Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Park.
Amy, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My story is serendipitous, thanks widely to the recession, my candy bar resume, and supportive parents. It’s funny looking back on it now, so thank you for letting me reminisce! After graduating from the Iowa State College of Design in 2008, I spent an angsty summer applying for jobs in Des Moines, Minneapolis, and Chicago, with no luck. I felt like I couldn’t pay someone to hire me.
That fall, I decided on a whim to apply for a food server position on Beaver Creek Mountain. I got the job and moved up to Edwards to live with my aunt for the winter while snowboarding to work at Beano’s Cabin, a five-star restaurant. During that time, I also began dating a college friend who was living in Denver, and once my job was over, I moved down to the Mile High City so we could continue dating. From the moment my signature was inked on the apartment lease, I regretted my decision. Not only did my boyfriend break up with me, but I found myself, again, spending several angsty months searching for work.
One day, I walked into Marczyk Fine Foods and handed my candy bar resume (an Almond Joy wrapped in with a label that I designed to look like my resume) to none other than Pete Marczyk. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but the fact that he was the first person I encountered makes me feel like it was meant to be. He hired me as their Sign Maker, and I spent the next two years designing everything in the store, as well as filling in where help was needed.
In 2011, I applied for one job on Craigslist and ended up getting it, which was a weird feeling for me, after being rejected from probably 80+ job applications two years prior. The position was “Label Designer” for Custom Made Meals. I spent two years at the food production facility in North Denver, designing hundreds of labels for their multiple lines of fresh, value-added meat products, which are sold at Targets and Kroger stores all over the country. This time was imperative for me, as I learned the ins and outs of making a label USDA or FDA compliant. After two years, adventure was calling, so I quit to backpack through South and Central America for the summer.
After returning in the Fall of 2013, I got a job at a small food labeling firm. After a few months, I was feeling like it wasn’t a good fit. I had never considered working for myself – never. My parents started telling me to go off on my own, which felt odd, considering that they have always been very responsible when it comes to having a stable job with health insurance. But they convinced me to start my own business and even offered to help support me while I built up my clientele.
On January 4, 2014, I officially began AEG Design Company (now Gold Spark Design). I didn’t know anything about owning a business, but I dove in headfirst. I signed up for an 11-week business course, and joined a leads group, among attending other networking events regularly. I also grabbed coffee with anyone and everyone who would meet with me, even if they weren’t in my industry.
Over the course of that year, I also supplemented my almost non-existent income with driving for Uber, delivering cookies, secret shopping at Sonic, filming high school football games, and selling authorized user spaces on my credit cards (completely legal). By early 2015, I had networked enough to be making about $3000 a month, and quit all of my side hustles to focus solely on my business. My future husband and I were dating at that point, and the following few years would include us moving around the country for his leadership program with GE. Luckily, I was able to retain all of my customers throughout those few years. We moved back to Denver in 2017, and I have been trucking along ever since.
Has it been a smooth road?
So many struggles! The “feast or famine” is real. I’ve driven my husband mad with being so busy one week that I’m working 14 hours a day to thinking that my business is failing the next week. Even after six years, I still feel like my business is failing if I have a slow week or month.
Being in the creative industry is very challenging. If you asked a million designers to design you a label for your granola bar, you will get a million different granola bar label designs. So sometimes it can feel a little paralyzing to start a project, but I just have to dive in headfirst and see where my mind takes me. My job is hugely dependent on my ability to think creatively, so I do whatever I can to cultivate that. I spend a lot of time working on the interior design of my home, I’ve recently gotten more into fashion, and I watch a lot of eye candy TV shows. Getting good sleep, eating healthy, and keeping my migraines at bay helps a lot, too.
Time off is another struggle. Because it’s just me, I haven’t taken a vacation without my computer in six years. This past Christmas, my husband and I went to India and Morocco. I didn’t work at all for two weeks, and that was the weirdest feeling. Even when we’re on international vacations, I will usually work for an hour a day, answering emails and taking care of small requests.
Loneliness is the last struggle that I will touch on. Being just me, I sometimes feel like I’m on an island, alone. I recently started getting into networking again – not for clients, but to foster a community by focusing on events where I meet other solo designers. And I spend a few afternoons a week designing on our couch with the TV on, and our dogs on my lap. Having the TV on makes me feel much less lonely during the workday.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Gold Spark Design story. Tell us more about your work.
I am a graphic designer who specializes in food labeling. In addition to creating new designs from scratch, I also work with companies who have their designs done, but now they need someone more specialized to help implement and maintain their files. There are so many intricacies when sending a label or packaging design to print – both on the compliance side and on the printing side. Mistakes can cost a company tens of thousands in wasted labels or packaging, so it’s important to get it right. I’m not perfect, but I do try really hard to not make any mistakes when I’m sending a job to print.
In addition to being creative, I also suspect that I have a manageable case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, which I am actually thankful for because it makes me much better at my job. (It also makes me incapable of working when my house is the slightest bit dirty or disorganized, so I stay on top of that.) I’m incredibly organized, and I help my clients stay organized. I also focus A LOT on consistency, which helps the consumer easily digest information coming from a specific brand.
In addition to the aforementioned, I’m also very responsive, I have quick turnaround times, and I’m affordably priced. Not to go unmentioned, I’m also a very strong designer. Thanks to my schooling, I understand all of the major design concepts (contrast, balance, emphasis, movement, white space, proportion, hierarchy, repetition, rhythm, pattern, unity, and variety), and when I’m able to combine those principles with creative thinking, magic happens!
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The biggest trend I can see right now is sustainability. Packaging is constantly getting more and more sustainable, with recyclable or compostable packaging, papers, and inks. I’ve been to a few zero markets now, which makes me wonder if packaging will be a thing of the past in a decade or two. I could eventually see a world where you go to the grocery store with your own containers, and scan the future’s version of a QR code next to the bin of food that then takes you to virtual packaging. Or maybe consumers will wear VR glasses that show virtual packaging while looking at different food products. These ideas sound way out there, and might never happen, I just love to hypothesize about the future. Luckily, I think that the world will always need designers. I can’t imagine robots doing my job.
I also see supplements getting a lot more interesting. Over the past few years, CBD labeling has accounted for about half of my food clients. And now that micro-dosing is becoming more widely acceptable, I wonder if someday, I’ll be working on a psilocybin mushroom supplement label.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.goldsparkdesign.com
- Phone: 6417407082
- Email: amy@goldsparkdesign.com
- Instagram: @goldsparkdesign
Image Credit:
Headshot – Amy K Wright Photography
Portfolio Shots – Annette Slade Photography
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