CREATIVE ADVENTURIST
Follow Your Stoke
Follow Your Stoke. These three words have guided my experience as a creative adventurist over the past four years. The idea behind a creative adventurist embodies various elements and experiences of my life as an aspiring artist as I continue to push myself creatively, immersing myself in roles that would help to further my experience as a photographer and videographer. This continues to be a valuable experience for me because it has allowed for me to step into something that I’m passionate about while also providing me with opportunities to work with brands around the world, connect with artists from different communities, and take on a more independent role as a creative director.
Sharing your work with the world, especially when it is something that is so close to your heart is a vulnerable feeling, one that I am constantly learning how to overcome. One thing that being a creative adventurist has taught me is how to be more confident in my work as an artist. I’ve always been one to sell myself short, or doubt my abilities as an individual, whether that was creatively, or in general through the things I did on a day to day basis. Collaborating with artists and peers alike and working with brands has allowed for me to step into that fear of self-doubt, giving me countless opportunities to put myself out there. Through these experiences, I’ve found that while I am still nervous about being vulnerable in sharing my work, I am continuing to gain more confidence in my abilities as a creative.
Tasks Accomplished:
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Worked with brands such as MVMT and Serengetee to create promotional content for various campaigns
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Directed, filmed, and edited promotional videos for companies like One Secret Mission and events such as Expression Over Oppression
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Teamed up with Hawaiian Airlines in collaboration for an Instagram creator campaign - #TakeoverTuesday
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Collaborated with artists, and tourism boards on creative projects globally, and internationally
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Leadership Skills
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Vision
I’ve always been captivated by the arts, specifically within the realm of visual arts. Growing up I was always amazed by seeing the visuals of a story being told. As I got older, I felt compelled to pick up a camera and start creating visual pieces of my own as a way of documenting my stories and experiences and being able to share them with both myself, and with those around me. One experience I reflect brings me back to my first opportunity to direct, film, and edit a project independently on my own. This piece was in collaboration with one of my good friends, Andre, who was organizing a benefit concert entitled Expression Over Oppression. With this project, I was given the creative freedom to create what I thought would best communicate the purpose of the event, while highlighting the performers who would be helping bring it all to life. Behind the scenes, I was working day in and day out planning out my shots, storyboarding how I wanted this project to look, what music I wanted to use, and how I wanted to put it all together, and through this process my vision was able to come to life. Although the video wasn’t perfect, I learned a lot from this experience, and what the process looks like piecing everything together from the bottom up. This gave me a greater understanding of my vision, as I started to also step into my own creative style when it came to videography.
Confidence
As an artist, I’ve spent a lot of time putting my heart and soul into projects that I’m passionate about. With that, comes the fear of putting myself out there and sharing a piece of myself for others to not only see, but critique and form an opinion for themselves. It becomes an act of vulnerability, sharing something that means so much to you, and having a fear of what others will think about your work. There have times even when all I see after spending so much time on a project, are the flaws and thing that I could do better, even after finalizing a piece. However, confidence is a leadership competency that I’ve been able to grow into as time has gone on as I’ve been able to publicly share my work with others and the community around me. As a creative director, I’ve had personal projects of my own that I’ve worked on, but I’ve also had a chance to do projects for friends and family who are close to me. One experience I reflect on was through premiering a personal project that I had been working on throughout the year. This video, was a compilation of all the memories that I had made in 2017 and was a project that I had spent countless hours on, putting everything I had into this project. Upon premiering this video, the feedback I got was overwhelmingly supportive and it encouraged me to continue pursuing videography, working hard to improve my skills each and every day.
Problem Solving
Something that I discovered while traveling independently was the idea of being ready for the unexpected and learning how to work through any challenges that came across my way. Through various challenges that have come my way, I’ve been able to develop skills in the process that have allowed for me to better address and solve these problems. These skills include that of adaptability, and communication. To give some context, in the summer of 2017, I spent two weeks along the islands of Hawaii, traveling for the first time without any guidance from my parents. All I had was the companionship of a younger photographer, a friend of mine, who was coming over to Hawaii to work with local brands and hotels while getting a chance to explore the beauty of the islands. During this time, we came across several challenges from navigating car rental setbacks and unexpected medical concerns to finding places to stay during the times we weren’t working with clients or hotels. All of which, in various settings, allowed for me to take a step back and consider all of my options before coming to a solution. For example, during my first week in Hawaii, I encountered an unexpected medical concern that was affecting my eyesight as a result of a combination of an allergic reaction and the humidity from the islands, making it hard to keep my eyes open whenever I was outside. I assessed the problem and realized that it was only during high winds where it was affecting me the most, and so after considering my options, I adapted my schedule to cater more to being inside until my eyes could adjust, and when I was outside, I wore sunglasses that helped to protect my eyesight. This, among many other challenges, allowed for me to make decisions in an effective matter to problem solve in the most ambiguous situations.
Productive Relationships
One of the most important things about working with brands or collaborating with other creatives is the idea of creating impactful and meaningful relationships with clients and peers alike. There is a lot that I’ve learned from the people that I’ve worked with, and the amount of support that I’ve received when working with various companies has allowed for me to further develop my skills as a creative. During my spring quarter of my junior year, I was involved in a campus brand ambassador program with Serengetee, a clothing company that focuses on giving back to artisans and grass root causes around the world. This program was compiled of creatives from around the world, and with that, came regional captains, who had been a part of the program in the past and were there to help guide new brand ambassadors. Through this, I was able to connect with my regional captain, Grace, who was there to help answer any questions, but was also there to encourage ideas during weekly contests we had between the regions. Outside of this, I was able to connect with other members of the program, some of which were also brand ambassadors for UW during this same quarter, and so being able to cultivate connections with creatives both locally and within our region gave me the opportunity to collaborate with and bounce off ideas for upcoming projects and contests. Ultimately, this experience helped to connect me to a community, and although this was my first brand ambassador experience, I realized that I have a lot of people who can help support me through the process, whether that’s collaborating and working on projects, or acting a mentor, being an alumnus of the program.
Lessons Learned
Everything that I’ve learned in my experience as a creative adventurist have been important in other areas of my life. I now have a greater understanding of my strengths and limitations as a creative, and I’m continuously learning and growing alongside the mistakes I make along the way. I’ve cultivated lifelong relationships with some of the artists that I’ve collaborated with and have built connections with companies that I’ve had the opportunity to learn from and work with. This experience has allowed for me to step into the fear of being vulnerable in presenting my work as an artist and has given me the confidence to step forward and continue to pursue my passions of creating full time. From this experience, I hope to continue striving for a better understanding of who I am as an artist, and to further utilize the skills I’ve built upon in various areas of my life.
