My Small Town Made Me the Designer I am Today

Hello! I’m Rob Moeller. If you’re new here, I’m a graphic designer in the Chicagoland area with a love for everything design, videography, branding, and photography. I am married to my wonderful and beautiful wife, Sarah, and we have a little black pomeranian. Yes, I’m that burly bearded guy walking a small, black, sassy fluff ball on a pink leash.

Anyways...I’ve always believed that where we come from has a powerful influence on where we’re going. Even if you consciously make decisions to think outside of the box and reinvent the wheel, where you came from is still a big part of your life that you can’t ignore.

Keep reading to learn about coming from my small town of Harristown, Illinois, made me into the designer I am today.

I always felt like an outcast

Harristown is the kind of place where everyone helps everyone. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone is friendly towards everyone. That friendliness made networking an easy transitional process when I went away to college and eventually started my career. However, it wasn’t all fun and games growing up in a midwest farm town as a creative.

Most people in my town were great at school. They wanted to be teachers or were going to takeover their family farm once they finished school. Me? I wasn’t going to fit my creativity and love for drawing in a box, or a “margin” if you will.

I can remember drawing in the margins of almost every single homework sheet during lectures. Contrary to popular belief, it helped me pay attention and avoid distraction from what I was learning in class. Many of my teachers would get angry with me and I can remember one teacher actually took 5 points off my homework assignment because I had drawn in the margins of yet another homework assignment she gave.

Needless to say, my mom, who had put up rolls of paper all over her walls so I could draw when I was little, was NOT happy. She talked with the teacher but it didn’t take away from the feeling that I did not belong here.

Drawing outside of the margins

When I graduated from my small town high school, everyone already had a plan for their future in Decatur. Rarely do people move outside of Decatur. I felt extremely lost but knew art school was the way to go. I knew I just couldn’t fit in the margins of what life would be, living in Harristown. I went on a few art college tours in the Chicagoland area before settling on the Illinois Institute of Art - and it changed my life.

When classes first started, I had never opened an Adobe program in my life. Kids around me were a few years into using the design programs and it was pretty obvious how behind on all of this I was. I spent most of my freshman year hand drawing projects for hours that other people were creating on their computers in seemingly no time. Instead of taking off points, my teachers encouraged me and were impressed by my hand drawing skills. However, I was so determined to learn more about the programs because I had finally felt at home. I felt normal being around other people with the same mindset and interests as me.

Embrace who you are but don’t forget where you came from

The point is, you can’t ignore where you came from. You have to embrace it, understand how it made you who you are today, and stick true to who you are. If I had let the discouragement of my teacher’s -5 points affect me, I might have never become a designer and who knows where I’d be.

Designing and creating is what I was meant to do and I fully understand that now. It’s an honor and privilege to be able to wake up and do what I’m passionate about every single day alongside creative people just like me. That said, I ask you, what made you who you are today? Is there anything in your life that might be holding you back? Never let anything keep you from becoming who you’re meant to be.