How I started 23&9 Creative

Everyone loves a good origin story, amiright? If you would have told me like six years ago that I would have my own business, I would have thought you were crazy. Sometimes I still think it is crazy that I have a business, but I love it so much.

I first started out as a designer by creating resumes in college for friends to get them ready for the job hunt post-grad. After I got a few designs in circulation around my campus, I decided to open up a shop on Etsy to sell them. This was my first taste of owning and operating a biz. Supply and demand, marketing, expenses - the whole deal.

When I was a senior in college, I desperately wanted to move to New York. I mean I thought if I made it to NYC, I truly made it. My mom knew of my obsession with New York and helped me come up with my business name based on my love for the city. 23rd and 9th is a street corner in NYC that is the dead center of the Chelsea neighborhood. The ironic part of the story is that I ended up living in Chelsea soon after! Crazy, I know.

I moved to New York after college to start at TIME. From there I began teaching myself calligraphy and took a swing at logo design. I ended up giving up the resume design and stuck with logo work. After the logo work took off, I moved onto website design.

Honestly the rest is history! And now, here we are, no more logos and only websites. I stopped doing logo designs last year because I wanted to focus on what I could do with websites. I really enjoy creating in the digital space.

It has been a blast getting to where I am today. Certainly wasn’t always easy, but I am so glad for every opportunity, project and person this business has brought my way! I have added some old website designs for you to check out too. It is crazy to see how my style has evolved over the years!