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Let's Talk: Passion & Purpose with Nicole Thomas: EP 22 - Living a Creative Life | Lori Siebert | Artist, Designer & Creative Entrepreneur

February 26, 2026·46 min·3 clips

Lori Siebert built a design firm serving Target and Universal Studios after starting art lessons at age seven.

Lori Siebert says she likes to be a bit of a chameleon. That idea leads into a conversation about an artist and designer who has moved through graphic design, illustration, pattern, licensing, personal work, and different styles and mediums. Nicole gives the answer space. The episode feels like an open studio conversation, with career history sitting next to grief, retreat, contracts, and the honest question of when creativity needs rest. Lori started early and kept building. The cold open traces her path from art lessons to a graphic design practice, then into art licensing and collections shaped by color, whimsy, travel, and community. She does not seem interested in one fixed style. Experimentation sounds more like fuel for her. Her design sense can shift for a collection while still keeping the playful thread underneath. The softest part is about pausing. After losing both parents within a year, Lori says she was not at her most creative point. She needed to retreat, be quiet, and stop trying to force joy. Nicole meets that without rushing past it. The conversation becomes less like a career recap and more like permission to step back when beauty is not coming easily. The business side stays useful and plain. Lori explains that she started her graphic design firm three years after college, in 1987, and that the firm was always rooted in illustration and pattern. Licensing came from curiosity. A designer went to a licensing show, the firm took a booth the next year, and an agent came from that first serious step. Lori explains it simply: manufacturers rent artwork or patterns for specific product types and periods, with rugs as one example of how a design can land in the world. The ending stays open. Lori points listeners to a twice-weekly newsletter, with Mondays for inspiration and Fridays for a mix of things inspiring her and things she is doing, including retreats.

As heard by us

A calm artist interview about practice, licensing, and knowing when to leave the work alone.

Lori Siebert's conversation with Nicole Thomas reads as a calm portrait of a creative life assembled over time. Early art lessons, a graphic design degree, work in graphic design and art licensing, and a habit of staying curious all fit together without much fuss.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a thoughtful look at building a creative career through graphic design, art licensing, and steady personal practice, start here.

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