Today we’d like to introduce you to Kiara Massey.
Hi Kiara, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was always a creative person since I was little, I loved taking art classes in school or even doing it as a hobby. Junior year of high school I transferred to a STEM Academy high school majoring in graphic design. During my senior year I got my first job as a cashier at Kroger and absolutely hated it. That’s when I knew that I needed to have a job that I can enjoy and be proud of doing. After 4 years cashiering, I was transferred to the floral department as a floral clerk and it was much better, but I still wanted more. My pay was low and I was working almost full time hours and I didn’t like the school/work life balance. After graduating high school in 2016 with my diploma in graphic design, I went to Paul Mitchell cosmetology school from 2016-2017, instead of going straight to community college, because I wasn’t sure if college was for me and I was really burnt out from public schools since I was like in middle school. Anyways, I completed my certificate at Paul Mitchell and I was going to take my state board exam and I really had to sit with myself, because I didn’t want to do hair as my main job. I just liked doing it for myself and for friends/family. So I didn’t take the exam to get my license, instead I went community college, graduated with my Associates in Fine Arts in 2019, while focused on working as a floral clerk to improve my floral design skills, which landed me a job at Market Street as their floral designer. I was really proud of myself because I earned a job title that I liked doing and the store’s atmosphere was way better. This was around 2019/2020 because I remember I was working during Covid-19 and ended up leaving because of it. So I wasn’t working for a few months, which gave me time to play video games lol and also plan on what I wanted to do for income, which was my beginning of becoming an entrepreneur. In the midst of planning out my entrepreneurial journey, I started working at Amazon at the sort center. It was very strange being in a factory setting as a creative, I felt so out of place and like I was moving backwards in my life. But I found the positive while working there. I used that time to “exercise” since I was lifting boxes and moving around a lot. I remember taking C4 pre-workout before going into work, because it would help me stay focus. I eventually stopped working at Amazon within like 6 months, because I really couldn’t do warehouse work as someone who needs mental stimulation and a creative outlet. I told myself that I would never work at a warehouse again unless it was for an emergency, but I really couldn’t fathom being in the work environment any longer. So I started planning again, this time I really wanted to travel. I started doing Door dash and Instacart as my main source of income. It was hard work, but I felt like it was better for me because I was able to be flexible with my schedule and work on my own time. This was also around the time I was interested in doing Van-life. Except I didn’t have a van, but I did have a reliable car! I converted my car into a cute camper, found a job as a freelance floral designer in Austin, Texas around 2022/2023, while doing Instacart for a few months. The lady I worked for at the time had another floral business, but it was in Denver, Colorado. This was great news to me, because she needed help at her Denver location for Mother’s Day and I was willing to go there to help out. When we first met, I told her about wanting to travel and doing road trip to Washington and Oregon and I figured this was a great opportunity for me. So I did a road trip with my dad, who was retired, to Denver, Colorado to help out for Mother’s Day, where we camped out in the mountains. Then we travelled through Idaho and Utah, met some cool people and saw some amazing scenery. Then we landed in Washington state, which was my main goal of this whole trip. I wanted to visit the Olympic Rainforest, because of the moss! I’m really into fantasy so seeing the rainforest in person was a huge life goal of mine and it was worth it. It literally changed my outlook on life. I remember crying, as I was driving through the forest and my dad was asleep in the backseat. It felt so unreal and magical because the air quality was so fresh and the moss on the trees felt like I was in a fantasy land. It didn’t feel like I was in the US. So yeah, we walked along the park trail and I was taking in every moment of it, because I wanted to stay there, but I was with my dad so I knew I couldn’t just leave him lol. Then we went to Oregon, saw the coast line and even walked along the beach. When we eventually got back home in Mansfield. I took a break from working Instacart and started planning on my future asap. I really wanted to travel, have a flexible schedule and have passive income. So I decided to go back to college to get my Bachelors degree in Visual Communication Design aka Graphic Design. I started at the University in Spring of 2024 and now I’m a senior taking 2 Internships as a graphic designer. For the past 2 semester’s I’ve attended our school’s vendor market, called MavMarket. MavMarket was creator by the Entrepreneur Professor for students to get exposed and create their own business. I took the entrepreneur class in Fall of 2025 and it was mandatory to attend the MavMarket. So for my business, I sold handmade crafts, jewelry, and displayed my student portfolio of my current work. A lot of my crafts and jewelry are inspired by romantism/ whimsical, fantasy, fairy core/goblin core, and nature. I’m really big on dark whimsical themes, which is why I wanted to go to Olympic National Park. A lot of my inspiration and determination comes from the moment I had while travelling through the West coast and being in the mountains in Colorado. I feel like that road trip truly changed my life forever. It gave me more discipline, willpower, and creative expression.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has absolutely been a pretty bumping road with some smooth sailing right after lol. One struggle I had was when I first started college at the University, I was working as a floral designer at Tom Thumb in 2024. It was fine at first, it got me through my first semester, because I was living near campus at the time and needed the income to pay my rent. But it went south pretty fast because of my manager, who was causing issues with everyone for some reason. The reason why I left that job was because she ended up scheduling me for 2 hours one day and I went straight to the store manager about it and found out that my floral manager lied to the store manager about my schedule by telling her she scheduled me for 6 hours that day. The store manager ended up looking my schedule up and saw it was only 2 hours and she told me that my floral manager couldn’t do that. I ended up working the 2 hour shift, left to go to Five Below and bough myself 2 cute stuff animals and told myself that I was going to quit. My floral manager started giving me hell because the lady she was picking on at the time ended up transferring to a new store. Anyways, I was pretty stressed out during that time and the school semester was ending, and I didn’t want to keep working there if it was going to be toxic, while I was in school. So I ended up quitting after the semester ended, moved back in with my parents and told myself that I was going to only focus on school.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I feel like what sets me apart from others is that my interest and style is pretty niche. I’m big into dark whimsical fantasy and fairy aesthetics. I’m also a multifaceted artist wanting to become an interdisciplinary artist. As a graphic designer, I enjoy doing branding, and Ui design for mobile apps and websites. Outside of graphic design, I’m a floral designer and illustrator. I also create handmade crafts like jewelry, decorated boxes and jars. Sometimes I’ll upcycle something I found at the thrift store. As for illustration, I do both traditional drawings and digital drawings. Occasionally I’ll paint something on canvas or sculpt using air dry clay. I did learn how to do 3d-modeling from YouTube videos and just clicking around in Unreal Engine and Blender. I think the only things I haven’t done is knitting, anything glass related, and wood burning. I’m most proud of my current illustrations. I took advance drawing back in Fall 2024, and one of our assignments was to illustrate a fantastical landscape. I wanted to try something new, so I used black paper and colored pencils and loved the final results! I love how the colors on top of black paper pops out, it makes the colors more vibrant and interesting.
How do you think about luck?
Freelancing in Austin, Tx and finding out the owner has a 2nd floral business and needing help in a state I wanted to live in or at least visit from time to time, which also gave me the opportunity the travel to the other 2 states I wanted to visit / plan on living in. I never believed I have bad luck, I was just in poor situations, but they always led me to better ones.
Pricing:
- Graphic design service is $25/hr while I’m in school. Once I graduate the price is bumping up. (I have 1 more year left)
Contact Info:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiara-massey-61444b291
- Other: https://www.behance.net/kiaramassey1
