Canvas REBEL Creative Leadership Profile
We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Versino recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lauren , appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
Earning a full-time living from my creativity didn’t happen overnight. I took many different types of design jobs for many years. I laid type on trophies and plaques, separated screens for t shirt printing, created hang tags for clothing brands, made travel brochures, then airline ads, I eventually landed roles in in-house creative teams, where I have found for me, this is the most lucrative. Not only that, but I slowly worked my way through learning production, manufacturing design skills, then social media story telling and asset building, then eventually found jobs that got me on a set with photography and other production, and it kept snowballing. I went from laying text on trophy plaques in a mom-and-pop shop to managing and creating brand design at Gatorade. Don’t be afraid to move cities, try new places, meet people, and just live a creative life.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
A lot of designers have a lot of opinions about if agency, freelance or in-house roles are best. I always argue that art school teaches you to be an agency worker, freelance teaches you to be a business owner, and in-house teaches you about personal finance. For me, I have always been motivated by money and recognition when it comes to working on other’s visions, so I started to solve problems for corporate brands. I create direct and manage the creative visual identity systems for major brands. I manage teams of people to help collaborate and convey the idea of a business. For me, I find it more mutually beneficial to solve corporate brand, tone, and design problems in exchange for a consistent salary. I like to challenge business to connect their businesses to the humanity found in design.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
When you work in a corporate setting, a lot of people you work with will struggle to understand what value creatives add. I have found a lot of creatives are terrible at talking about their work and bringing others in on the process. As creatives in a corporate structure, we are always the last stop before a product or campaign is launched. We convey the idea of the business or product in an emotional, and engaging way. There are so many nuances in a process like that, and how you speak about your work and the problem it solves matters a lot. I think a lot of creative partners lack this sense of ‘teach them about your world’ to bring business partners along. You need to help others enter into the work you do, and you need to explain your value in terms non creatives understand. It’s why shows like Mad Men talk about men like Don Draper. He could weave what his job was into a compelling story to clients, that’s what creative and design does in this setting.
Creatives are a key partner in communication, and a lot of businesses and staff don’t understand that about a creative’s role and the value it plays.
It’s always our job to bring others in on that, and it requires a certain vulnerability that takes practice.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
A story of mine that illustrates resilience is, one time I had a high level executive tell me I wouldn’t be a creative director till I was at least 45 years old, and I had an art teacher in school tell me I “wasn’t memorable”. I am now in my early thirties, leading brand design creative direction for a global company that sells items people consume, see, and interact with every day. So obviously those people who had authority over me and my growth path – we very, very wrong. There will be people in your way, whether they mean to be or not. When you know you’re capable of something bigger, or you know you can do a job others may not be giving you the opportunity to do, ignore them and find a different way to get there.
People are very uncomfortable with not listening to more experienced people when they offer advice. Your gut knows when someone is giving you bad advice. Listen to it every single time.
Contact Info:
Website: https://laurenversino.com
Image Credits
courtesy of Pepsico and Wilson Sporting Goods.