stigmART Spotlight: Asha Pollard
Name: Asha Pollard
Professional purpose: Visual designer at Asha Elise Design
Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in design?
A: I was very unhappy in my original career choice post-college. I was working in PR at a top firm in DC but felt completely unfulfilled. I knew that I wanted to do something more creative because growing up I was always involved in the arts - drawing, photography, and poetry.
However, I was unsure how I could make a living as an artist until I found out about graphic design. It offered more stability than say, a commissioned painter would have, for example. Plus, it was just as fun and I found my passion in it right away.
Q: How do you infuse emotion or storytelling into your work?
A: I work with start-ups and entrepreneurs regularly, helping to build their brand identity. I dive deep into their reason for starting their business and their overall objective, often within the Black community because I lean towards working with Black entrepreneurs.
From their stories, I weave that emotion into the logos, colors, imagery, and even font choices I come up with to bring their brand to life authentically. Building a brand means telling that brand's story visually, and that is what I love to do.
Q: What’s the most unconventional source of inspiration you’ve ever drawn from for a design project?
A: I'd have to say nature and my surroundings would be the most unconventional sources of inspiration for a design project.
In today's world, designers typically utilize the world wide web to gather inspiration, which I also do, but I tend to look to the everyday to draw inspiration. I get ideas from walking down the street and taking notice of things that are sometimes overlooked, like architecture or mom-and-pop signage. I take notice of restaurant menus, or the color schemes of retail stores. I pay attention to people and what they wear as I sit outside with my coffee.
The everyday is where I draw inspiration because the it's the little details that make all the difference in design.
Q: What was your process when starting to develop the logo design for stigmART? Specifically when it came to interpreting the client's vision?
A: I always start with an informal conversation, to get a feel for the client and their general vision. For StigmART and all my clients, I follow that up with a brand deep-dive, which entails a questionnaire with targeted inquiries about the brand's objective, tone of voice, audience, and more. From these responses, I have a clearer understanding of what is expected.
I pair that with my professional interpretation and begin brainstorming with moodboards that include found imagery, color palettes, and fonts. In StigmART's case, I focused on visual representations of "stigmas" plus the arts. I sometimes do a few sketches and bring those into the computer, but for StigmART I went straight into digital and threw around tons of logo iterations. I refined those and narrowed them down to about 6 options total. Then, the client reviewed and we were one step closer to finalizing the logo.
Q: How do you believe arts and culture can inspire people to break free from social stigmas? How has it inspired you?
A: Arts and culture are historically embraced by those who are free.
The arts allow people to express themselves in endless ways, from pottery, to writing, to dance, and so many things in between. It opens up a new realm for possibility that sometimes seems unreachable among traditional society, where we are taught to go to school, get a job, have a family. Art allows us all to break free from any restrictions placed on us, especially social stigmas. Someone who was told that they wouldn't be successful because they are a woman, or because they are disabled, or because they are Black - can take that negative energy and release it into their art.
The transfer of energy is real and can impact how we move through the world.
About the series
The stigmART Spotlight is a series that was created to amplify the essence of individuals and organizations that use arts and culture in their everyday work, highlighting their creativity and impact in an accessible, relatable way.