Today we’d like to introduce you to Quen Eastridge.
Hi Quen, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in the suburbs of Franklin, TN, and was blessed with a great education that exposed me to the arts at a young age. By the time I hit high school I knew I wanted to do some type of art as my career, but I wasn’t sure how to make that work. Then my Digital Communications teacher Melissa Estes told us about Graphic Design. That’s when everything clicked.
After graduating high school I pursued a Graphic Design degree at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) where my professor Sarah Lowe eventually brought me into a collaborative project with the Engineering and Nursing departments working on an app to improve medical training. After that, I got a chance to work with the National Park Service illustrating and eventually animating a video for their new Species Mapper project. It was then that I developed a passion for animation that carries over to my personal life today.
After college, I made the pilgrimage to New York City where I started working for Craft & Root. We’ve never been a big team, but then it was an even smaller group of creatives. I was 1 of 5 people on the team spread between NY and Tel Aviv, Israel. It was a wonderful experience building my skills while collaborating internationally. I got exposure to a new world of clients in the Big City spanning from fin-tech to fashion to crypto-currency to high-end hotels.
Not long after the COVID outbreak, I ended up moving back to Nashville and working remotely for Craft & Root. At first, this provided some challenges but our team is strong and we’ve got a good system now. Since then I’ve gotten to work on more and more interesting projects and flex the animation muscle I discovered back during the National Park Service project. I pinch myself sometimes because I still can’t believe I make a good living doing art. It seemed like a dream all those years ago.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
One of the greatest challenges in the Graphic Design field is getting into the mind of the client and their audiences.
Clients vary in their ability to communicate their ideas, but that’s the point of collaboration—get to a point where you can start speaking the client’s language and develop a nice flow of information and ideas.
Because our team is “boutique” sized, each team member has to wear a lot of hats. This can be challenging at times, especially when the project you’re working on is a little outside your comfort zone. However, our team is really well curated, so whenever I feel I need a second pair of eyes on things, there is always someone to oblige.
Working remotely can also be challenging at times. This comes up mainly when onboarding new designers to the team. However, our team has refined our documentation and onboarding processes to make things clearer. There’s always room for improvement but everyone’s always looking at how we can make things work more smoothly.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I handle a wide variety of projects at Craft & Root. I work on web design, UI/UX, illustration, animation, video editing, branding, art direction, and project management. In addition, I review and help mentor the more junior members of our team.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
My preferred type of work is animation, but I can’t help but get excited when a new web design project rolls around. Both these fields of work require a solid amount of planning and usually have a systematic flow to them. It’s the organization of these systems that really inspires me. I find it to be a beautiful melding of objective and subjective ideas.
Beyond the work itself, I love the team. We have a super talented group of people at Craft & Root, each with their own style and perspective. It’s great to work at a place with such variety.
I dislike the fact that not all projects have an infinite timeline. Sometimes decisions have to be made, animations have to be trimmed, illustrations have to be hastened, etc. for the sake of deadlines and budgets. This is just the nature of budgets though. On the flip side, sometimes these constraints breed innovations and creative solutions that otherwise would’ve flown by the wayside.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://craftandroot.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftandroot/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/craftandroot
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/craft-&-root/
Image Credits
Craft & Root
