“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainty.”

– Erich Fromm

My name is Tyler Shaw. I was born and raised in Russell Springs, a nice little town located in the South Central region of Kentucky. I graduated from Russell County High in 2016 and decided to continue my education at Western Kentucky University. Four short years passed, I earned my degree, and suddenly, I was out searching for my career start.

It’s usually right around the time it seems like you’ve got a solid plan laid out for your life that a curveball comes hurling at you. Fresh out of college, I was eager to make my debut splash into a professional role. Unfortunately, that was the May of 2020, and the world had just collectively shut its doors due to COVID-19. Having no relevant experience besides a 2019 summer internship with WKU’s internal ad agency, making my applications stand out in the online job market was basically impossible. It didn’t take long for me to recognize my dilemma, so I decided to go with the old school approach. For a few weeks, I spent my days waking up, picking a town to drive to, and visiting any business I figured might be interested in hiring a Graphic Designer. Standing across the room, wearing a face mask, and shaking nobody’s hand definitely didn’t make for ideal first impressions either, but what else could I do?

It was a period of uncertainty and frustration for me, but my persistence did eventually pay off. Before I knew it, I had two job offers and needed to make a decision. I could either stay and take an offer in my college town of Bowling Green, or I could take an offer that would require me to move back to my home town. With how unpredictable things in the world were at that time, I decided to take the job back home so I could be closer to my family. In July 2020, I started my first full-time position as a Graphic Designer for a printing company named Innovative Business Concepts. It was the perfect place for me to get my bearings and learn the true nature of this profession. I worked with hundreds of clients on just about every different type of project you can imagine. From short-term to long-term, simple to complicated, I saw a little bit of everything there.

Just over two years later, quite a few examples of my work had popped up around Russell Springs and surrounding areas. One day, I was contacted by someone who represented a large business named Neat Companies. They are a manufacturer and distributor of various agriculture/construction products. Although their reach stretches across 49 states, they are conveniently headquartered in Dunnville, Kentucky, just one town over from mine. They explained to me that they were in need of a full-time Graphic Designer and made an offer for me to join their team. Although I was quite happy with my job at IBC, there was no denying that this was a fantastic opportunity to start doing more in-depth design work at the corporate level. Ultimately, taking the job was the only clear choice in my mind, so that’s exactly what I did.

Today, I am still a proud employee of Neat Companies. The knowledge and experience I’ve gained in my time here has been invaluable. I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented individuals who continue to inspire me every day. Plus, through my work in our cooperative advertising program, I’ve been able to build some great relationships with several of our company’s amazing vendors. I could not be more thankful for all the fantastic people I’ve met and unforgettable memories I’ve made in my career thus far.