Last week I had the pleasure of writing a bio for one of my dearest friends, Rebecca Lopez, of Betta Creates. Rebecca and I first met 12 years ago, in our early twenties, at famed music venue Schubas Tavern in Chicago, Illinois, where I was a cocktail server and she, a booking agent and promoter. We became instant friends because of our mutual tenacity, creativity, and entrepreneurial drive. It’s been an honor to watch her grow her career as a designer and use her vivid imagination and invaluable people skills in a whole new way.
Somebody’s gotta do it. So it might as well be me.” -Talk Fine, Spies are Forever {album}
Betta Creates will never design something you can find a zillion times online.
Rebecca Lopez, otherwise known as the designer Betta, originally comes from Chicago, Illinois, and is currently based in Denver, Colorado. An artist to her core, Betta could never be complacent in her creative process, which is she is always refining. To design logos that encapsulate her clients, Betta leans upon her extreme attention to detail, prompt communication skills, and genuine appreciation for people. After figuring out what matters most to her clients, she puts the puzzle pieces together to create an original design. “Designing all day is really awesome, and something I just love to do, because there is always a new client or style,” she says.
As a toddler, Betta’s mom and dad, who she is still close to, introduced her to art. For celebratory occasions, they hosted art-themed parties where banners, peppered with inspirational phrases like, “Reach for the Stars,” were hung. Big dreams were also encouraged. Next, Betta met her elementary school art teacher, Ms. Mariano, and realized through her teachings and their friendship over the many years, that people pursued careers in the arts— and were successful at it. After this epiphany, she chose to attend vocational high school and study graphic design. Betta liked graphic design enough that she majored in it, along with small business entrepreneurship, at Columbia College in the heart of downtown Chicago.
She also moved in with her Aunt Stella and Uncle Albert in the northwest suburbs of Chicago at this time. During these pivotal years, she began building up her portfolio.
As an undergrad, Betta, who has always had musician friends in spades, started booking shows at local venues in Chicago. She even booked shows at some roller rinks, warehouses, and basements that still hold very dear memories for her. Though the career move had an informal start, with the sole intention of getting her pals gigs, her solid reputation as a booking agent soon got the best of her. By her early twenties, Betta’s company, Betta Promotions, had become a favorite independent promoter of famed Chicago venues, such as Metro, Subterranean, Schubas, Lincoln Hall, Empty Bottle, Beat Kitchen, and The Double Door. She humbly explains her success, “Fortunately, I have music in my DNA because of my mother who would always sing and play the best music that the 80’s had to offer. My father is a multi-instrumentalist that played in several bands. However, I honestly winged it, learned from life, listened to the people close to me that I trusted and mostly, listened to my gut.” By following her heart, her music industry career blossomed from DIY shows to eventually, being on the payroll at Live Nation. While it sometimes felt like a big stretch when each new ladder rung showed up, she always stepped up.
Betta also created fliers for the concerts she booked. Combined with her innate eye for talent, beauty, and design, she started to wonder if she could benefit businesses aesthetically. Similar to how she provided musicians with the wider exposure they craved, Betta decided that she wanted to help small businesses establish their presence through great design. While still in her twenties, she confidently walked from one career to the next. Working with all types of people at every level of the music industry prepared Betta to handle any kind of design client that showed up.
No client craves the same thing and Betta honors this individuality. The connector, whose first design clients came from networking backstage at concerts, wants to cater to everyone. To bring personal creative value to the table, and execute the vision that is in her client’s head, Betta incorporates details into her designs that are dear to their heart. She knows people can recognize a logo copied from Pinterest in a heartbeat and instead, relies on her active listening skills. “Say a client wants a logo about nature so I start with a leaf,” Betta explains. “But then, by inquiring about what they do on the weekends I know to add mountains and a trail to the leaf because the client really loves hiking.” It is those small details that make her work meaningful.
Fortunately, just as Betta assumed, design has the same infectious creativity, fluidity, and spontaneity as her career in the music industry. She loves being able to use her innate skills, such as thinking quickly on her feet and coming up with solutions tailored to the situation, in an entirely new field.
Hire Betta Creates to design for your company here
Hire Lily Clayton Hansen to write your bio here
