Ady Leverette was a designer and a principal at Fat Pencil Studio between 2011 and 2018.
It’s been more than seven years since serendipitous circumstances brought me to Fat Pencil Studio. It’s amazing how far we’ve come since 2011: three different offices, two new websites, hundreds (yes, hundreds) of projects, and a newly focused mission. It’s been exciting and rewarding to be a part of all of that, and now it’s time for me to move on to new career challenges and adventures.
Working at Fat Pencil Studio has given me a great appreciation for the many ways that design skills can be applied to problems in other fields, and the essential value of helping people communicate more clearly and collaborate more effectively. It’s been a great privilege to be able to work closely with so many accomplished professionals, and to be a part of their important work—from studying how to make cities function better and constructing buildings for future generations, to resolving major conflicts and making pleas for justice. I’ve had the opportunity to learn about things I wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to, and been able to savor the feeling of tackling problems without obvious solutions.
It’s remarkable how much variety there has been in my work here, but the common thread has been doing it alongside wonderful colleagues whose intelligence, creativity, resourcefulness, and good humor have made even the most daunting tasks both possible and enjoyable. I’ll miss working with my fellow Fat Pencilers, and wish Joshua, Jannine, and Yana the very best as they continue this work into the future.