Okay, we have to know: are you a morning person, or a night owl?
Morning person. I’m one of those annoying people that wakes up enthusiastic to start the day. Like I just can’t wait to see what’s going to happen. Every day is a wonderful mystery. And morning is a beautiful time — a gift of quiet reflection, a place to decide what kind of energy you want to approach the day with. You can listen and choose in the mornings.
What's one thing you love doing when you're *not* creating?
Hanging with my 18 mo old, Neil. Nothing is more fun than being silly with him.
What are some of your favorite platforms, tools, blogs, and resources that you look into regularly that we can share with our readers?
Figma! I am a Figma evangelist. I even made a little course on how to use it as a brand designer. Anything that makes designing feel more accessible is great by me.
What is your enneagram?
No idea! I try to stay away from these sort of labels as I see people getting really stuck in these predetermined ideas of themselves. Then it becomes — oh I’m an enneagram 4 and an introverted extrovert and a manifesting generator and an INFP and a Leo sun Scorpio moon Cancer rising… The stories we tell ourselves are really powerful. I like to think that I’m always growing and evolving. All evidence has shown that’s the only truth there is. If you ever find me saying I’m an empath or talking about my numerology you’ll know I’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere.
Lastly, How do you incorporate colors in your work? Are there any tools you use for generating color palettes?
I’m obsessed with color! It’s magic to me. Like music. I have been thinking about doing a workshop on color palettes. I usually start with a moodboard and color drop a bunch of colors from it. Then I play with all of them to create a palette. I don’t really follow any rules, I just get a feeling around color. I know when it looks right for the mood / tone I’m after.
I want to hear how you started coming up roses and i love your branding so much, from the visuals to the tone of voice, and language you chose to use are so on brand!!
I started Coming Up Roses after working in content marketing in the Music Industry for almost 10 years. After working at a big company, spending nights and weekends at shows and festivals and not really seeing an upward trajectory in the company that seemed like something I wanted to do, I started playing with the idea of starting my own business.
I always felt creative growing up, but I felt excluded from the “creatives” at the company where I worked. I had this idea about reclaiming my creativity by starting my own social media / design business. The only issue is, I didn’t go to design school! So what did I know. I think around this time I discovered ilovecreatives and the incredible Puno Puno. And I signed up for the Squarespace course out of curiosity.
It was such a wonderful invitation into this creative universe when I was desperately looking for permission to be a designer. During this time I moved to Sydney, Australia from Los Angeles, so it helped me separate from the identity in LA that was so closely tied to live music and festivals. My whole life in LA centered around that.
When I got to Sydney it felt like a fresh start. But when my husband and I first moved there, I felt really isolated and lonely. I left my entire community behind in LA and I found myself on the other side of the world, in the opposite seasons, just like — what the hell did I do moving here? I would pass a house in our neighborhood on the way to the train station that had these beautiful roses and I would sing “everything is coming up roses” as a mantra to comfort myself that things would be okay soon, and I would settle in and find my way.
A couple months later when I went to register my business and was thinking about the name, that mantra came back to me. I thought, what a beautiful way to encapsulate my whole ethos. And to cut a very long story short, I stopped and started for a while. I kept going back to contract work, too worried about going all in on myself.
It wasn’t until I had my son in May 2020 that I felt this incredible power. Like, I can birth a human. Surely I can make a business work. During this time, I hired a coach named Jerico Mandybur, who helped me flesh out a lot of my point of view, tone of voice, etc. They were a great mirror as I was starting! I really recommend getting a coach, and Jerico is just wonderful if you’re looking for someone.
I also used Instagram as a tool to play and experiment with my audience and style. I had no followers and the stakes were low. Things started working pretty quickly there though. I think I’m a pretty personable person, so there’s some sort of magnetic element happening on Instagram. I also have a good eye for design. So even though my early efforts seem a bit cringe now, judging them would be silly, as they’ve led to where I am now.
I feel like I’m rambling now, but I guess the best thing to say is that I haven’t gotten to where I am today alone. I invest a lot and often. Creative collaboration is why I started this business. It’s what keeps me growing!
To find out more about Kelsey McCormick check out her IG: @cominguproses.co
