Saje Damen is an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator with over 7 years of experience executing compelling, innovative, and viable creative from concept to print/post. She graduated in 2018 with a BDes (distinction) in Visual Communications from AUArts. She's interested in design-driven storytelling and humanizing data.
I guess I actually started working as a designer at around 12, when my classmates started paying me to make them custom Nexopia templates (ha!). But I didn’t know it was ‘design’ at the time.
I was always interested in art. Growing up, people made a big deal about how good my art was, and I really like being good at things. I didn’t think much about the future when I was a teenager; I actually dropped out of high school, but when everyone else started going to university I knew I needed to figure things out. I went back to school and graduated so that I could go to art school. It was the only place I could picture myself.
I tried a bunch of different fine arts courses, and I enjoyed them all, but when it came time to declare a major none of them felt right. The design program where I studied (AUArts, but it was ACAD back then) was highly competitive, and I was drawn to that: I wanted to be challenged. Once I was in, it felt like I was learning something powerful. A new universal language. It clicked.
I wake up around 5:30 most days, and I spend about a half-hour in bed doom-scrolling (unfortunately). But it’s currently summer in Calgary, so while I wait for coffee to brew, I like to go out into my backyard and pluck little weeds from the garden beds. I love the smell of early morning air and fresh coffee. I log my mood on an app called How We Feel, and then I read a bit of a book. My husband wakes up and we chat about the day ahead. Then, finally, I get to work!
It always starts by doing some research and pulling inspiration, blocking things out at a high level, populating with more detail and refining it to a state where I like it, and then sending it out for feedback. Then I refine it further based on the AD/CD/client’s notes.
A bit of my brain is always dedicated to noticing things around me, like a font I like or a colour combo, and I snap pictures of them for later. I like having random bits from all over to pull from when I start something new; I find it helps my work be more unique. But my phone’s photo roll is chaos.
“Enjoy the process.”
For a long time my goal was to be the best, but my work was never good enough for my inner critic. I pushed myself harder and harder, and my work got worse (note: this is what happens when you try too hard), and I burned out. I say this like it was a one-time event but it’s been more of an ongoing cycle for most of my life.
Eventually I wound up in therapy asking why everything was so hard for me, and I realized that I was the one with unrealistic expectations. But it turns out what I actually care about isn’t being the best… I just thought I had to be the best to survive.
I actually think the purpose of life is to enjoy it, so nowadays I’m a lot less interested in awards or flashy clients, and I’m a lot more interested in having fun along the way.
During the pandemic I launched a small spooky stationery business called Void Paper Co. I was doing a lot of very uninspiring corporate work during the day, and when that was done I was sitting around reading the news. I needed a space to just have fun.
It started with a little baphomet valentine, but it grew into hand-done die-cut greeting cards, cryptid maps and scratch-off posters of roadside attractions, screenprinted pennants, stickers, riso-printed notepads & calendars, you name it. We made it into over a dozen retailers across North America and grew into a modest but steady ecommerce business.
I realized last year that I was doing a lot more of the ‘running a business’ side of things; it wasn’t a space dedicated to creative exploration anymore. I already had a full-time job and it felt like I had given myself another one. So I quietly closed up shop. But I’m so massively proud of what I accomplished there, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
I think success is freedom: waking up when you want to, going to a cozy little studio, and making whatever you want. Taking lots of breaks to walk around and spending time with your people. One day I hope to be that successful!
The ever-quickening pace of design (and of the rest of the world) scares me. Across so many professions I’m hearing people say they are being expected to do more with fewer resources than ever before. Human productivity has skyrocketed, but we’re making less and less money.
Before computers, designers had weeks between sending a comp to a client and getting feedback: that’s a lot of time to think about what you’re doing and why. Now feedback is near-instant, and with AI we are getting painfully close to a ‘make it pop’ button. I don’t see how that is a process that is creative or enjoyable, and infinite growth certainly isn’t sustainable. I think designers must demand adequate space and time for curiosity, dignity, and humanity.
I’d have said ‘no’ more. I cannot think of a single time I said ‘no’ to something and regretted it. I say yes a lot, but I love saying ‘no.’
Many times throughout the years I’ve made the mistake of assuming a client with bad design work is low-hanging fruit, because surely they will see what I can do and be super happy, right? No! Nine times out of 10 there is a reason their design is bad, and you’re about to make some bad design for them, too.
Whether it’s that they don’t know what they want, or there’s too many stakeholders who all want something different, or there’s no one with decision-making ability, or they aren't willing to budget enough for it, or they just simply have bad taste… there’s so many reasons why bad design exists outside of ‘bad designers’.
In school women were the majority in my design and illustration courses, but I noticed a few things once I got into an agency job. The first was that most of the leaders—my bosses—were men. Second was that the men in the same role as me were making more money. Third was that I was expected to do much more in the way of ‘soft skills’ than they were: look more put together, be more generous with my time, people-please. When men push back they are experts. When women push back they are difficult.
Sometimes it looks like design is a woman-dominated field, but I think we’re actually seeing women being pushed out of the corporate side of design, and so they go into freelance, where they are required to be more vocal about their work.
Figure out what environment you make the best work in: Do you thrive under positive reinforcement or more critical feedback? Open studios or private spaces? Do you need a deadline to be productive?
Listen to how things make you feel, and slowly head towards the places and people who can get the best work out of you. And then, maybe even more important: Work with people who respect you and value your work properly.
And have a personal project! You need to explore your own style. Unfortunately the cool jobs go to the influencers who have tens of thousands of followers. Skip over the step where you need someone to hand the cool project to you, and just do it yourself. Maybe nobody will see it or care, but you will be better for having something to work on that you’re passionate about.
I love the quote by Paul Rand, ‘Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.’
We’re all standing on the shoulders of giants. I don’t think it’s possible to be original. Every time I see an illustrator call out another illustrator for ‘stealing’ their style, I can point to a dozen who were doing it first.
I’ve never understood why design and illustration are separate. They inform each other so much, for me anyway.
Many times I’ve been asked why I have so much illustration in my portfolio, or else told I should ‘just be an illustrator.’ I don’t know how you can even start a project without drawing, or how you can say icons or logos aren’t illustration. And I don’t know how you can illustrate without thinking about composition and colour theory. Some people do, no doubt, but it bugs me when I’m asked to prove myself as a designer because I can also illustrate, as if it waters my work down in some way, when I know it enriches it so heavily.
When I entered my 30s I made a kind of ‘to-do’ list for the decade ahead. I have a lot of personal projects on the list: I want to make an illustrated guidebook, to develop a website with interactive data, and to build a boardgame. Client-side, I’m hoping to get more illustrative branding and packaging work for local businesse; I find that so rewarding.
At some point I’d like to get more into direction. I’ve worked with a lot of art and creative directors, and the best ones are more like mentors than bosses. I want to be that for others. I want to defend creative spaces. God knows they need it.
Outside of design, I plan to work on my 120-year-old house (a delightfully never-ending project), and I’ve started to spend more time in my community. With AI threatening to replace us and oligarchs getting their grubby fingers on everything, I find so much solidarity in regular, inefficient, magical human beings.
A big thanks to Monotype for supplying the typefaces for our website. Their consistent support of Canadian Women in Design underscores their commitment to the design community.
