Michelle Atkinson started her career in public relations with an engineering firm, followed by a large Kansas City hotel and then a not-for-profit agency. She landed in the graphic design field when she took a job at the Burlington Northern Technical Training Center in Overland Park, Kansas. As a Program Development Assistant she created overhead presentations for the president of the center, wrote and edited a monthly newsletter, and worked on various other print projects, including training manuals.

After marrying a Marine in 1994, she traveled the country for ten years working full time for the Marine Corps Association, a newspaper, a community college, an advertising & marketing agency, and a print shop. After the birth of their first child, she decided to pursue a freelance career and built her business by doing projects for former employers on a contract basis. To this day, she still works with the community college but has expanded her client list to include companies all over the midwest.