Let's Meet Paola Roder

Hello friends this week I am beyond thrilled to share my incredible color loving friend Paola Roder with you. We met through Instagram. I was drawn to her exuberance of color and pattern.

Let’s meet her: My name is Paola Roder, I’m a Graphic Designer. I live with my husband Jeffrey and our two Goldendoodles: Kali (the Indian Goddess of Creation and Destruction) and Lakshmi (the Indian Goddess of Wellness and Beauty) in our 1970’s home in Johns Creek in a subdivision called Rivermont, in Atlanta Georgia. We are childless by choice

I grow up in Cali, Colombia. Cali is the third largest city in Colombia with three million people population. My father Gustavo was a Bank Manager and my Mom Margarita was a Stay at Home Mom. I have 2 older sisters, Claudia is married with two sons and Monica my middle sister is deaf, it resulted from a childhood sickness, I’m the youngest. I went to a Catholic school my whole life from Kindergarten to High School. I’m not religious but, I consider myself spiritual, something like my religion is LOVE and KINDNESS!

After High School I came to United States to Minnesota as a Exchange Student to a little town of only 300 people and that’s where I learned English. I lived there for a year with the Woullet Family and I had my first Prom as well. Years later I came back to the country as an Au Pair and lived with The Manchester Family in Freehold, NJ for a year. To this day I am still in contact with both families.

I always ask everyone if they created spaces in their youth. Paola shared: I did not, my mother was very particular about her home and decor, more traditional. I did not have much say on the decor. I was allowed only to hang posters - that was about it. Not until later on in life did my mom finally allow me to do so. I remember having a bright aqua accent wall, black and white patterned curtains and wood shelving and a lot of Movie posters, my favorites of all time and a couple Pop Art Posters as well.

Paola how did you get interested in Graphic Design? I always loved drawing and painting as a child. My influence from childhood comes from all the extra curriculum activities I was in at school more so than from home although, both families my Mom and my Dad’s have artistic veins in them. I have a lot of cousins who are Graphic designers, Painters, Writers and Poets. My Grandfather was a poet and my mom is a Portrait painter herself!

Then around 7th or 8th grade I knew exactly I wanted to be doing - something related to Art. In High School I was always the poster girl, you know the one drawing and making every poster used for advertising some kind of activity at school. While looking for a school I came across the Art School - The Arts Conservatory Antonio Maria Valencia, Bellas Artes in Cali Colombia - I loved the Graphic Design curriculum and just applied for it and I got in. I was an A+ student. I had a Grade scholarship for 3 semesters in a row. I graduated as a Graphic Designer.

This matchbook collection is inherited from Jeff’s Grandmother

Paola please tell us your color philosophy: I have always love color, especially bright colors. Gosh my philosophy, I can say for sure that my starting point is Primary Colors. Based on those I look for different hues out of these ones to use them throughout the house and to use them in different design and pieces. To tone down the ones I use I add any fun black and white pattern, whatever the pattern might be. Also I love encouraging people to think more outside the box and to not be afraid of color and pattern, to have fun while designing! The most important thing in design is to stand out from the crowd, to have that personal signature in your style, you want people to be able to recognize your design without even reading your name, you want the design to speak for itself.

I know you recently became an American Citizen please share with my readers your journey and how you settled in Georgia: I had been to the United States before - so I was open to it. I met my husband almost 9 years ago - I was single and happy in Colombia but, I started thinking I would love to have a companion. We met through Match.com he’s American originally from Detroit. We skyped for 3 months before Jeffrey came to Colombia for a visit. Then I came to the States exactly 8 years ago following my other half, my best friend, my lover, my partner to Pennsylvania. We have been married for almost the same time. I became a citizen in February, after being a resident for almost 7 years, I guess I could have done it 3 years ago but before coming to Georgia last year I was busy building my own business back in Pennsylvania (I used to have a Dog sitting/walking business). Now I have dual citizen ship: I’m a Colombian and I’m American. To get your citizenship you have to study a 100 question booklet about civics and history. The day of the interview they ask you about 10 questions and out of those 10 you need to answer 6 of them correctly, I answered them all correct. They also test your writing and reading skills as well. We moved to Georgia because of my husbands job. We were 30 minutes away from Philadelphia and here we are about 30 minutes from Atlanta. The greatest difference here is it is definitely more woodsy, we are more surrounded by nature. Jeffrey and I spend time with the dogs out for hikes in the woods. I am not a fan of cold weather so I am happy to move to a climate that makes it easy to get outdoors a lot. The people here in Georgia are so friendly.

“I have always loved color, especially bright colors.”

Packaging Paola Designed

Please tell me about your time working as a Graphic Designer: I worked at an Advertising Agency for 14 years as a Graphic Designer. One of the most fun things that I did was designing lollipop and candy packaging for kids. Here are two samples of my work. Other duties were Logo design, banners, flyers and all sorts of corporate campaigns for big companies such as: Johnson and Johnson, Reckkit Benckiser, Chiclet Adams, Fleischmann, Aldor and many others. Early in my career I had the honor to work as the personal assistant to the renowned Fashion Designer Nancy Gonzalez who is a High Couture Hand Bag Designer

I know first hand how you actively cultivate a culture of friendship on Instagram - Paola can you share your thoughts about the platform: I do! Thanks for asking Meryl. I have discovered through the year I’ve been on IG that people want to be seen and you and I know that you can get lost in the virtual world, especially in the Decor or Interiors one. So this year I started my year with a purpose, I wanted to expand the network of friendship, love and sharing to the entire world. I also felt last year that just sharing the same picture over and over just wasn’t making the cut, so I came up with the idea of having themes for each day of the week to make it more dynamic and also to give others the opportunity to share with me and for me to share and celebrate them as well.

Monday: #fundaymondayflatlay I created this Flatlay with Joanne @happeyside , an Irish account I became close friends with - so this day is dedicated to Flatlays and we have different themes for each month, so it gives people another creative outlet to explore.

Tuesdays: #happypettuesday I created this with another two Dog Moms Rachel @eclectic.habitation and Amy @mypdxhome - this day is dedicated to celebrating our pets in our decor! 

Wednesday: we have with Eve @decordeconstruction and Patti @pattipeetzinteriors a page @colorlovedecor and a hashtag #colorlovedecor where we celebrate Art and Decor and invite people to share those with us and on Wednesday’s we featured different accounts there.

Thursday: Usually this day I chose a random theme and look for accounts that suit that and share them in my feed as a swipe (so 9 other accounts get shared)

Friday: I team up with a the fabulous British interior stylist Gemma @thatssogemma to have a day dedicated to any kind of DIY, our hashtag is #diymyfriday

I’m part of the crew of @eclectically_made #eclecticallymade where people can share their eclectic homes and decor. Each one of us - @melmitchia , @theinterioreditor , @designsbykarina , @chiclecticblog , @vdiep and myself @paola_roder -has a designated day to share accounts on a daily basis on the page. We have Weekly winners that ultimately compete to be the Monthly winner. The Monthly winner gets a house tour from the talented blogger Maria @theinterioreditor and a portrait by the amazing artist Karina @designsbykarina

And last but not least I created a Monthly Photo Challenge with three other accounts - its where we have daily prompts that people can play and have the opportunity to get featured daily over on our page @mymonthincolour #mymonthincolour and be the winner at the end of the month and get featured across our 4 accounts : @thatssogemma , @rowans_rainbow , @thethriftyhippie and myself @paola_roder

Paola what an incredible approach to IG! Yay!

Even though I myself am a vegan I make all the dogs food - because Doodles have sensitive stomachs

Please share with my readers what publications you’ve been in: I have been lucky to be published in different sites so far.

A house tour @apartmenttherapy: This Atlanta Home Is Big, Bold, Bright, and Filled with Art and Color.
A house tour twice: @theinterioreditor: The Creative, Bold and Colorful home of Paola Roder. & How to Use Paint Creatively in Your Home.
A house tour in the local newspaper AJC The Atlanta Journal Constitution: Mid-Century Modern Home Filled with Pop Art Style.
The Pink Room was published in HGTV Magazine March 2020.
Our home will be published in an Argentinian Magazine: Para Ti Deco

Paola I know your homes design has brought a lot of interest - how would someone contact you about hiring you for Home Design services: I started last year on IG sharing my home and designs and using my home as a canvas and my IG as a Journal to document the evolution of my home and design. So if you love color and want interior design that is out of the box - creative with a unique and different feel people can find me on IG @paolaroderdesigns and message me or e-mail me: paolarodermejia@gmail.com - or if you have graphic design work or any questions I am happy to speak with you.

Please share your plans for the rest of 2020: Gosh we are living such strange times so I’m just living one day at the time at the moment, enjoying every second of it and keep shining and sharing beautiful squares for people to be inspired!

Til next time - please go check out Paola’s amazing and inspiring IG feeds:

@paolaroderdesigns , @colorlovedecor , @eclectically_made , @mymonthincolour

Please be safe everyone.