Colorado Creatives Series
In support of #AIGAatHome, we have launched the Colorado Creatives Series, an opportunity to celebrate and showcase local creatives in our area. Our Colorado Creatives will share a little about their creative process, some of their most worthwhile investments, current reading lists and more. Enjoy!
Name
Troy DeRose
Sara DeRose
Pronouns
Troy: He, His, Him
Sara: She, Her, Hers
Where can we find you?
How have you adapted your creative process during this time?
Constantly! This time has been hard, both logistically, but also creatively. We have a 4 year old son, and the three of us have spent the last 8 weeks in our cozy house. We’ve been transitioning from parenting, to designing, to leading Zoom workshops (a new endeavor, for sure) and back again all from our makeshift basement office. It’s been an exercise in triage. Our work definitely requires deep focus and long term planning, so jumping from thing to thing has definitely been taxing. As a couple working and parenting together, it’s really important to check in with the other person often and to be flexible with how you thought your day will go. We also prioritize time to have “open space” and curate our input, because that directly affects our creative output.
What are you reading, listening to or watching right now?
Troy: I have been finally watching the entire series of Twin Peaks. It’s one of those cult following shows that I just never watched for no good reason. It’s such an odd show, I’m often wondering out loud, “How on earth did this show get made on network TV?” I’m also a longtime podcast junkie, so I’ve got my regular rotation of those — The Daily, Reply All, 99 Percent Invisible, among others.
Sara: I am definitely not sharing in the Twin Peaks experience — Troy has a higher tolerance for weirdness than I do. I am in two book clubs (one is just my father and I), so I am currently reading Normal People, by Sally Rooney, and just finished Daisy Jones and the Six for the other. I’m typically listening to a number of different podcasts at any given time and preferred non-fiction for a while, but have found fiction reading to be a great creative break that flexes a different part of my brain. I’m also rewatching Arrested Development for the billionth time, because it’s great and because we just adopted a shorty bulldog named Maeby a few weeks ago.
In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?
We’ve really been learning how to actually value each other’s skills, viewpoints, and ways of working (instead of just saying we value it, but secretly wishing the other person saw it the same way.) It’s easy to feel like your way of doing something is truly the right way and judge the other person for doing it differently. We share so much of our work and life, that it’s important to remember you’re on the same team and to trust the instincts of your partner.
What are you currently working on?
A lot of great stuff! We are beyond grateful that our projects have continued for the time being, and our hats off to all of our clients and collaborators who are navigating this weird time with us.
Here’s a few highlights:
A new pizza restaurant called Stellina Pizza Cafe that we named, designed branding and signage, and consulted on interiors is opening mid-May. It’s been interesting to see how to open amidst safer-at-home orders, but this is a local business with a great team working on it, so it’s been a great project. We’re especially excited about this one because it’s opening just a few blocks from our home and we love pizza.
Kinship Landing is a friendly boutique hotel and cafe opening later this year in downtown Colorado Springs. We’ve been working on this project for a few years as their Creative Directors which includes brand design, signage and environmental graphics, art curation, merchandising, and consultation on the interior design. This has definitely been one of the longer and larger projects we’ve taken on, and seeing years of work come to fruition is really satisfying.
We’ve got some other great projects happening this year, but we can’t quite share all the details just yet…but good things ahead!
