My family travels a lot, and we’re accustomed to being the people who pull into town to visit others, but yesterday we had the treat of having friends come to visit. My buddy Christian Helms, who I’ve known since high school and have stayed close with since, visited Wilmington with his wife Jenn and their two boys. Mallory and I met them with our daughters at Hi-Wire Brewery here in Wilmington, where the kids played, ate gelato and pizza, and the adults caught up after not seeing each other for almost five years.

Christian and Jenn live in Austin TX, where he’s the founding owner of Helms Workshop, a full-service brand design agency. Over the years, Christian has led branding work for everyone from Southern Comfort to Tecovas to Howler Bros. to North Carolina’s own Highland Brewery. HIs work is breathtaking and groundbreaking.

I love spending time with Christian because we always talk about our work and our plans and the many ways our careers can intersect with one another’s, which has happened often. When I first moved to Louisiana for graduate school in 2003, I had the idea that I would lead community writing workshops called Written Work Workshop for high school students to make extra money because I literally had no money. Christian had just moved to Austin after graduating design school and an internship in New York. I asked if he’d be willing to come up with a design for the workshop idea, and he delivered. If I’m not mistaken, it was one of his first designs when he went out on his own when his career first began.

Years later, in 2018, I reached out to Christian and Helms Workshop to make the design for Open Canon, and then I reached out to them again to design the brand for This Is Working, which all of you have seen.

It’s such an incredible pleasure to have friends who are also creatives, and it’s an honor when they’re wiling to work with you.