I am both.
I am bridget, a freelance graphic designer working with companies and on my own. I have been doing it now for almost 2 years. I specialize in branding, print design and web design. I create everything from the logo, business card, brochures to wedding and birthday invitations.
Please feel free to check out my online portfolio Bridget Prater Design
I am betty, a funky, crafty, stay home mom to a bulldog. I create things out of nothing. I like to thrift and antique. I have the ability to take something and see everything it can be and actually do it. I sand, I weld, I make the most delicate things and then ill make a table. I paint, I draw, I hand letter. Its all this persona I take on when I am in my studio.
Please feel free to check out my online business through etsy Betty's Etsy
Why do I go by both?
When I created my own brand, Bridget Prater Designs, I wanted it to stand out. That this is me, this is what I did when I worked three jobs and paid my way through 6 years of college. I have worked on building the name and brand of myself and the sophistication of what a career and person should represent themselves as a freelance designer.
The ability to take your brand and do the same is what I want from the Bridget side of my aesthetic. I love to see peoples visions of themselves and branches of their work come together and form into everything they've always dreamed about.
When I graduated college, I got a great job at Rare Design in Hattiesburg, MS. Here is where I learned what a business was. I had a great mentor and met a lot of great friends, most one in particular, Grace, who really showed me who it was to be alive and what everything you write or draw has a meaning, even if you don't know it quite yet.
I received another job working with Rapjab in New Orleans, LA. An amazing start up business a friend from high school started. In the first year it grew over 300% and gained more than 15 clients. Something I got to be apart of. This is where my leadership took off and I was able to work on a project from start to finish on my own. Since they've grown they've taken on more clients and more designers. Their business has grown from 3 to now 6 with a few of us freelancers running around. Its been great to be apart of something in the magical city of New Orleans.
Now I freelance with the largest Marketing and Advertising company in Mississippi, GodwinGroup. They are globally recognized and I am lucky to be apart of something so large. I have been tasked the smallest projects and the largest projects. Working with them, I never know what project will come next and they keep me on my toes. I truly have been blessed with this opportunity with freelancing with them.
So with three amazing firms backing me and my work, I know I have what it takes to make something of my own name, barely two years out of college.
That gave me the inspiration to become Betty.
Betty is a collector, a thrifter, an antiquer, an artist, a creator. I pick things up and make them into something, I modernize them I look at them and give them hope. I travel and see places and things. I take pictures, of the weirdest things some might say. I dye my hair in unnatural colors. I have a way about life people, even my soon to be husband doesn't understand, but thats what he loves most about me.
What truly inspired me was my grandmother, I never really got to meet. She passed away when I was just born. But everyone spoke of her as if she was around, and they still do to this day. She was stylish and amazing, raised my father and his two older siblings with my grandfather, who is my hero, all on nothing. They didn't have much money, but they had the best times as children. She is what inspires me. Cubina Mahota Prater of Chickasaw decent. We called her Nana P.
She left me all of her jewelry, bins and bags full. So much I had no idea what to do with it and it hit me… dreamcatchers. I took her jewelry and created these magical dreamcatchers. From there is where my inspiration took off. Dreamcatchers, Jewelry, Crafting, Embroidering, Making tables and benches… my eyes were just opened to the magic of what could be.
So that is me. bridget+betty.
a designer and creator.
