Meet Cashmere Morley of Ann Arbor, MI

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cashmere Morley.

Hi Cashmere, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I always had a passion for art growing up— but I didn’t have anyone around me who was pursuing that as a career. I didn’t realize it was even an option to pursue art in a business sense until I got to college, where I was majoring in journalism in the hopes of one day writing for “Rolling Stone” magazine, which at the time, felt the closest to a creative job as I could muster.

Really, I have Washtenaw Community College and later, Eastern Michigan University to thank for where I’m at today, the latter of which I was end up graduating as a double major in graphic design and journalism, summa cum laude.

At WCC, I took a graphic design course to fulfill some necessary credit for my journalism degree. There, I met a woman who was interning as a graphic designer at the college. She was working as a PA for the teacher in my class.

Being a graphic designer instantly intrigued me. Until that moment, I had never really thought about how nearly everything you touched, from a tissue box to a museum exhibit, had to be designed by someone. Someone had to put thought into it’s color, shape, functionality. My world opened up in that moment, and I remember being a bit disheartened that I was majoring in journalism after this discovery. I felt like I had finally met the path I was supposed to be going down, but now I was already committed to a different path altogether.

My parents had purchased one of the first versions of Photoshop in the early 90’s, and I would play around on that all the time as a child growing up. I remember the big chunky desktop I would invisible-lasso on still. There was no social media, barely any Internet, and the world felt at times very vast and limited all at once, and I didn’t understand this weird photo-editing device as a tool used by professional artists and designers around the world, but as a way to crop my family dog into photos or brighten and darken pictures we had taken.

When I got to Eastern Michigan, my councilor asked me to choose a minor. There were two paths I felt would compliment journalism the most; film and graphic design. Both, as I saw it, had their merits. I could learn to take video footage on the ground at places I was writing about, or I could make infographics and documents look professional when it came time to submit stories. After a moment’s thought, weighted by the class I had taken at WCC, I chose graphic design as my minor. That choice set me on the path to owning my own design agency in 2016, when I graduated.

I fell in love with design at EMU. The way it can unite people, the way it conveys a message just by existing in clever ways. I decided to double-major in both journalism and design, and today, I own a museum exhibit and public art design agency, where my entire goal is to make art as accessible for people as I can. I truly have the coolest job in the world, and I feel very lucky to do what I do. I get to work with some of the brightest minds in the museum and art industry, and I’m always learning about something new when I develop a new exhibit or art piece in a public space. My work also combines both my love of writing and design, as I often will end up writing exhibit labels or researching subject matter before I dive into developing designs.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No road worth traveling is ever easy.

When I decided to stop working for other people and run a business, I decided to put 100 % of myself into my work and my company, with no plan b. That was a big jump off a cliff with no safety net. But it was a struggle worth pursuing.

No one will believe in you like you believe in you. If you don’t believe running your business will work, even in the darkest, most troubling of days, no one else will, either. A big challenge is keeping that fire inside of you burning. Even when it’s hard. But it’s always been worth it.

I also think, being a woman running a business, even in 2025, is not easy. You have to speak twice as loudly for the same seat at the table as the man next to you.

People will doubt you, both men and women, and you can’t listen to it or you’ll fail. It’s really that simple, but also that hard.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I run Pendulee Exhibit Design & Public Art out of Ann Arbor, MI. Pendulee is a design agency specializing in exhibit design and public art solutions for museums, cultural institutions, and public spaces across the United States.

We transform ideas into immersive, engaging experiences that inspire and educate. From museum exhibitions to public art installations, our award-winning designs have been recognized at national, state, and local levels. At Pendulee, we believe in the power of great design to connect communities, spark curiosity, and bring stories to life.

What sets us apart is our commitment to making art accessible for everyone.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
One of my favorite child memories was actually at my childhood home that my parents still live in. My grandma had come to visit us from out of state, we called her Mema. We sat on the hill at my parent’s house all day in sun, looking for four-leaf clovers. My grandma would always find a lot of them and we’d be lucky to find one, but I kept some of them pressed in a book that is in my home still. It was a simple but perfect memory.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pendulee.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/penduleedesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/penduleedesign
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pendulee/
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cashmeremorley/