Allison Henry Aver On Why 45 Is The Perfect Age To Start Your Own Agency

Creative Boom: Insight Career Allison Henry Aver on why 45 is the perfect age to start your own agency The veteran creative leader, who specialises in branding for beauty and fashion, explains why it took her a few decades to figure things out. Written By: Guest Author 1 July 2026 Allison Henry Aver The most surprising thing to me when I opened my branding agency, Letter A, was just how ready I was, which is not to say it was easy to get to that place. It absolutely wasn't. I'd spent the past 20 years working in-house as a creative director and graphic designer for some of the biggest beauty and fashion brands while living in New York City. Vogue.

Kate Spade New York. Bumble and bumble. Ann Taylor. I was even part of the team that launched the cult brand Kate Spade Saturday from the ground up. For plenty of designers, this is the dream. All signs pointed to an upward trajectory: fulfilling, creative work, sexy brands, big budget campaigns, and titles with VP in them. Little did I know that massive changes were lying in wait. In the span of three months in the winter of 2015, I not only became a mother at 41, but also moved across the country to Portland, Oregon, for my husband's job.

I took a few years off after having my son and naively assumed that, when I was ready, I would easily find a job after my West Coast relocation. However, the opportunities weren't as plentiful in my new home, and the part of the industry I loved—in-house brand building, fashion, beauty—wasn't the scene in Portland. Work for Foot Locker Work for Tea Collection Work for Spring & Mulberry That was when I started to worry. Like, really worry. I was creeping past 43, and I feared that the older I got and the longer I went without a job, the more unemployable—and irrelevant—I would become.

Fear of ageing Until then, I had never really agonised about my age. I'd worried about my own talents and abilities, but imposter syndrome in your 20s and 30s is par for the course. Now, though, my age, being a mother, my appearance—those became new threads to pull on. It's funny: we all want our doctors and lawyers to look seasoned or older, but we expect our creative talent to appear perpetually under 40. I felt very isolated during this period. Most creatives feel the unrelenting pressure to be cool and relevant, and we work in an industry that prioritises youth culture and staying on top of every trend and influencer.

So would I be judged on my 25+ years of experience, sidelined, deemed too expensive, stuck in my ways, or not looking the part? I thought that if I didn't do something quickly, I might never work again. Saved by ambition Ultimately, it was my own ambition that saved me. I love the work I do. For a few years, I cobbled together work at other agencies and took on projects here and there. I managed to find places and projects where I could work in my zone of genius—building rich worlds and helping founders bring their brands to life. It was also around this time that I got some invaluable advice from a friend: I needed to rebrand myself.

Work for Casetify Work for Cake Work for OAD I was already doing the work of a small indie studio, but because everything was under my name, it very much made me look small and like a hired gun. Instead, I needed to present myself as a thoughtful, strategic, creative partner with the ability to build a team. It was a shaky time, but all that job-hopping gave me back my confidence and voice. I found I could lead the work and ground it in the kind of brand strategy I had built my career on.

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The article discusses a personal journey that emphasizes the value of experience in branding, which is relevant to the industry, but the concept of starting an agency at a certain age is not particularly novel or groundbreaking.