Meet Lindsey Turner

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey Turner. 

Lindsey, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin? 

I grew up drawing cartoons with my friends and making funny personalized greeting cards for my loved ones. There’s just always been something so fun about knowing someone is going to open an envelope and get a good laugh out of what’s inside, or feel very seen and loved. It’s the best feeling. 

I started selling handmade greeting cards and art and photo prints about 11 years ago as a creative outlet outside my job as a newspaper designer in Memphis. I did a couple of craft festivals and sold mostly on Etsy. I was experimenting with photography and trying to teach myself graphic design tools and skills my job didn’t really afford me. My career took a couple of twists and turns and I came back to Middle Tennessee in 2012 and spent time as a team leader and creative director at Design Studio Nashville, a news-design hub that was full of these amazingly talented designers doing bold design work for Southeastern newspapers. I learned so much from my colleagues there. But the news industry was changing rapidly, and our studio was shuttered in 2017. I decided to exit the newspaper business. 

I spent some time teaching graphic design at a local art school while working as an art director for a yearbook company. That led me to nonprofit communications. For the past three years, I’ve been communications director for an incredible Nashville nonprofit. That role has been such a challenge with really significant positive impacts on me as a person and as a creative. I’ve learned so much about the local organizations working really hard to make Nashville a better place to live. I’ve flexed my writing muscles a lot, and I’ve learned a lot about marketing tools and strategies that weren’t really on my radar in the editorial world. 

Early last year I decided I wanted to take all the things I had learned in my career and start my own creative business: To take Eyedot Creative (my hobby) to the next level. Shortly after announcing that epiphany to the world, a tornado hit Nashville. Then the pandemic. The year sort of spiraled out of control, and I got into a massive creative slump. Life became about survival and I put the dream on hold. 

I worked through that creative slump and, earlier this year, realized that it was time to try again. That I am happiest when I’m making things, and that that has been my reality for 11 years. So, in order to give myself the time and space to focus on growing my creative business, I’m planning to take my art and design full time this fall! That means building out my e-commerce shop as well as taking on freelance design projects and art commissions. It’s very exciting! 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Working a full-time job is draining. Having other responsibilities is draining. So, it can be hard to keep digging for the energy and focus to work on the business or the creative side of the business even when there are other things to do. It can be equally as hard to not let the business stuff creep into the other parts of your life and take over all your thoughts and attention! 

I’ve also always struggled with having ideas that are just a hair beyond my current skill level, so I have to try to push myself to get the point of the idea across even if I can’t quite illustrate it quite the way I envision it. I’m a pretty rudimentary illustrator, but I’m trying to learn and grow all the time. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I hope to specialize in the unexpected, delightful, and silly. 

Humor is my favorite coping mechanism, so I employ it liberally when I make art. My sense of humor skews a little dark, so the perspective of my artwork tends to reflect that. But I’m also a great big softie, so I like really sweet gestures too. So that’s why you’ll see everything from stickers shaped like bomb-pop-colored tampons to sweet cards about house plants in my shop. It’s why I’m into skulls and flowers. It’s the salty and the sweet, the menacing and the beautiful. But above all, the absurd! 

What matters most to you?
This is a really hard question. I feel like right now the only answer I can possibly have is the health and safety of my family. We have been so extremely fortunate to have remained healthy despite a few close calls over the past year and a half. We are rooting for more normal days. Better days for all. 

Contact Info:

• Email: lindsey@eyedotcreative.com
• Website: https://www.eyedotcreative.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eyedotcreative
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eyedotcreative
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/eyedotcreative