SUMMER 2025: WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?
Long time, no talk! Jones + Poet has had quite the busy summer. It has been surreal to the both of us. Four months ago, this was only a dream. Now it is a reality, and it truly is our passion; something we were destined to do.
This month, we’re sharing a brief overview of our summer. The transition of school to full-time jobs, balancing Jones + Poet, and our most exciting project yet!
Hello!!
THE HARSH REALITY OF GRADUATION
It's about time someone sat down to talk about the reality of graduating from college.
Most of us have been conditioned to a part-time work, full-time school schedule since early high school. Imagine having a strict routine like that for 8 years and then within a week it completely shifts. Its honestly terrifying. Sure, we love our full-time jobs, the people, and the work we’re doing. But that doesn’t distract from the fact that we will most likely never be in school again. Never have a part-time schedule with infinitely more freedom. No pick-up and leave on a random Tuesday, because well, now we have responsibilities. Curated, planned events, months in advance.
Knowing this shift was coming, I made the decision to take the month of June off to focus on myself, growing Jones + Poet and to really soak up the last bit of freedom I had before starting a full-time job. Until it hit me, yes, I am starting a full-time job, but when I clock-out for the day, I am done. No homework, no stress. It honestly feels so refreshing. I go home to my passion, Jones + Poet.
To anyone who graduated this past May or is struggling with the transition of life after school.... here are a couple of tips that we’ve found work for us:
Find something to love outside of your work; obviously we should love our jobs, but we shouldn’t let it consume our beings.
For us Jones + Poet is what energizes us. We explore creativity and freedom in ways that we never would be able to in our full-time positions. Below we each shared a couple of our favorite pastimes outside of our careers.
Aubrie: Outside of Jones + Poet I love to explore. To me exploring doesn't only mean travel. I love exploring new places, but I also enjoy trying out a new restaurant. When exploring a new place, I am analyzing not only the architecture and interior design, but also the graphics, marketing, dishware, and how the food is presented to you. Each of these are equally as important to the overall feel of a space.
Ruby: Those who know me know my favorite way to unwind is with a film. What draws me in most is the craft, the set design and costuming that define a story’s atmosphere. This year, Fantastic Four has stood out with one of the strongest set designs.
Don’t let your classmates' paths define your path.
Comparison is hard. We all do it whether we’d like to admit it or not. It is especially hard at this point in our lives. We’ve never been without a “next step,” something inevitably planned for us. Instead of looking at it like “what’s next” and urging to decide on grad school, or a full-time job, look at it like the next big opportunity. ‘The Next Step’ isn’t planned for once. So, make it what YOU want. Take the gap month, or year, go travel, take the insane job opportunity (or don’t), move across the country, continue doing something part-time while you “figure it out.” Because really, we all are still figuring it out and to be honest I am not sure we will ever have it all figured out. Maybe that's the innocence in all of us. So, do what YOU want. Who cares how long it takes? Follow your dreams, because they do come true.
BALANCING FULL-TIME JOBS WHILE RUNNING A BUSINESS
Who says you can’t do it all? Doubt. Not only self-doubt, but doubt in the people around you. As many of us have experienced in our lives at some point or another. Doubt is the only thing ever holding us back. The “what if?” questions in the back of our minds. I say, “to heck with the doubt!”
Balancing a job, with a business is possibly one of the harder things we’ve done in our lives. It comes with a lot of late nights, staying late at jobs, waking up in the middle of the night because you remembered something and quite literally never turning your business brain off; but it also comes with so much joy, fulfillment, and endless creativity.
We both tell each other this at least once a week, but starting this business and figuring it out together has easily been the most fulfilling thing either of us has ever done. You never stop working when you own your own business, but it's SO energizing, and you never want to stop.
Running a business is hard as it is alone, so working full-time while trying to figure everything out is quite difficult. We have each other though, and that keeps us going, holds us accountable and keeps us motivated.
SPACES YOU CELEBRATE IN
Oh yea, we launched the events side of our business this summer too! Once again, we were sitting in a coffee shop discussing how to grow our business. We received great feedback and interest during our first pop-up event. Many people showed interest in out event design/curation.
After about 30 minutes, ‘Cocktails on The Court’ was created. You might be wondering “what does tennis have to do with interior design?” Well, we’re so glad you asked. The thought process behind ‘Cocktails on The Court’ was to prove that we can create any space you want into something beautifully aesthetic; like a tennis court. You don’t necessarily put tennis court and party together on your own, but with us.... you could have your very own Cocktails on The Court!
And so..... ‘Spaces You Celebrate In’ was born. Since July we’ve been so busy with event curation, parties, and some insanely, crazy collabs coming up this Fall. We’re so excited to share more about this half of Jones + Poet in our next blog. Stay tuned!
OUR FIRST LARGE PROJECT
We haven’t shared much of this project on our social media, but since May we’ve been working with our first, large commercial client. It has truly been a great learning experience for us. We’ve created templates for future projects, learned plenty of do’s and don'ts, and of course enjoyed every moment of the design process.
Our clients have fully given us creative freedom and trusted our judgement with the design of their space. July marked the completion of the first phase of design; their office space. The portion of the office that we designed included the reception, 2 public conference rooms, a staged office and team room. It has been insane to look at the project now completed and say, “we did that.” We’re in the early stages of the next phase of design, The Speakeasy. To say we’re excited to share this is a complete understatement. We’re ecstatic!
We want to extend a sincere ‘Thank You’ to our client. They really have made this a great experience so far. And to each other, because there's no Jones without Poet and there's no Poet without Jones.
UNTIL NEXT MONTH
This summer has been ever fulfilling, and we’re excited to see what’s next for us this Fall.
Thank you for being here!
With Style + Soul,
Jones + Poet