May 2, 2024

Co-Founder Paul Backett discusses the meaning mentorship.

We had been sketching for days. The room was filled with hundreds of concepts. I scanned the sketch-filled walls with blurry eyes and asked my Design Director, “How do you know which one is the right one?” He simply replied, “Eventually you just know.” This is one of the stories I love telling young designers, channeling the incredible mentors I had when I was fresh out of art school. They taught me to sweat the details. To be prolific. And to be patient—with time and experience I too would develop the instinct to know which one is not the most beautiful, but rather, “the right one.” Thank you David Fisher.

Fast-forwarding 24 years in my career. Giving thanks to the many other mentors who have supported me along my journey, I’m happy to share that Evolve—a creative agency I co-founded in 2014—is now celebrating 10 years in business. From the jump, my partners and I knew we wanted Evolve to be a place where young designers could come to not only learn and develop new skills, but also to build confidence as they take their first step into the world of becoming a professional designer. Just like I experienced many years ago, we placed a dedicated focus on creating an atmosphere of mentorship from day one.

As evidence, over the past decade, our internship program has become the heartbeat of our company. Every 4 months we say goodbye to our current interns and welcome a new group. The behavior of saying goodbye and welcoming new members to our team on a regular basis keeps us honest. It teaches us to be open, to be welcoming, to help people feel comfortable, to help them understand why we do what we do—not just what we do. It teaches us to stay humble, to give back, to lift people up, to care for each other, and that we should always be kind to everyone we meet. It reminds us that it's a small world. 47 interns and counting later, we remain committed to the next generation.

In a beautiful way, our internship program has also helped build our current core team. 9 years ago we got a message from a young Wesley Hare saying he was in town and he’d love to come by to say hello. We were in our first studio—Chris Butler, Christian Freissler and myself, along with our first intern Stefán Cristobal. We were slammed at the time, and Wes had some decent work in his portfolio, so we offered him an internship. Six months later he was our first full-time employee, and last year he was promoted to a Principal Designer here at Evolve. Since then Jia Lu Ni , Sarah Scott , and Carlos Reyes Zgarrick have also became members of our team coming out of their internships. Today, our most senior people are managing our intern program—a full circle moment.

Time flies. As I reflect on the past ten years, I'm thankful that we have created a place where designers can start their careers. That they can see other designers just like them thriving, enjoying work, and finding meaning in what we do every day. I love seeing posts and updates as they progress in their professional and personal lives. I’m filled with a huge amount of humbleness and gratitude for everyone who has spent a semester with us and I look forward to welcoming another 50 interns in the next 10 years and beyond. Perhaps a few of them might even decide to hire us someday ;)

In an effort to stay connected and committed to our global community of Evolve interns, we’ve recently launched our own alumni network so to speak—“The Thinky Makey Club.” We hope to provide a space for creative collaboration, inspiration, and support.

Here's to keeping good company and paying it forward.

XOXO, Paul