Meet Alison Koehler | Graphic Designer, Skillshare Teacher, and Creative

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

Hi Alison, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
What I have consistently found throughout my career so far is that I enjoy working with people who are just as passionate about what they’re doing as I am about my design career. It makes my job easy because all I have to do is put a megaphone up for them and people will recognize the passion of my clients. It’s extremely difficult to start a business nowadays and it’s hard to compete. Giving deserving people the tools that they need to have a fighting chance in the market is what I am driven by.

I was going to go to a graduate program to pursue this further. The University of Michigan has a Masters of Design program where they solve complex problems using a team of designers and stakeholders with unique backgrounds and perspectives. Problems like access to healthcare, navigating the justice system, and having access to healthy foods. Things that really matter, affect large groups of people, and have larger implications for the world going forward. Things didn’t work out for me to go to graduate school but I still pursue these goals every single day in my work at the agency level and in my own freelance career.

This is what feels like a noble and worthwhile use of my talents.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I joke that I am a child prodigy of design. There is a photo of me sitting 2 inches in front of the computer when I was about 4 years old, playing around with Microsoft Paint. In middle school, I was in a computer class. We were learning to type and then halfway through the semester, they switched textbooks. The textbooks that they got were to teach us how to use Photoshop. We had a big project that was due at the end of the semester, about 2 months away. Well, I decided that I was going to take the book home that weekend, and get ahead since my mom maintained her elementary school’s website. I ended up finishing the 2 months of work that weekend and I’ve loved design ever since.

In high school, I was lucky enough to have a CTE program that taught design. I took 4 years of design, working on drama posters, tickets, and no littering signs. When I was a senior, I knew I wanted to go somewhere big, like the Art Institute of Chicago or the Rhode Island School of Design. I put my portfolio together and went to a college day. I waited patiently in line to show off my work, and to my surprise, watched the woman tear apart my entire portfolio. (Fuel for my fire.) I ended up going to Pima and then the University of Arizona. Little did I know that that would be the perfect place for me.

I started freelance while I was in college, working on small brands and packaging for Thunder Canyon Brewery. I worked at a custom t-shirt shop during the day, and school work and freelance at night. I burned myself out a hundred times but I kept going because I was hungry. I was going to be the best, no matter what.

I’m still working toward that goal. I love design, I love working with people, and I love the growth that I have left. I am extremely passionate about what I do and the biggest lesson that I’ve learned is that there will always be someone in your life who is intimidated by that. There will always be someone who says, “You want to be the best? That’s a bit much don’t you think?”. But it’s not bad to want to reach for the stars. You just have to put your blinders on and keep going.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If someone were visiting me in Tucson, I would definitely have an itinerary. Let’s start with coffee. Presta and EXO are my favorites. Then I’d take them around 4th Avenue and downtown, looking at murals and going into shops. My favorite shops are the Book Stop, the Tucson Thrift Store, El Be Goods, and the Tucson Herb Store. Lunch would have to be 4th Ave Deli or a sonoran hot dog from a roadside cart.

For the afternoon, if it’s not too hot, it is mandatory to check out the desert. We have such a unique biome, and if someone has never been, you have to teach them that everything in the desert isn’t actually out to get you. The Desert Museum or Saguaro National Park is perfect for this.

Throughout the week, you could go progressively further from Tucson. Bisbee, Wilcox, Phoenix, and the Gila River (if it’s rained recently) are all great spots within a few hours. If they’re feeling really adventurous, seeing the Grand Canyon, the red rocks of Sedona, or the haunts up in Jerome.

As a tour guide, if I can experience something new myself, or push my guest out of their comfort zone, it’ll be a good trip.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to give a shout out to my parents for always encouraging my artistic interests, my teachers in school who encouraged me, specifically Mr. Baron, who gave me my foundation, and my professors in college, who pushed me. Professor Jackson Boelts, Kelly Leslie, Karen Zimmerman, among others, thank you. My college friends, who watched me go nonstop every single day from 6am-11pm, working and going to school so I could pursue my passions.

And I’d also like to say thank you to those who did not encourage me. It added a lot of fuel to my fire and pushed me forward.

Website: https://www.alisonkoehler.design/

Instagram: @alikoeh.ai

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYGydoD69-fCmbR4PInwXqw