Today we’d like to introduce you to Abby Doyle.
Hi Abby, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Website Building and Design have always been the first love that I never quite got over. Although our story was mixed with countless twists and turns, I always seemed to find my way back where it had all begun. Growing up, I was raised in a home in which art and science had always danced seamlessly together, but it was not until eighth grade that I was formally introduced to this new medium. A middle school coding class quickly led to HTML1 and then to HTML2. However, once I got to CSS, I wondered if maybe things were getting too serious, too fast. We clearly had something special, but I was still young and figured that after I graduated high school, I would go on to meet something I was more serious about in college.
I put distance between us by forging a college path towards mechanical engineering. But as life often does, nothing went as planned. Much to my surprise, engineering ended with disappointment when I finally realized how little I would get to be part of the design process. Pivoting again, I studied business, industrial and product design, as well as art and graphic design – but none of them checked all of the boxes I was looking to tick. In the end, I finally settled down with a BS in Interior Architecture and Design, alongside minors in Marketing, Visual Communications and Sustainability. Interior Design was deeply technical and detail oriented; it required immense discipline, creativity and commitment in order to succeed. Any remaining skills I had wanted to cultivate had been allowed to expand in the context of my marketing and graphics minors. In the end, it had only taken 6 years and countless attempts to find 1 major and 3 minors to encapsulate all that I wanted to embody in my career. Now for the easy part, finding a job.
Coming home from college, the expanse of what I had learned was ultimately becoming my downfall. Having such a large range of knowledge had left me feeling discontent, now realizing that most of what I had learned would never see the light of day. It was hard to consider any normal career path when I had so many diverse skills to pick through and none I wanted to give up. With this in mind, I decided I would start a business and work for myself once I was done with school. So in Spring of 2019, before I had even graduated, I began working on establishing my business the best way I knew how – creating its digital footprint. It was during this career deep dive into 3D Modeling and Architectural Rendering that ADoyle Design was born, and I first stumbled back into reconnecting with Website Design.
During this time apart, we had both changed immensely – but it had all been for the best. When it comes to Website building, my Interior Design knowledge transferred seamlessly. Both of these skillsets, at their core, come down to understanding how people use and interact with spaces, and then using visual keys to guide the user’s process. Brand Design is just a further extension of that, taking a group of values and turning them into an easily identifiable graphic representation of those core principles. The combination of running my own business and doing the kind of work that I love doing, means that I am able to finally utilize every skillset I have collected along the way. As messy and unclear as the journey was, no part of this crazy love story has been inessential in reaching the destination.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In running a business, I would argue that the pros and cons lists are comprised of the same points. In fact, the very inception of the business began while I was in the middle of wrapping up my Interior Design capstone project. The business began with 3D Modeling and Rendering, gaining fmomentum over the summer, only to come to a grinding halt with the arrival of 2020. With every industry on an indefinite hiatus, it was a less than ideal time to start establishing and expanding a business that relied entirely on the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industries. In an attempt to stay afloat, I expanded my service offerings to cover that of graphics as well
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As the economy worked to reopen and recover, I continued expanding my net to take on more graphics projects. It was during this that I took on my first branding and logo design project. It was not the first logo I had designed, but it was the first time I was able to fully pilot a branding project from start to finish – starting with the naming process and finishing with a fully fleshed out brand. Just like with Website Design, I was able to create a user experience that was able to visually summarize a business’s values and goals. The combination of design, psychology, and marketing hit that sweet spot where my brain flourished and my soul felt fulfilled. It felt as though I was emotionally reaching into a business, pulling out the soul and creating a visual design that explained it all directly and succinctly. Whereas no part of my journey has gone to plan, it was only the response to adversity that motivated and propelled me towards new frontiers. It was not lack of falling that led to where I am now, but only by running as I fell down the metaphorical hill that I was able to pick up the speed to fly instead of hitting the ground.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about A.D.D. (ADoyle Design)?
When I first began, my business was named ADoyle Design and it looked very different from how it is now. Originally, I was 3D Modeling and Rendering for Architecture Firms, Interior Designers, Rental Agencies, Contractors and even one high-end Event Planner. While I enjoyed it, the work was detailed and extensive, the software knowledge endless, and the projects were too costly to garner long term clientele. As I started to pivot into more graphic design based work, I quickly fell back into website design – and this time, I was approaching it with a new level of awareness regarding the user’s experience. With my knowledge of Interior Architecture, it only made sense that digital designs should also consider all aspects of accessibility as well. From measuring color contrast ratios to formatting webpages correctly so they can be navigated with accessibility software, I was able to approach building websites and brands with a much more holistic approach.
With Interior Design, we are taught to consider all user’s experiences. We studied people, their patterns, how they used spaces and objects, where they walked and where they did not, what they used and why they did not use other things. By learning how people generally think, you can then implement designs that help encourage the way in which someone interacts with it. Using colors and shapes as your tools, you can craft a path that encourages people towards the route that you would like for them to take. Both websites and brands are the first step in the metaphorical funnel that shuttles people to your business. When a business has fully defined its goals, values, and market, then the rest will fall into place – a website and a brand are simply the visual answers to those questions.
By the time I was ready to move into helping others establish their brands, I had to first put into practice what I was about to preach. It was during this time, 3 years after first launching my business, that I rebranded into A.D.D. (ADoyle Design). The name change fit the new era of my business as I was transitioning from seeing myself as a designer, to instead, someone who was now focused on adding value to other’s businesses. No matter the scale, every lasting business is both born and founded on creating a trust between the clientele and themselves: and a brand is the visual representation of that established trust. When people see your brand, they should be able to see your goals, values and intentions. If you have already built a business that people trust, your brand should be there to reiterate that stamp of approval.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
In the same vein of hardships catapulting me to the next step, I am looking to the future and taking another one of my assets and applying it to my business. This should come as no surprise, but I was diagnosed with ADHD. The surprising part was, I was only diagnosed after I started my business. I managed to grind my way through college, collecting accolades and good grades, and launch a business before my brain suddenly began to scream for help. It had taken years of coping skills, but I had finally hit my wall. The challenge was the transition of having established schedules that I had to work within,up to now, not only managing my own time, but also dictating the contents of it. I was slowly grasping the amount of extra work that I required to stay on the track and it was quickly taking its toll on me. Up until this point, my anxiety had always managed to keep my ADHD from taking the lead but it had now become the opposite.
Running a business requires so many varied skillsets, which is a huge advantage for those who have ADHD. However, it also demands juggling and switching tasks at a rate that does not always work for my brain. Time blindness, managing priorities correctly, and remembering to execute tasks are just a few of the many struggles that come to play
As I have learned to manage my own ADHD, especially in the application of my own business, I have begun noting both the strengths and setbacks that can come from having a neurodivergent brain. ADHD can be an incredible “skillset” to have if you want to be an entrepreneur, but it can also be your downfall. Learning how to harness the best parts and manage the difficulties this presents can be the difference between a thriving business and a struggling one. As I continue to learn more about my own brain, I hope to one day launch a project that might help other neurodivergent business owners. So stay tuned!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.adoyledesign.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adoyledesign/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/72192098/admin/dashboard/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/adoyledesign/
