A Letter from Willow

Friends, the end is very close. We have 5 days left before the site comes down! 

I have been largely silent in this transition, this closing. The truth is that I have wanted to step back from Volante Design for a long time. I worked to build the structures for me to step out, so that I could pursue my own creative work. Volante Design served to amplify and spread David's incredible work, and I have long wanted to be the captain of my own ship. Since 2017, I have been trying to step out, to hire and train a team who can run without me, who can lead and make choices and grow our business without me. But this business was built with David and me as the cornerstones- every time I stepped back some part of the building would crumble. I never managed to not jump back in and catch the falling pieces. This business has been our baby in a lot of ways. I didn't know how to let some of the pieces fall. I still don't. I had some tastes of freedom and autonomy when things were going great with my team. But they were brief and only served to make me want more.

Both the most joyous part and the heaviest burden at Volante Design has been the people I’ve met along the way. Our staff and our customers have kept me going. Their jobs and their hopes have made me want to hang on, to keep trying. Like it or not, I've been responsible for the people. Even when David took the CEO title, people came to me and told me about their needs, hopes, wants, fears. I asked. I tried to remember their parents names, their pets names, their kids names. I know that they all tried their best. They did such good work. Our decision to close had nothing to do with our people, whom I will always deeply appreciate and love. And the nature of commerce makes relationships fraught. I love who I see as my people at a strange remove, because I know that I'll always be the boss and they'll like me sometimes and other times deeply distrust me. That's normal, but not altogether easy. 

Late one February night, I had a fever. Our family had been sick for weeks (we're in the first year of pre-school, where everyone is sick all of the time) and I just wasn't getting better. I remember laying in our guest bedroom in the half dark and I was crying- bitterly. I don't want to keep doing this. I have been hanging in there waiting for my exit for years. David came in and checked on me. He didn't understand until then how overdue it was to make a change. I think he understood at that moment that we were crossing into new territory, moving from a willingness to keep trying to an unwillingness to do so.

And that's when we began planning the end. The end that set me free. This ending has allowed me to recognize myself again. 

It has been a great honor to make Volante Design with you. Our Vanguard. We would never have made it this far without you. 

I also know that David is not done. His dreams have always been far reaching and that has not changed. And yet, for him to continue pursuing that dream, and also keep our marriage intact we had to come to a full stop and change trains, this time without me at the helm. I expect that from the outside it will feel new but familiar, but under the hood it will be quite different. I can’t talk about what he’s got planned, but what I can say is: if you are still here reading this, don’t unfollow or unsubscribe. These channels will be quiet for a while, but they’ll also be the first place to find out what comes next.

Thank you all for your kind words, your notes, your final orders, and your final final orders. Yes, I still read your order notes and the Discord. Yes, I still want to be in this community very much. After 13 years, it is time for me to do something different. 

Here's to the next chapter. 

So long, and thanks for all the fish. 

- Willow Volante