It’s March 2024 at America First Field in Salt Lake City and the Utah Royals, a National Women’s Soccer League team, are set to play their home opener. Atop the stadium, whipping in the Salt Lake City wind, is a flag adorned with the team’s crest, a fierce crowned lioness. Under the flag stands the crest’s creator: Tovah Kaiser ’19. 

“That was cool,” Tovah recalls. “I don’t bask in accomplishments much, but there are moments where I’m like, nobody else is doing this.” 

Tovah is the founder of Tov Creative, a Philadelphia-based design studio that boasts clients like the Royals and Boston’s new women’s soccer team in one of the fastest-growing professional leagues in the U.S. Along with those soccer franchises, in just a few short years Tovah’s client portfolio already boasts businesses that dot the East Coast, ranging from restaurants to pet apps to geologists.

She’s also a budding professional singer and songwriter.

What’s interesting, however, is Tovah doesn’t have a design or business degree, nor did she take music classes at Ohio State. Instead, she graduated from Ohio State’s Knowlton School for Architecture.

However, following an internship after her sophomore year, she realized she didn’t want to be an architect. Being at Ohio State though, she had options. Hanging out with friends one night, someone suggested an entrepreneurship class through the Fisher College of Business because she was a budding entrepreneur already. She’d create and sell T-shirts, watercolor paintings and beautifully custom-painted jean jackets, building a clientele off Instagram. 

The entrepreneurship course led students through startup accelerator life. Each student created and developed a business idea, but as the course progressed, the ideas were whittled away until a final one, the best one, survived. That semester, it was Kaiser’s, an app called Decide, which tapped into Gen Z’s fear of missing out and indecision.

During that time, as a senior, Kaiser also joined Fisher’s Business Builders Entrepreneurship Club, which brought in local business leaders. At one point, representatives from Columbus’ Civitas marketing agency impressed Kaiser enough for her to contact the firm. 

A conversation later, Kaiser had an internship. Upon graduation, she landed a job as a designer, using her 3D skills while apprenticing as a graphic designer. That was before COVID-19 layoffs prompted her to forge ahead and open Tov Creative.

It’s a pretty wild story considering prior to her visit to Columbus at 17 years old, Tovah didn’t know the first thing about Ohio State. But one trip to the Columbus campus changed all that.

“Growing up, when I pictured college life, I pictured Ohio State,” she said. “Other places didn’t have that ‘Oval moment.’ I remember we snuck in the ’Shoe, and it was amazing. But also, Columbus. I remember walking around the Short North. It was just … I was impressed.” 

As a freshman, Tovah quickly became immersed in life at Ohio State and found her path — well, many paths, many people. She also found a place for her musical gifts, playing with friends. That led to regularly playing with musicians around campus, Columbus open mic nights and even a gig in Cleveland.

She credits the Knowlton School for shoring up her intense work ethic, and Ohio State for opening up numerous opportunities to explore other passions and ambitions that have aided her successful climb. 

Tovah on the advantages of attending Ohio State: “For someone like me, I was maybe going to go to art school, I took intro classes to journalism, I ended up in architecture. I don’t know any 17- or 18-year-old who knows exactly what they want to do with their lives. I didn’t. But honestly, in going to Ohio State, you don’t have to decide right away what you want to do. You can take time and figure out what you want to do and you can do that at Ohio State. You have everything at your fingertips. Anything you’re interested in, you have access to it and that is super powerful.

“Also, the people. There are people from everywhere at Ohio State. There’s a lot to learn from all the different types of people you’ll meet. You have options and access to so many things, that’s what Ohio State offers if you take advantage of it. Ohio State is an endless well of possibilities and people, you’ll never run out.”

Her advice to students: “Just relax. Whatever you’re curious about or passionate about, keep following that and don’t worry so much about executing a plan. I used to think it would be this very linear thing, then you become an adult and it’s just a mess. So just relax and listen to yourself. Trust yourself. I needed to hear that when I was in school. I was so worried, what was I going to do? Am I doing the right thing? I wish someone would have given me reassurance that, yeah you are, you’re working hard on the things you care about and it’s going to lead you somewhere.”