About
I’m Lorilee, a designer, educator, and studio founder based in Nashville.
I grew up on a grain farm in Kentucky. Before I made a living as a designer, I waited tables and sold couches. I’ve always liked figuring things out and finding ways to make life a little easier for the people around me.
In 2004, I started Thrive Creative Group at my dining-room table. Today, I lead a team working on branding, websites, and marketing strategy. There is a lot of listening involved. The interesting part is often figuring out what someone is trying to say before we start deciding what it should look like.
I later returned to school for my MFA in Graphic Design at Vermont College of Fine Arts. I arrived with years of experience running a business and plenty of questions about myself. Graduate school gave me room to ask them.
My thesis, Cultivator and Creator, explored creative identity, addiction, and recovery through my own experience. I got sober in 2020. That work changed my life and continues to shape how I think about ambition, anxiety, health, and the expectations we put on creative people. It also led to Ground & Gratitude, my podcast about creativity, resilience, and being human.
At Austin Peay State University, I taught graphic design as a visiting professor and later as a tenure-track assistant professor. I love helping students see what’s possible in their work, learn to explain their decisions, and find their own way of doing things. I care about good typography. I also care about how the person choosing it is doing.
Outside of work, I’m a mother of two sons, a morning-pages writer, and a longtime admirer of Dolly Parton. Her advice, “Find out who you are and do it on purpose,” has stayed with me through quite a few versions of myself.