Kelsey Rae Brasher
Graphic Designer / Wordpress Web Designer / Art Director
Nashville, TN
kelseyraebrasher.com
instagram @kelseyisadesigner
Q What do you do?
“I’m a graphic designer / art director / WordPress web developer who makes brands look the way they feel inside.”
I work with small companies, marketing departments, and individual brand owners to build a visual voice that's actually theirs, then carry it across every single touchpoint. I start with branding, but I don't stop there—I build the custom WordPress site to go with it, so the brand I create doesn't get lost in translation when it hits the web. From there, I can take it anywhere—print, digital, and beyond.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
It started with a music business degree at MTSU—not graphic design, music business. I got assigned a project to record a song, and I got way more obsessed with designing the album art than I was with the song itself. That was the moment I realized graphic design was a real career, and I never looked back—I changed my major on the spot.
After college, I did the in-house thing briefly, then landed at a creative agency, where I spent four years cutting my teeth on global brands and learning what it actually means to work as part of a team. From there I moved in-house at a healthcare marketplace company, which let me go deeper—building out an internal brand and bringing it to life with marketing partners. Then I joined a tech startup, and when I came back from maternity leave, it imploded —the way startups sometimes do—and I was out of a job.
That was the push I needed. I'd always freelanced on the side, so I went all in. Becoming a mom made flexibility non-negotiable—I needed to be the present parent I wanted to be and the designer I wanted to be, not one at the expense of the other. Four years into full-time freelance now, I've built the life I always pictured.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
I care as much about the people I work with as the work itself. My rule has always been: do great work with great people.
I also haven't niched down, and I don't plan to. I've worked across industries and verticals instead of pigeonholing myself into one type of design practice, and that range is exactly what makes me sharper for every client I take on—I'm not just applying one playbook over and over. And I don't just hand off a vision—I can see it and execute it, at scale, with excellence and reliability. I have that rare combination—imagination plus the follow-through to actually deliver it.
Q What are you working on right now?
Right now, I'm designing book covers and the full suite of social and marketing assets to launch them, redesigning a summer camp's brand and website, building marketing materials for a beauty franchise, designing a news publication website, and reworking a website for a financial planning company. And outside of all that, I'm raising two little girls who are full of energy and creativity—which might be the most demanding creative project on the list.
Q What’s your style?
As a freelance designer working across industries, I try to stay style-agnostic—I can jump into a brand's existing voice and execute it faithfully, or build a visual style from scratch when that's what's needed. Flexibility is the key.
But if you want my personal taste: I'm a sucker for retro, especially the 60s and 70s. Cooper Black is my favorite font, and I love a touch of gaudiness when a project lets me get away with it—though I always know when to rein it in for the sake of the brand.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
If I could tilt my work anywhere, it'd be hospitality and restaurants—partly because I love being in beautiful places and eating good food. But mostly because those spaces give you creative freedom you just don't get in more regimented industries. Menus, signage, packaging, the whole in-person experience—there's room to actually have fun and push a visual style further than a lot of brands will let you.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
If I'm honest, what frustrates me most is having to constantly promote myself—marketing my own work, reminding people I exist. It's not where my energy naturally goes. And there's a real irony: I can build a brand and a website for anyone else, but my own site and personal branding always slide to the bottom of the list. The cobbler's children never have shoes, as they say.
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
Someone to handle meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking for my family of four. Feeding everyone well, day after day, plus the dishes that come with it, is a constant mental load. I genuinely want to eat healthy, but when you're exhausted, the drive-through always wins. Outsourcing that one thing would free up more brain space than almost anything else I can think of.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
I'd go back and tell younger Kelsey to believe in herself more—to stop looking outside for validation and start trusting her own taste. Stand up for yourself. Your instincts are worth more than you're giving them credit for.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
I'd want to sit down with an expert on AI and SEO—all the algorithmic stuff happening behind the curtain that seems to change every six months. I don't fully understand it, and honestly, I don't want to keep up with it in real time. I'd rather have someone translate it into what actually matters for my clients and my own business, so I can stay focused on the design work I'm actually good at.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
I'm looking for branding projects—new brands from the ground up or rebrands of something that's outgrown itself—along with WordPress website builds, which I pair with ongoing hosting and maintenance so the relationship doesn't end at launch. I'm also actively looking to be the fractional, part-time designer for marketing departments—weekly retainer hours where I can really dig in and become part of the team, not just a vendor they email once a quarter.
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
My ideal collaboration is the full arc: a complete brand redesign, carried all the way through to the website I build to house it—logo to execution, with a full suite of usable assets that actually set the business up to run, not just look good on day one. And I want a client who's genuinely creative and excited to invest in design, because that investment always comes back in business returns—every time. Give me the room to go deep, and I'll give you a brand that works as hard as you do.
Q: What is your rate?
My rates run $120/hour for new or short-term project work, and $98/hour for retainer clients (3-month minimum commitment). For branding and website projects specifically, I have a $5,500 minimum—that reflects the full scope of what goes into building a brand and the site to carry it, not just a quick logo turnaround.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
Email me and give me your timeline, budget, and favorite SNL GIF!
Q Who is a creative you admire?
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Move your body and move your mind (reading, movies, conversations).
This member profile was originally published in October 2026.