I’ve Never Had Just One Creative Outlet
- Ashley Mellana
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
From design school and art direction to resin, photography, DIY, sewing, and everything in between—here’s the story behind Artisan by the Sea.
Hi, I’m Ashley.
If there’s one thing that’s been consistent throughout my life, it’s that I’m usually making something. A lot of my creative story started in design school. It’s where I really began figuring out what kind of creative I wanted to be—and where I met my husband, too.
I went on to earn my BFA in Graphic Design, and what started as a love for design grew into a career in graphic design and art direction. But even while I was working professionally as a designer, creativity was never just my job. I was almost always making, photographing, designing, experimenting with, or building something on the side.
Honestly, that hasn’t changed much.
From an idea on a screen to something real
Some of the most memorable parts of my creative career came while working with a small independent creative agency whose main client was Sanibel Captiva Beach Resorts. That gave me the opportunity to work on projects for resorts throughout Sanibel and Captiva Islands, including Tween Waters Island Resort & Spa.
The work was incredibly varied, which was one of the things I loved about it. I could be designing something as specific as a restaurant menu one day and developing the visual identity for an entirely new concept the next.
I worked on the branding for a new restaurant that opened at Tween Waters, as well as the branding for a poolside walk-up coffee shop that served Starbucks. I also designed a custom beer label exclusively for Sanibel Captiva Beach Resorts.
One of the projects that really let me bring several sides of my creativity together was Java Islands. My work included art direction, branding, illustration, social media design, video content creation, packaging design, and even a custom handwritten font. The illustrations were all hand drawn, which made the finished brand feel especially personal and gave me the chance to bring illustration into my professional design work in a much bigger way.
But the work didn’t end with branding. I designed restaurant menus and helped find the printers who could actually produce them. I worked with vendors, designed signage throughout the properties, created new resort entrance signage, and even designed a billboard that stood at the entrance to Sanibel Island.
And then there were the projects I never would have imagined designing when I first went to design school—like graphics for a towel vending station at one of the resorts.
That was part of what made the work so interesting. A design might become a beer label someone held in their hand, packaging, a restaurant identity, a menu sitting on a table, a sign installed somewhere around a resort, or a billboard welcoming people onto the island.
I loved that my involvement didn’t necessarily stop when I finished the design, either. There was still the question of How are we actually going to make this? Who can print it? Who can produce it? What vendor do we need? I got to be part of figuring those things out, too.
Photography was another creative outlet that had already become part of my life. I started photographing in New Jersey, and when I moved to Florida, I continued—eventually photographing weddings on Sanibel Island. I loved that photography gave me another reason to step away from the computer and create. Instead of designing a story on a screen, I was capturing one as it was happening.
Before my time with the agency came to an end, I had the chance to walk around one of the resorts and really take in how much of my work was actually there—the menus, the signs, the branding, and all the different pieces throughout the property that I remembered first seeing as ideas or blank artboards on my computer.
It was a pretty incredible feeling. I had spent so much time designing, revising, sourcing vendors, figuring out production, and getting projects out into the world that I don’t think I had ever stopped to realize how much of it was now physically around me. Being able to walk through the resort and see it all in real life before that part of my career ended is something I’ve never forgotten.
It also made me realize how much I loved not only designing an idea, but being involved in actually bringing it to life.
I was always making something else, too.
At the same time that I was building my professional creative career, there was usually another project happening somewhere in the background. I’ve never really separated “work creativity” from the creativity I have at home. I’m a big DIYer by nature—I love looking at something and thinking, I could probably make that.
Sometimes that has meant working with resin or clay, illustrating or photographing. Other times it’s meant figuring out how to make something myself, customize something I already have, or take on a completely new project simply because I want to see if I can do it. I love working with my hands, experimenting, and figuring things out as I go.
My resin work eventually turned into an Etsy shop that grew into something I was genuinely proud of. I later had to start over with a new shop after losing the original account, but my desire to make things—and share them with other people—never really went away.
I also turned my love of vintage clothing into a business that started with a flea-market booth and eventually grew into three online shops, hundreds of one-of-a-kind pieces, and a community of more than 67K people.
And all of these things overlapped. I wasn’t an Art Director and then a maker, photographer, DIYer, illustrator, or small business owner. I was doing these things alongside one another, because apparently one creative outlet was never going to be enough.
Then my professional creativity took me somewhere new.
Later, as an Art Director with Staples Promotional Products, I got to explore another side of the creative process. Part of my work moved further into photo direction and production, where I helped develop photoshoots from the original idea through the shoot itself—dreaming up concepts, creating storyboards and shot lists, sourcing props, thinking through styling, and coordinating all of the little pieces that had to come together before the camera ever started clicking.
One of those projects even took me to Missouri, where I traveled to help direct a photoshoot in person. I loved being on set and watching everything come together—the photographer, models, styling, props, and all of those tiny decisions that eventually created the final imagery.
At the same time, I was also working in email marketing, designing campaigns and collaborating with copywriters to bring the creative and messaging together. I was able to see how those designs actually performed through A/B testing and use what we learned to keep refining the creative. It added another layer to the process: not only asking whether something looked good, but whether it connected with the people we were trying to reach.
The work was different from designing a resort brand, hand illustrating packaging, or figuring out how to get a physical sign produced, but the part I loved was exactly the same: taking an idea and figuring out how to make it real.
Looking back, I think that has been the common thread through almost everything I’ve done creatively. Sometimes making an idea real meant designing it. Sometimes it meant drawing it by hand. Sometimes it meant finding the printer or vendor who could produce it. Sometimes it meant picking up a camera or directing what happened in front of one. And sometimes it meant grabbing whatever tools or materials I needed and figuring out how to make it myself.
The medium kept changing, but the desire to create never really did.
And now, life looks a little different.
The guy I met all those years ago in design school is now my husband, and together we’re raising our daughter with another little one on the way. These days, creativity looks a little different, too.
Most recently, I decided I wanted to learn how to sew. I’m still very much a beginner, and that’s actually one of the things I love most about it. After spending so many years working professionally as a creative, there’s something refreshing about not knowing exactly what I’m doing.
I get to experiment, make mistakes, take things apart, try again, and get way too excited when something finally turns out the way I pictured it. And sewing has fit pretty naturally into the way I’ve always approached creativity: see something I love, wonder if I could make it myself, and then figure out how.
These days, I’m making things for my family, learning to sew, taking on DIY projects, designing printables and digital products, revisiting old creative interests, and—as usual—having considerably more ideas than I have time to make.
Motherhood hasn’t replaced the creative part of my life. If anything, it’s simply given that creativity somewhere new to go.
So, what is Artisan by the Sea?
I think this is my place to finally let all of those pieces exist together. It’s not only about graphic design. It’s not only about sewing or DIY. It’s not only about the things I sell. And it’s definitely not about pretending I’m an expert at every craft I decide to try.
Artisan by the Sea is a place for the designer I’ve been, the maker I’ve always been, and the person who’s still curious enough to look at something and think, I wonder if I could make that.
Here, I’ll share projects I’m working on, things I’m learning, pieces of my creative past, sewing and DIY, printables and handmade work, design stories, and things I genuinely love and want to share. Some of it will come from years of professional creative experience, and some of it I’ll be figuring out right alongside you.
There will probably be successes, there will definitely be things I’d do differently the second time, and I’m pretty sure there will always be another project waiting in the wings.
Because after all these years, I’ve realized something:
The medium keeps changing. The part of me that wants to make something out of an idea really hasn’t.
Welcome to Artisan by the Sea.