Page 11 - Hoodview News January 2024

HOODVIEW NEWS COVER STORY
Amee’s husband Cody (left) and her son Asah (middle), and dog “Lilah” are the center of her life and also help her make Synergy Design Firm and The SDF Collective a success.
(Photo Emily Lewis)
Amee Curtis
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needed help. “A friend of mine was needing help at the time, and I’m a big bleeding heart. So of course, I said, ‘Yes.’ And then a friend of theirs needed help and a friend of theirs. It became very, very obvious very quickly, that there was this vacuous hole in terms of an industry that was so inflated in self worth. Because I was doing quality work at a frac- tion of the price and there was no need for me to have inflated prices for people for these things that I was doing. So that is really where Synergy Design came from,” said Amee.
Becoming the break she couldn’t find
She relates her thought process at that time, “I’m going to open up a design firm that specializes in just advertising of stylized imag- ery, because that’s really what makes my heart flutter. And so, I opened up Synergy Design Firm.”
“It started out as some- thing else. But, you know the saying, best laid plans of mice and men. We became something that the commu- nity needed.”
Amee adds, “So it was then that I had promised [myself] that I would always be the break that I couldn’t find back then. So that’s why our prices are significantly lower. It’s why our time- lines are significantly faster.” She goes on to say, “It’s so
odd how the world works like this, but I’m not some- body who’s very physical. Obviously, I can’t work on a labor intensive job. I sort of found myself in a world where I was very good at what I do, technologically speaking. It always amazes me how you just sort of fall into place exactly where you need to be when you need to be there,” said Amee.
Synergy Design Firm opened in 2014 and busi- ness was beginning to build. Still, Amee felt that there was more she needed to do.
“So it was then that I had promised that I would always be the break for others that I couldn’t find for myself back then.”
She was hearing about needs that were not being met. She said, “I was constantly hearing from my customers, ‘You know, Amy, I think I could do this if I just had the equipment, if I just had the training, if I just had the space.’ And it got me thinking about just how con- strained we are in terms of affordable access to tools
we’re required to use for our creative and business endeavors. That’s what got the seed going [for The SDF Collective], which is what most people know me as right now.”
Amee’s desire to help others began to take shape. “One day I was getting lunch with a friend over at Sunny Hans [restaurant on Main Street in down- town Gresham] and I saw this phenomenal space for lease across the street. I had looked at it my whole life. I was that creative person [who was] going over to Cafe Delirium, sitting down and working on her projects, trying to make everything work. I’ve walked by this building, and I’ve always looked in the windows and thought, ‘Gee, what if? Boy, if that was my space, what would I do with it?’ So, when I saw this lease, I said, ‘You know, I’m just gonna call. What can be the harm,’” said Amy laughing.“You know, I joke that that’s the biggest lie any woman has ever told herself. Because like two weeks later, I had keys to 5,000 square feet and a bit of a stomachache. But we opened up the collective and that is its singular goal...to provide affordable access to the tools that entrepreneurs and creatives alike need.”
The concept
While shared creative spaces were not new, Curtis envisioned doing something
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