Speculative thinker, design dynamo, and folk-singing raft guide (yes, really).

Meet Lacey: graphic designer, speculative thinker, plant mom, and the type of creative who isn’t just outside the box—she’s somewhere two universes over, imagining what the box could be in a parallel timeline.

Since joining Riverworks in April 2024, Lacey has become a go-to for design work that’s not only visually striking but also deeply intentional. She brings a thoughtful eye to every project, whether she’s shaping a new brand identity or pushing the limits of how big an InDesign file can be.

Beginnings: From the Flatlands to the Scenic City

Lacey grew up in Michigan, where things were cold, flat, and not exactly overflowing with creative inspiration. But inside the walls of her school’s art and music departments? That’s where she lit up.

“I lived in the music and art programs,” she says. “They were my safe space.” A proud band nerd with childhood dreams of becoming an art teacher, Lacey always knew her future would involve creativity—she just didn’t know which direction it would take.

Everything changed during a spontaneous trip south at age 18, when she saw her very first waterfall in Chattanooga. She instantly fell in love with the landscape, and a month later, she packed up her life and made the move to Tennessee. No big deal.

It didn’t take long for her to dive into the local outdoor scene. Lacey spent her early years here as a raft guide on the Ocoee River, navigating rapids and making lifelong friends in the tight-knit whitewater community. Between chasing whitewater and chasing creative inspiration, she knew she had found her place.

She still gushes about her love for Chattanooga today and says moving here was “the best decision she ever made.”

School Years: Speculative Design and Creative Curiosity

When she made the big move to Chattanooga, Lacey enrolled in Chattanooga State Community College, where she got deep into photography and earned her associate degree in art. She then transferred to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and immersed herself in graphic design, videography, and 3D modeling. But her real obsession? Speculative design.

Speculative design, for the uninitiated, is a creative approach that uses visual storytelling to imagine alternate futures and question the status quo. “It’s like using design to have philosophical conversations about the future,” she explains. “Taking clichés and flipping them into something completely new.” If you’ve ever seen an episode of Black Mirror, you’ve seen the kind of big, provocative questions Lacey loves to explore through design.

Her creative style back then—and still today—isn’t easy to label. She moves fluidly between maximalism and minimalism, 2D and 3D, analog and digital, depending on the story she’s trying to tell. For Lacey, it’s never been about locking herself into one aesthetic. It’s about following curiosity wherever it leads.

Career Life: Working With Constraints, Not Against Them

Before Riverworks, Lacey worked in UTC’s marketing department and later dipped into the world of healthcare design and freelance gigs. These roles, while creatively tight at times, taught her a lot about precision and problem-solving. She actually sees brand guidelines as creative fuel, not limitations.

“It takes a different kind of creativity to make something beautiful and effective within a set of rules,” she says. “Sometimes those boundaries make the final product stronger.”

Since landing at Riverworks, she’s taken on everything from websites and logos to social media graphics and ad design. She especially loves helping new businesses find their visual voice and watching their brands come to life in ways that feel true, fresh, and a little unexpected.

Outside the Office

Lacey’s creativity doesn’t clock out at 5 p.m. When she’s not crafting designs, you might find her singing and strumming guitar—a passion she’s nurtured for years. In fact, not long after moving to Chattanooga, she was a lead vocalist in a local folk band (seriously—what hasn’t she done?).

She’s also a proud dog mom to three: Ladybug the Chihuahua, Niobe the Blue Pitbull, and Lou the Husky—each with as much personality as their owner.

Other fun facts?

• She’s an avid gardener.
• She recently got really into playing Fortnite.
• She loves home renovation projects (because why have one creative outlet when you can have five?).
• She’s a huge sci-fi fan—think Philip K. Dick, George Orwell, and The Matrix marathons.

Why We Love Her

Lacey is calm under pressure, endlessly imaginative, and the kind of teammate who makes everyone around her better. She’s also just effortlessly cool—like, “chill-folk-musician-and-whitewater-rafter-who-reads-Orwell-and-hunts-for-four-leaf-clovers” cool.

We’re lucky to have her on the Riverworks team, and we can’t wait to see what wildly creative thing she dreams up next!

Want to work with Lacey?

Contact us today to start a project with our team of brilliant minds and big ideas.
Call Us: 423.710.3866
Email Us: [email protected]