How feedback, communication and ownership took me beyond design.

Before Chillibreeze, I was freelancing as a designer. I studied animation filmmaking, where we used AutoCAD, and I worked a lot in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. On paper, I had the creative tools. But honestly, I didn't feel creative enough. 

I had thought about joining Chillibreeze around 2020 or 2021, but I hesitated because I didn't know PowerPoint. Joseph, a visual communicator at Chillibreeze, had told me that's what the team mostly uses. So I didn't join then. Later, I came back to the idea. I really wanted to join, because I felt this was the place where I could grow my creativity. 

Why I chose Chillibreeze 

Even with all the design software I had used, I never felt truly creative. Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are powerful tools, but my work felt ordinary, like I was following steps rather than creating something new. I knew the team at Chillibreeze mostly works in PowerPoint, and I hoped it would give me what Adobe hadn't: a chance to be more creative. It did. Here, PowerPoint is far more than a tool for simple slides. We design visually rich presentations from scratch, including the kind of highly creative work I used to attempt in Photoshop. 

But the tools were only part of the reason. The bigger reason was people. As a freelancer, I worked alone and rarely knew whether I was on the right track. At Chillibreeze, I'm surrounded by teammates who are also visual communicators, and I can turn to any of them. I would ask about almost every design: is my approach right? Can you give me honest feedback? Having colleagues who think along with you made all the difference. 

Straightforward feedback is really, really good for me. Here, there are people who can help me. 

Slowly, I could see myself growing. Our most advanced creative design work, which we call Level 3, still isn't easy for me, but I'm getting more familiar with it, especially the work we do for Microsoft, one of our customers. Even when I struggle, I find a way to manage.

Design isn't the whole job 

Working with one of our customers, Spur, taught me that good work isn't only about design. Communication matters just as much. 

Here is an example. Megan, who works with Spur, asked us to turn a LinkedIn carousel (a set of slides people swipe through on LinkedIn) from PowerPoint into an InDesign file. She had to send it to her own client at 9 AM Pacific time, which was around 8:30 PM for us. So I stayed in the office until about 9 PM. After I finished the updates, I messaged her on Teams to say I would wait another half hour in case she needed changes. She asked for a few small updates, so I made them, messaged her again and offered to wait another 15 minutes. She reviewed the file, was happy with it and sent it off. We even received a CSAT, a customer satisfaction rating, for that work. 

Skills are important, but communication and being there for the customer matter most. 

Today our relationship with Spur is friendly, and their work is picking up again. One recent Tuesday we received 15 emails from them, then 7 the next day, then 6. Almost all of it is creative design work: brochures, eBooks and, lately, templates for Microsoft's Ignite conference, which come with very specific requirements.