We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessica Walsh and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, what is the most important factor behind your success?

My parents taught me the values that led me to success: to work my @ss off, respect people, always be on time and meet deadlines, do whatever is needed to do to get the job done well, and never feel entitled to absolutely anything. These values have helped me tremendously in my career. I’ll caveat that by saying success comes in all forms, and career advancement doesn’t have to be a goal for everyone.

While these values helped me to achieve success very young, I also started very young. I started designing at around 11 years old and started coding websites at around 12 years old, and was doing paid web design work for companies when I was 15. So, I’ve been doing this for a while. There is the famous Malcolm Gladwell rule that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at your craft, and while I think that number is different for everyone, there is some truth to this. You have to put in the hours and make a lot of bad work before you get somewhere good. Don’t worry about it being “too late” in your career. No matter what your age, you simply have to put in the time and hours to perfect your craft and find your voice. If you want to achieve a lot very quickly: work your @ss off all the time, seek out mentors you can learn from, and never stop growing as a creative and human.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

A few years out of college, I worked full-time as an art director while also doing many freelance photo illustration projects. I was young and thought I had to take on every opportunity that came my way. I had this irrational fear that if I turned down work or seemed unavailable, I would never get any new opportunities, so I made the mistake of saying “yes” to everything. It worked for a while until one week when I came down with the flu. I simultaneously got an exciting offer to do a book jacket design for a big publishing company. It was also the same week the magazine I was working at was going to print. I made the mistake of saying “yes” to the job even though I was very ill. The work I did was awful! It was a complete failure, and to this day, I am still embarrassed about that book cover. I didn’t charge them for it, I was ashamed of the work. From that day on, I learned the importance of saying “no.” I learned I am only human and can’t do it all. I learned it’s better to take on less and focus on doing a great job with the projects I do have and can handle. Doing good work and forming good relationships creates more opportunities in the future. Saying “no” only makes people want to work with you more. If you take on too much and deliver mediocre work, you compromise future relationships and opportunities.

Now, I am proud to be leading &Walsh as an agency not only known for producing top-quality creative and strategy work for top clients but a catalyst for social projects and initiatives that can give back to the world. With Ladies, Wine & Design, my goal is to mentor & champion underrepresented voices in the creative community. With Let’s Talk about Mental Health, the goal is to reduce the stigma of mental illness. With the Sorry I Have No Filter photographic image series, the goal is to show my thoughts & emotions without a filter, in response to Instagram becoming a place where people try to show off their life in a pretty package (I am also guilty of falling into that trap). In recent years, we have also used Sorry I Have No Filter to promote social justice, highlighting different causes, diverse voices, and steps to action.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Over the years, I’ve had so much fun visiting and working with clients from LA. From the perspective of a tourist who has spent a good amount of time exploring LA, here are some of my top recommendations for women-owned businesses to support:

Food: Violet Bistro, founded by Dana Slatkin, has become a go-to spot for Cali-French bistro, shopping, and cooking classes. It is a great one-stop shop for an authentic community experience!

Shopping: Founded by Dechel Mckillian, a celebrity stylist originally from Los Angeles, GALERIE.LAbridges the gap between sustainable fashion and her experiences in lifestyle and entertainment. Dechel founded GALERIE.LA with a mission to bring socially conscious fashion to LA. It is a great spot to discover different sustainable brands!

Drinks: Founded by three women, Roselma, Christine, and Patricia, Genever is a go-to spot for an intimate lounge experience in LA. Located in Historic Filipinotown, they use local produce and homemade syrups and serve diverse options for alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

After graduating from RISD, I faced a tough decision. I interned at Apple, and they offered me a well-paid job. However, I wanted to be in a studio environment where I could learn from a variety of clients and design challenges. Instead of accepting the job at Apple, I started a low-paid internship working for Paula Scher. It was a big risk, but I learned an incredible amount working with her and her team at Pentagram. I threw myself into the work and worked nights and weekends while doing freelance photography projects to pay rent. Paula recommended me for an art director position at the design magazine Print. It was at Print that I developed a surreal, colorful, handcrafted, playful style. I started working there in 2008 when the economy crashed, and the magazine’s budgets were slashed for illustration and photography. I accepted this limitation as an opportunity to do things myself and started creating elaborate handmade set designs, which I photographed in my apartment. Eventually, people began to recognize my style and hire me for larger projects. Paula Scher has been such an important figure in my story leading me to where I am today!

Outside of the design field, I’ll talk about the biggest female inspiration in my life: my mom. My mom and dad came from families with very modest means, they didn’t have much growing up. They started a company in the 80s out of their garage when my mom became pregnant with me. I grew up as their business did, and it was amazing to watch her help grow their small idea out of nothing into a successful company that employed others. She was a strong female role model who showed me that anything was possible with hard work, time, and persistence if you put your heart and soul into it. She showed how a woman can balance being a bad@ss working professional while also spending time with family and being a great mother.

Website: https://andwalsh.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andwalsh/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/andwalsh

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@studioandwalsh?lang=en

Image Credits
Creative Agency/Design Studio: &Walsh

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