Meet the Dezign Boss: Your Partner in Creative Excellence

Roni Nowlin, The Designer

Hello there! I’m Roni and Welcome!

I am a self-taught designer who has had a passion for everything creative since a very young age. From coloring books and crayons, drawing and painting, to being in grade school finding myself not being able to resist making eyes in the word “look” (or any other words having two O’s in the center). Upon graduating high school, it really wasn’t a big surprise being awarded Senior Superlative for “Most Artistic” of my senior class, because I always excelled in Art and became less than interested in the other classes a child’s parent would want them to work hard in, but I made it through.

Though obviously not having the knowledge nor experience straight out of high school, I made the careless decision to skip college and simply just took on jobs in the workforce to make a living over the years and despite the many indicators that I wasn’t enjoying those jobs I had landed, it became pretty evident that no matter what I did, my desire to design and create in a professional sense wasn’t going away no matter how hard I tried to fit my skills and personality into other areas, which was when, (unfortunately many years later) my passion and desire for design, slowly became a “side hustle”.

Fast forward to December 2020, I landed a position in Clinical Research (while still pursuing my design as a “side hustle” to build my clientele). I actually loved the position I held, for a while at least, but as I worked on building my skills and clientele, I began to lose interest in what was sustaining my income while building my brand. Honestly, I had become so unfulfilled in this position I began contemplating a way out and find a way to pursue full-time freelancing and still have the means to maintain my personal financial obligations which at the time seemed almost impossible.

In May of 2023, I changed my focus, stepped out on faith and began reaching out to Funeral Homes in the area, already marketing myself as a Freelance Graphic Designer. After reaching out to the first one with an unsuccessful outcome, I reached out to Tharp Funeral Home, and within a matter of designing my first ever order of service program, they hired me!! I was ecstatic. I had no experience, no formal classroom education or college degree, not even too much background, professional knowledge or experience in designing for an actual company, but I landed the position as Graphic Design Artist for one of the most prominent Funeral Homes in the area!! This was nothing short of God’s Grace!!