Megan Schlesiger
Grad 2019
Graphic Design Major, Marketing Minor
Megan is the founder of Megan Ellen which is a graphic design studio based in Minneapolis. She works with local authors or small businesses on a range of projects from books and cover designs to websites and marketing.
If you could meet any artist/designer from any era, who would you want to have dinner with?
Maybe living through a pandemic has made me crave group settings more, but I would love to have a huge dinner party with every designer and visual artist in Minneapolis. Quarantine has me missing community and I know that Minneapolis is a breeding ground for creatives, and I would love to get inspired by them all!
What have you been up to since graduation?
It’s been about a year and a half since I graduated, and since then I’ve been saying yes to every project so I can keep pushing myself to grow TME and develop my design skills. I’ve learned a lot about who I am as a designer, how I like to work, and who my ideal clients are this past year.
What does your creative practice look like now?
As much as I’d love to say that I have a structured approach to my creative practice, the truth is that the most structure I have is my Asana to-do lists. I thrive off of meeting new clients and doing everything I can do use my skills to make their dreams come true and solve any problems I can. I stay organized with to-do lists, but my work hours vary week by week. I prioritize self-care overwork which in turn helps my work continue to improve.
In what ways did Augsburg’s Art & Design department prepare you for what you are doing?
I fully attribute my current success with The Megan Ellen to Augsburg’s Art & Design department. The skills I learned during my time at Augsburg are so important to my work daily. My relationships with the faculty and staff continue to fuel my business and my growth as an artist. Many of my clients come from Chris and he knows the kind of projects I love because of my time in the studio with him. I will always be forever grateful for my years at Augsburg. Without the D&A Studio, I would be working as an entry-level design job at a corporation and probably would be unemployed because of Covid, but thankfully instead I am working for myself and love logging on to my computer every day.
What is something we would never guess about you?
I am an outdoors enthusiast! I love hiking and camping. I go camping in the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota every year with my partner, and before him, I went every year with my family. My dream is to live up north in the woods on a lake in a tiny wood cabin!
