The saying goes — If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. One Tamarac man is hoping to turn his passion into a full-time job after a major health scare. Courtney Allen has this 7Spotlight.
Drawing comes naturally for Daniel Duva.
Daniel Duva: “As a kid, I was drawing all day, that was the only thing I did.”
His love of art, growing up in Colombia, turned into a job as a freelance graphic designer.
Daniel Duva: “That is my calling. That is what I am going to do.”
But over time, Daniel says life got in the way. He started working a warehouse job in Broward County to pay the bills. Then, in 2024, he got a major wakeup call.
Daniel Duva: “Honestly, I thought I was going to die.”
Daniel was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer. He’d gone to the doctor because he was abnormally tired. It was a fluke detection — something his doctor usually wouldn’t even have tested for.
Kristine Petersen: “They say, they usually don’t check for this until men are in their 50s. He was only 42. They wouldn’t have — They said he wouldn’t have made it to 50, if they would have checked it then.”
Daniel’s fiancée, Kristine, has been by his side throughout his diagnosis — and when he got to ring the bell to celebrate the end of chemo.
His second lease on life — made them both realize they needed to make a change.
Daniel Duva: “I want to do something else.”
Kristine Petersen: “Live life, not just surviving it.”
Kristine left her longtime job at a Fortune 500 company. Daniel started doing what he loves again—art — and together, they launched Daniel Duva Design in 2025. They help other local businesses succeed by helping them with branding.
Michelle Velasco owns the Lemon Squeeze — a specialty lemonade trailer.
Daniel Duva Design recently transformed its company’s branding.
From this to this.
Michelle Velasco: “He was amazing and knew exactly what I kind of wanted and what I wanted to change, he brought it straight to life.”
In between projects, Daniel is still working that warehouse job to pay the insurance for his cancer treatment.
He hopes to get more customers so he can leave the warehouse job and pursue his passion full-time.
Living proof — that it is never too late to pick up the pen and write a new story.
Daniel and Kristine’s two sons also help out at the business. One has autism. They say they want to hire more people with special needs at Daniel Duva Design.
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