Bobbie started with a question: what if?
What if it was okay to feel lost about your career path, and there was a place filled with people who have felt the same way.
What if design could be more than polished portfolios and perfectly staged outcomes?
What if there was a place where ideas about space, design, and the culture around them could gather, a place that gave room to smaller artists, quieter ideas and stories that are still forming.
I feel like the design world has become very fast paced. There are deadlines to meet. There is a constant chase for the newest trend and the newest way to talk. This starts in school, where it becomes all about who stayed up the longest, who made it through with the least amount of sleep, and how far coffee can take us. It can begin in architecture studios, but it carries into interiors, product design, branding, UX, and beyond. The rhythm is familiar. Produce, present, repeat.
It felt like the industry was ready for a fresh page. A new perspective. A little more calm in the noise.
This is why I took it upon myself to create a place like that.
My name is Bev. I am twenty something, stuck between cities, career paths and in line for my next coffee. I used to be the student who always showed up early to crits, asked the most questions, and wasted no time executing exactly what I thought I was expected to. I was terrified of not being good enough. I chased praise and grades and a feeling that faded almost instantly because I forgot why I was doing any of this in the first place. There were hours spent staring at a screen, tears held back when it suddenly stopped being about the project, and the moment of truth when grades came out, so the cycle could repeat for another semester.
And then, I left. I applied for a semester abroad, packed my bags, and said arrivederci. At first I fell in love with my new city. I loved the fresh energy, the buildings, and the feeling of starting over.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that design schools around the world carry the same draining rhythm. It took two weeks after school had started before I fell back into the same cycle. But this time it was different, something in me had shifted. I was in a new city and had managed to make a home for myself a world away from everything familiar. I kept thinking that if I could manage that, what else I might be able to create.
Long story short, I was delusional enough to believe this could work. Over time, the what ifs stopped feeling abstract. They gathered into one steady question. What if I actually did this?
And there was only one way to find out.
My hope is to share the idea that feeling lost in design is normal. People stand at many different points in this field, and confusion appears at all of them. There are many paths and many ways to work. There are people who pivot, people who pause, people who start again. I have met so many whose stories contain more truth than any perfect project. I wanted a home for those stories.
I hope Bobbie becomes a place that brings energy back. Sometimes reading about someone else’s path creates a small spark. And sometimes that's all we need.
I also want Bobbie to hold ideas about design that move toward care. Spaces shaped with attention. Objects made with intention. Systems built around people. Work that asks what it means when something new enters the world. A place where you can learn about quieter corners of the discipline and fall in love with the process again.
Because, I think, that is what design should be about.
With my warmest wishes,
BEV