Welcome to Soda & Cookies

Hi, I’m Mike and this is Soda & Cookies. A creative outlet and journal for myself. Which will be documenting design work, photography, and some culinary adventures.

Back in the day instead of using my lunch money for a hot meal like the other kids. I would head over to the snack counter grab a sprite and the cookie of my choice. Then I would find a place to sit alone and be with my thoughts and draw or makes notes about something I wanted to create. The ideas would flow in so fast. The problem with age is that it comes with responsibilities. Also the inability to be bored with the movement of social media.

I used to do freelance graphic design and photography along with a full-time job in development. In addition to development, I was added to start design work as well. Starting something new is always a fun adventure but now the candle is being burned at both ends.

Coming from agency life and having a creative side hustle, burnout is inevitable. A Gallup poll from 2017 has 23% of employees almost always feeling burned out at work and 44% feeling it sometimes. Consistently trying to recharge the batteries was like running a sprint when you’re in a marathon. There is a moment when you have to do yourself a favor and simply take a break.

Here is the problem with a break. Getting set in your ways happens fast. The potential to look up and have a year go by is very real and that is exactly what happened. A year went by with no real creative outlet.

Looking back and seeing how I do not have a year’s worth of recent work is something I’m not ok with. So once that was realized it’s time to create a year’s worth of work.

In order to stop the evil distraction goblins from taking my creativity what’s needed is a medium for my inspiration and something to look back on as I grow and get my creative mojo back. Enter this site, Soda & Cookies.

The work created today will not be the same a year from now. Which is exciting because I get to see the improvement from this point in time to the next.

I hope to inspire others while seeing how far this can go. Stick around, it’s going to be a good ride!