Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Marchant.
Hi Jessica, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I received my BFA in Interior Design in 2014 from The Art Institute of Charleston. All through college I preferred the technical design and research side of the program to the fabrics and furniture side. I also loved creating experiences.
After working in the field for a few years I felt like I needed to learn more about the business side of design in order to really get where I wanted to be professionally. I enrolled in a masters program in 2015 and in 2017 I received my MA in Design Management from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). I got married that same year and we moved to Portland, OR. While in Portland I received a job offer for a Lead Designer-Researcher position in Las Vegas, NV. We jumped on the opportunity and within a couple of months we’d completely relocated. I worked in the entertainment industry in Las Vegas from 2018 to 2020. I was fortunate to get to work with major studios like Universal Studios Hollywood, Lionsgate and Disney. I led some pretty incredible immersive experience projects before the term “immersive” was watered down. Back then we were doing a lot of things for the first time. One of my projects won a Guinness World Record for the worlds largest interactive screen.
In 2020…covid. I’d just had my first child and things were very uncertain. We decided to move back south and my husband decided to chase his dreams of being a Designer and he went back to school at SCAD. I started freelancing that year and we were hired to design some original exhibitions for The Children’s Museum of the Upstate- Greenville. That’s really how Blue-Sky Creative was started. Our first two years we were named Marchant Creative Group, but we rebranded in 2024.
From 2020 to 2024 I worked as a Design Manager for a luxury fabricator and a luxury developer. I’ve spent a lot of my career learning about construction and fabrication. I really incorporate that knowledge into my work.
We now focus on B2B design services for Interior Designers, Entrepreneurs, Investors and Builders. We offer expert drafting services in CAD, 3D renderings and consulting. I went full-time with Blue-Sky Creative in August 2024 and we took off. The business was first started in July 2022 under the name Marchant Creative Group.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
From 2020 to 2022 it was a side hustle. I worked nights and weekends while also working a full-time job and being a present wife and mother to two. My husband was in school from 2020 to 2024 and I was the sole provider for my family. That was not easy. I just kept my sights on where I am now.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are B2B designers, meaning we are a creative business serving other businesses. We don’t typically work with homeowners. Our clients are Builders, Investors, Entrepreneurs, and Interior Designers.
We offer drafting in AutoCAD, 3D rendering and consulting. I do our drafting and my husband is our 3D Artist. He’s truly that, an artist. We use the best software on the market. We both have backgrounds in construction and fabrication so we incorporate that knowledge into everything we do. We are a Technical Designer Partner, so when you hire us, it’s not like just outsourcing. We consult the entire project because we want your project to be the most successful it can be.
We love to work with businesses who want to see what their location is going to look like. We are doing more and more commerical. We also do residential.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I left a fantastic W2 job as a Design Manager for a luxury developer to do my own thing full-time and at the time, I only had 2 clients. Within 3 months I’d grown my client list to 12. You have to bet on yourself. That’s the difference between working for yourself and working for someone else. When you work for someone else, you’re betting on the company to do well.
This was five years in the making. Five solid years of telling my friends and family “I wish I could do my own thing” and them saying “you can” and me being too afraid to do it. It took feeling underappreciated at work and tons of support from my husband for me to get here. I finally got to the to point of saying – if I fail, I’ll figure it out, but I can’t keep doing this. I bet on myself and here I am! We are so much more capable than we give ourselves credit for.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.blue-skycreative.com
- Instagram: blue_skycreative
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blue-skycreative
