Meet Your Design Pals | Graphic Design Collective

We had the good fortune of connecting with Your Design Pals and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Your Design Pals, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Our design business came to fruition while we were completing our education at San Diego City College.

Parker and Louis started working together back in 2019 after a school exhibition for Seaport Village. We were hired by Seaport to work on various projects as a partnership. We worked on banners, flyers, signage, vehicle wraps, social media and many more projects that gave us our first big design job experience.

We found that our styles really complimented each other’s — Parker’s trendy and cheerful style merged perfectly with Louis’ minimalistic aesthetic to create new ideas and concepts.

We also enjoyed collaborating more than working by ourselves. The creative process became more effective and our combined ideas produced more interesting results. It was this amalgamation of styles, ideas, and personalities that led us to a single path.

As work began flowing in from referrals, we decided we should look into formalizing our partnership. We saw how this collaboration produced better results and how combining forces made work more efficient and enjoyable. It became clear that it was possible for us to actually become a business. We could do it, and we were in this together!

As the workload began to pick up, that’s when our colleague Bryan came along. We saw there was a demand for illustration work and we immediately thought of him. He was in the same Graphic Design program as us, so we were familiar with his portfolio and talent. It didn’t take long for him to jump on board!

When our team was complete, we began our research and started the process; we registered our FBN, created our brand, and set up our social media and website. We wanted to differentiate ourselves from other design studios by focusing on our friendly and approachable service. With us being classmates and friends, we chose to also take that into account when we created our brand, so we decided to call ourselves Pals. This guided our branding system to be bright, cheerful, and warm. And to complete it and showcase Bryan’s illustration skills, we created a mascot that represents our values, a jolly sun named Pal.

You can see our evolving portfolio at yourdesignpals.com.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We are three graphic designers: Parker, Louis, and Bryan. We own a small design collective called “Your Design Pals.” We all graduated from the same graphic design program at San Diego City College in 2020. For several years now, we have worked together as a team for clients such as North Park Main Street, Rancho Santa Fe, Ignyte Brands and Mother Sponge. We have found our arrangement to be very beneficial working with clients, as the collaboration helps us make the best design work possible.

As a team of three passionate designers, we listen, solve problems and build brands that take businesses to whole new heights. With our collaborative approach, Pals helps clients create the brand they’ve always dreamed of!

We believe that when you invest in your business, it is important to find the right partners. Each pal brings a different skillset and unique perspective to the table, creating thoughtful and elevated designs. Parker, our Digital Gal, specializes on everything for web and mobile and SEO. Louis, the Print Chap, loves creating for the physical world. And Bryan, our Doodle Dude, is a talented illustrator and photographer.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There is just so much to do and see in San Diego and the surrounding areas. We would take our friends to North County for a hike through Torrey Pines, and have Brunch at Monarch. We would then go to Moonlight Beach and soak in the sun and the cool pacific breeze, then go for dinner to Herb & Sea in Encinitas.

The next day would be all about downtown and the cool neighborhoods around the city center. We would take a walk by the bay and marinas, and check out the USS Midway museum. Then we would enjoy lunch in Little Italy at Herb & Wood. All the restaurants are good in that area! After that we would spend time at Balboa Park visiting the museums, galleries and gardens. Then enjoy dinner and some shopping in Hillcrest or North Park. You would have to check out the new bar Part Time Lover as well. It’s drinks and a record store.

No visit to Southern California is complete without a trip to Baja. We would take our friends down south to enjoy some authentic tacos and experience the nightlife in Tijuana. Then take in the scenery from Rosarito Beach down to Ensenada to feast on lobster and wine.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Our professors Candice, Sean, Bradford, and all the faculty from San Diego City College Graphic Design. Without them we would not be where we are now. Thank you for believing in us and pushing us forward!

Website: www.yourdesignpals.com

Instagram: @yourdesignpals

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/yourdesignpals