Kenesha Sneed

Illustrator

Designers have always lived in a space between art and commerce, but today it is the rare art director who doesn’t moonlight at something else. Kenesha Sneed was an art director at Buck design. But ‘‘in my heart of hearts, I want to do ceramics full time,’’ she says, adding that she realizes that she is not really ‘‘a full-time person.’’ So she quit the full-time position to free up more time for her ceramics business, called Tactile Matter, which she started a year and a half ago. She began selling her wares online, but the business became popular — probably too popular, too fast. Some of her housewares ended up in West Elm, and ‘‘basically the work kind of got way too crazy,’’ she says. She refocused on building the business, slowly, alongside her art, which she often works on during her lunch break. Beyond being a financial backstop, her work as an illustrator and (now part-time) art director helps her keep a hand in all sorts of creative pots, she says, so she is able to move at her own pace: a hurry, but not a rush.