.

I’m not a huge risk-taker and I don’t believe in overnight success. It might not be the most glamorous story but going slow gave me time to fine tune my design skills and learn how to run a business. Now I can hardly believe that I get to do this full-time, when it was once something I only dreamed about.

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?
So I live in Colorado Springs, which I love, but I also get excited any time there’s a chance to head up to Denver and enjoy city life! I’m still discovering so many fun things to do there but these are my current favorites:

Food
I’m gluten-free, and there are so many great spots that cater to that in Denver. I love Just Be Kitchen, Root Down, Quiero Arepas, Abrusci’s Italian, and Blue Sushi Sake Grill.

Bakeries
Did I mention I have a sweet tooth? Again, so many great gluten-free options–Moore Bread Bakery, The Cake Bar, and Rivers & Roads Coffee are all amazing. If you don’t mind driving a little further Deby’s Gluten Free has fantastic baked goods and lots of take home meals. Try the garlic cheddar biscuits!

Museums
I love wandering through the Denver Art Museum and you can’t go wrong with a visit to Meow Wolf.

Other Spots
I just discovered Dairy Block and loved walking around there (especially the food hall!). Union Station is always fun to take visitors, along with a stop for a class at Upstairs Circus LoDo. Stanley Marketplace is great to visit too. And of course I’d want to show off all of the beautiful mountain views, so a scenic drive would definitely be on the itinerary!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Oh my gosh, where to even start?! There are so many wonderful people who professionally mentored and supported my efforts over the years. My husband John really encouraged me to take the leap to running a business full-time and has cheered me on ever since. I have an amazing design assistant, Isabel, who allows us to take on more projects and perform at the level Due West is at now.

But I think when you really get down to it I am most grateful for our clients. Without their trust over the years we wouldn’t have had the opportunities to create such meaningful work, and we depend on client feedback to continuously improve our processes and experience. Most of our projects start through word of mouth, so the business has quite literally grown because of our clients and their generous referrals. Design can be a big investment and to have the opportunity to partner with people and help create really valuable assets for their business or organization is always something I am super grateful for.

Website: https://www.duewestdesign.com/

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/due-west-design

Image Credits
Mikaela Stern (Xaris Photography)