About Jamie Thomson: Brand Design With Insight and Strategy

I work from both home and from a co-working office called Folio in the vibrant downtown area of Ferndale.  I have learned over the years just how important it is to find the right balance of stimulation and quiet to get my productivity and creativity in balance and this split time has always been the best arrangement for me – long before COVID taught the world about work from home and hybrid work schedules.   I often have Wednesday mornings blocked off in my work schedule for an advanced abstract art studio class or for uninterrupted studio time – so I can have some ongoing painting time —    which you can follow if the fancy strikes you at Jamie Thomson art – brilliantbluejay.com.

In 2020, during the pandemic, Brilliant Blue Designs was re-organized to Jamie Thomson Designer to better reflect my personal connection and flexibility in working with other professionals. While at one time I had hoped to expand into a proper agency, I am happy operating as essentially a sole freelancer free to collaborate with other agencies or to operate one on one with other professionals.   I can easily work with individuals, companies, or do contract work. It’s the sort of flexibility that many in my field share, but while Brilliant Blue Designs was my main moniker, it wasn’t quite clear I was open to that flexibility.

In 2017, I moved to Michigan when my husband got a job in automotive, and shortly thereafter Digidonkey closed its doors. Today, a few of my customers date back to those days working in Cocoa Village all these years later. They like to give me a hard time during the cold winter months and I take it with as much good humor as possible on the bleakest of February days. You may notice that even four years later, I still have the 3-2-1 area code on my phone number to remind me of the days of rockets and space shuttles (yes, I lived there when space shuttles still took to the skies!) rocked my house on a regular basis.

In 2012, I founded Brilliant Blue Designs while also working as a web designer under DigiDonkey Web Design in Cocoa Village – I was building up my graphic design skills as a freelance designer. Many designers out there will recognize the move. I needed the LLC mainly to file taxes- I didn’t mean to be a freelancer – in fact, I spent all of my time as a psychologist adamant that I absolutely did not want to work for myself, ever! 

I wasn’t always a designer. I started out my professional career as a professional psychologist, getting my doctorate at the tender age of 27. As anyone who has been a 27 year old might know, I was not prepared at that time to decide what I truly wanted to do with the rest of my life, and I lasted doing therapy every day for approximately seven years and three state changes (which included re-applying to licensure each time) before I decided maybe I needed to pursue something a bit more aligned with both my personality and my true interests. You see, I have always had a love of art and creative pursuits – and psychology was fulfilling in many ways, but was also intensely draining.  I needed to find my passion to balance out that drain.