By Kaylee Beck
Abby Cracraft is a graphic and web designer based in Portland, Oregon, with a portfolio showcasing her work in merchandise, music, and sports. On a mission to help brands create meaningful experiences through thoughtful design choices, she leverages a multidisciplinary approach that includes computer science, digital design, and sales. Originally from Boulder, CO, Abby has lived in every time zone in the continental U.S. A musician, lifelong learner, and aspiring polyglot, she continues to refine her craft with empathy at its core.
Kaylee Beck, a University of Montana Media Arts student studying graphic design, interviewed Abby Cracraft about their usage of social media in regard to their career. What follows in a transcript of their conversation, edited slightly for clarity and brevity.
Q: How has your personal brand evolved over time? What role has social media played in shaping your online identity?
A: I think that my brand is something that self-admittedly has only come to me recently. I have felt that I have always wanted to be authentic online and share what I create in a way that I would want to watch if I were the viewer and I only discovered it by creating content/designs for myself and clients. I started to be drawn towards a specific aesthetic consistently. Like many people who grew up on the internet and with a screen in their face from a young age, I think I have learned how much it can affect your self-image. Being able to go through the transformative middle to high-school years online allowed me to now be able to deconstruct how impactful it is to who I am as a person and realize I would prefer to be authentic than just posting for engagement and dopamine.
Q: What are your biggest challenges in maintaining a consistent aesthetic and voice across your portfolio, social media, and style of design?
A: I think that maintaining a consistent aesthetic and voice shouldn’t be difficult if you are speaking from your own experience. I try my best not to compare my end result with others because I recognize that the way we got there was different. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with trying out new styles or new ways of doing things – that is the fun part of social media and design! I think the casual nature that social media has been getting back to with photo dumps reminds me to not take it too seriously! Make stuff that makes you happy and others that like it will find you!
Q: How do you manage the pressure to constantly create new content and engage with your audience on social media?
A: I am both lucky and unlucky to say that creating social media content is not my full-time job or even a part-time job. I do it when I want and when I feel like I have the energy to do so. This allows me to not have to put pressure on myself to create when the tank is empty. In the past, I have created content in different aspects (I have a YouTube channel dedicated to playing guitar that I
uploaded on consistently for years) and have felt that once you get into the flow of creating and sharing it becomes second nature. I just have an underlying fear of burning out in graphic design since it is my true passion so I refuse to put too much stress on myself in it.
Q: Can you describe your target audience and clients you try to reach? How do you tailor your creative approach to effectively reach and engage with these demographics?
A: My target audience would be music lovers who notice the little things in their favorite band’s album cover. I try my best to be detail-oriented in the work I create and try to improve on every aspect whether that’s the filming, the editing, or the content itself. Being able to capture a certain demographic can be hard, but I have been lucky to have captured an audience that has found me through working with their favorite musicians. For someone to see a post from a musician they follow, like the design enough to find the person who designed it, and then follow them, means that it almost weeds out the negative people.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in using social media to promote yourself as a designer, and how have you overcome them?
A: My biggest challenge is consistency on social media as a designer. I am constantly working with clients on top of holding full-time non-graphic design jobs, and so to add on posting content and filming things that may not return monetarily is difficult. To push through this depends on discipline and starting to form a habit around content creation. In the past, I have had different ventures in social media that required daily commitment, whether that was posting guitar riffs on YouTube or meme posts when I was in middle school. I have learned from those experiences that consistency is what can grow an account. I never focused overtly on quality, but I think as a graphic designer, you tend to always be looking for a higher quality aesthetic due to the artistic creative side. I think if I was to be able to get out of my own head and create more, it would lead to a larger follower count, but I have yet to see if that equates to a larger client base or not.
This Q&A is part of a series created by students in Courtney Cowgill’s Social Media and Audience Engagement course at the University of Montana School of Journalism. Students sought out people in media who are doing social media for good to offer tips and insights into the ever-evolving landscape of social media.
Montana Journalism 