Hi, and welcome to the pool party.
This is Jules.
So let me paint a scene for you.
It was a scene that happened not too long ago.
I flew into Los Angeles from Maui and I was planning on spending the next two months there.
I stayed in an apartment in a room that I rented out from my friend Marlon because his
roommate was going to go on tour with Malini Martinez for like two months and his roommates
also pretty sick.
They have danced for Mitski, who is my idol.
Love her.
Before I get too off track, Marlon, the saint he is, he's the people's work husband and
I interviewed him on the last podcast, so go listen to that if you want to hear more
about him and his designs.
But Marlon and I have been friends for quite some time and one of the best things about
living with him this summer in LA was also meeting some of his design friends.
He knows what it's like to be a freelancer, to be a design freelancer, and we both worked
in the tech industry before fully moving over to design and what the design industry has
become or is going through these days.
And then so the great thing was I was able to go to his studio and take a desk while
he was working and some of his other coworkers were working and I met someone.
Her name is Paley and Paley walks into the office after two weeks of being in New York,
amazing skirt, down to the floor, fantastic officewear style and the sweetest little dog
named Peach.
So today we're going to chat with Paley and I got her on a call to talk more about art
and design and what she does outside of work because I got to see her working a lot this
summer, let me tell you.
And yeah, I'm really glad to have Paley on the podcast and if you want to see more of
her work and her paintings and her art and design, you can check out the description
and find the links to her work below.
And before we get into the interview, I just want to let you know that I will continue
to be interviewing other artists and designers on the pool party.
If you know of an artist or designer who you think would be fantastic to have on the show,
feel free to send me an email, you can find it on my websites.
And with that, let's get started.
Hi Paley, thank you so much for joining me today.
Obviously, I know a bit about you already but I also feel like there's just things
I don't know about your drawing, your art.
So maybe give us a little bit of an intro for the pool party today and then we'll dive
in.
Cool, okay.
So my name is Paley.
My artist's name is Paley Jean.
Jean is my middle name so that's kind of what I use for my art brand.
I'm a full-time designer professionally at a company called Funk House.
It's a digital branding agency so we focus on web design and pretty much any kind of
digital design.
I also draw and paint, mainly women and former music industry professionals so music is still
a big part of my life but sort of in a different way.
So yeah, I would say like big picture, I'm all about art and music.
Those are my two top priorities in life.
Yeah, and tell me about the music industry because I know you mentioned that to me before
but I have no idea what it's like to work in the music industry where you even did.
Yeah, so I started writing about music in high school and it was kind of an outlet.
I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta and I just started getting super into music and
I felt like a lot of the people around me weren't as into it as I was so writing helped
me explore that and I started interviewing artists and that gave me a broader creative
community where it was kind of lacking where I was specifically.
So yeah, the whole music journalism thing kick started my career in the music industry.
So I kept doing the writing thing for a while but I also worked at record labels, I worked
at a streaming service, I did everything from again writing to PR, sales, artist relations.
It was a lot of fun but I did it for six years and then I felt like I was done with that
chapter and I wanted to move into something more creative because I have been drawing
since I was a kid and in my 20s that kind of came back to me and started becoming a
bigger part of my life.
So when I felt like my music industry career was over for lack of a better expression,
like I don't know, I just felt like I needed to explore that creative side of myself a
little bit more and so that's why I decided to pivot and do design and also just dive
into my art in a deeper way.
Yeah, wait, that's awesome.
That's so cool.
So you started in journalism and then from there, what kind of musicians were you writing
about?
So in high school I was super into hip hop and I loved that hip hop takes you on a journey.
So you listen to one song and then you learn about the sample of that song and you know
what I mean, it's like you could just keep diving deeper and deeper and deeper.
And so I was really obsessed with hip hop when I was younger, but definitely not as
in touch with current like popular hip hop.
I don't connect to that as much, but that's what it was all about in high school and I
wrote this column called Timeless Tuesdays.
So I'd focus on a timeless hip hop artist like Warren Hill or Know the Roots, Common
and I would write about them and you know every Tuesday.
So that became something that I like was super passionate about.
And then going deeper into my career, I worked at Def Jam.
So again, working with like more hip hop artists, R&B I'm a big fan of, worked at Tidal and
worked with a lot of up and coming reggae artists.
I worked at just like different companies and focused on artists across genres.
But one thing that I was very like proud of and excited about was when I worked at Tidal,
I worked with a lot of Jamaican artists who were then like really on the come up and now
it's cool to have seen their careers grow and to be like oh you're like signed to a
major label in the States now or you're winning this award for the best artist of the year.
And so I've always like kind of had my eye on up and comers and then like classic artists.
So maybe I'm all about artists that are popular now but I've kind of found myself like in
those more niche areas.
So yeah, I don't know.
I could keep going on and on.
That's awesome.
Big picture.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, that's amazing.
And I think music is really fun to work with too.
Like I'm always listening to playlists when I design.
Is there like any artists these days that like you channel as you make your work?
Do you listen to music while you paint or is it silence?
So this is funny because I recently started listening to music again while I paint because
for a while I was just turning on Netflix and I would watch like True Crime while I
painted.
I love it.
But like something just to keep my mind stimulated.
It is really embarrassing to admit that.
Not just True Crime but other things.
It's so relatable though.
Honestly, like I'm designing sometimes too and I don't know like we're like watching
like the TheraNose.
Have you seen that like the dropout?
And they were like people are getting hacked on TV and like wow, that's crazy.
I recently started listening to music again while I paint.
I have a TV in my like I paint basically here in my living room and I have my TV so I'll
put on a YouTube channel and it'll be like a DJ playing like R&B or reggae or whatever
like the vibe is.
R&B is usually my top go-to especially just like painting.
You can kind of set a nice chill vibe and I feel like it kind of goes with my style too.
Like my art style is really sensual and like I don't know what it is but R&B couples well
with it.
Yeah, yeah I know.
I love your style of artwork too because it is like so graphic body focused and shapely
so that's why I wanted to ask.
I was like I feel like I could almost see some like synesthesia in your work.
Oh yeah, that's when you hear color.
Yeah or like even shapes maybe like the audio visual connection.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was thinking about this recently because sometimes I feel like I need to plug into
music in order to kickstart my drawing.
Like when I sit down and I'm kind of like really involved in a song or an album it helps
inform my drawing and again I wasn't doing that for a while so I kind of forgot about
it but now that I've been doing it more and like oh this is so cool because if I'm listening
to like a fast-paced I don't know song it's my drawing probably gonna look a lot different
than if I was listening to something slower just because it's affecting my mood.
Yeah.
So yeah definitely gonna keep on that music music journey turn off the true crime.
Yeah I hear that.
Okay so you paint in your free time you're a full-time designer how do you I guess stay
inspired between work and just like the things that you love to do on the side?
So I feel like my work exercises a different part of my creative brain than my art does
which is good because I they're two completely different things.
So staying inspired well first off getting off of the computer and getting out of my
house because with design there's so much screen time and there's so much I work partially
in the office partially from home so if I'm at home for too long I'm like oh I don't even
want to paint at my home because I just I've spent enough time here so it is really important
for me to get out and like have fun honestly.
Have fun be in nature just turn everything off and then kind of get back to my art from
there because I think something that I was focusing on before is like hyper productivity
like if you know I need to be making art all the time I need to do X Y and Z but I've realized
going slower and allowing myself more fun free flexible time in my life has actually
made me a better artist and it's made me like made those creative moments more quality.
I'm all about quality over quantity these days.
Yeah yeah I think that's something I think about a lot too.
I feel like it's so easy to just kind of be like oh yeah this is like my job I'm gonna
like design and make something like amazing for all those hours but then that doesn't
even really happen and then sometimes like for me personally like I just need to like
be a person to the world and I think nature is something that like I like to connect with
but yeah I don't know like what my expectations were when I started designing because it was
really fun like to begin you know like when you're just like learning things and oh you
know one thing that's interesting too is that you told me that you like to keep on taking
courses and learning.
Yeah how how is that for you and like have you taken anything recently that has like
inspired you?
I'm taking improv.
Oh yeah okay.
And I love it because I think it's made me realize I mean I've taken art courses obviously
in the past but yeah because I've been prioritizing art and like productivity and all that so
much I was neglecting some of the other things on my list like improv and there's like a
bunch of other checklisty like courses or like just different things I want to do and
I think that even like bringing that into the fold has just freed me up and like has
broadened my perspective so it's cool to do something totally random that can still
inform your creativity and that's been a lot of fun because it's you know it helps
you just loosen up as a human.
Yeah wait so what inspired you to do improv and what are the classes like?
I know.
So curious yeah.
So there's UCB, Upright Citizens Brigade which is a famous improv school.
There's two of them basically within both within a 10 minute driving distance from me
and I moved to LA three and a half years ago and I have a great community out here but
I'm all about like community building and I felt sort of like I want to keep expanding
my community here.
I want to do something that you know a lot of my hobbies are more solo like art, writing
you know like solo and sedentary so I wanted to do something where I could meet people
and laugh and have fun and move my body and exercise my brain and so I have a good friend
that's into it and she sent me a group on for this improv course and I just felt like
yeah now's the time to pull the trigger on this.
So now I'm halfway through and there's a performance in October so.
Whoa love it.
All right I'll see how it goes.
That's so cool.
Where is that performance happening?
It's at one of the theaters it's at the same theater that I do my class at.
Cool cool I love it.
Yeah I did a little bit of improv in college and that was fun but it was like kind of like
a lot of games like pretty random.
Yeah yeah and like I think it's fun I think it depends who your scene partners are too
like that helps a lot.
Yeah.
And your teacher too.
I mean from what I hear your teacher can really make or break your class and I have a great
teacher and all my classmates are super nice and it's everyone from you know professional
well yeah I guess professional actors to people like me that are doing it to get out of their
comfort zone and just doing it for fun.
So it's cool to be like on that journey with with those people and just have a safe space
to get silly and just have a good time.
Yeah yeah.
So I'm curious I'm asking for myself like kind of going back to when you transition
from music to doing design you said that you kind of felt like your music career was done
was that like a personal feeling like you just wanted a change of scenery or like tell
me more about that because I'm kind of trying to figure out for myself like how to hone
in on like a specific subject and I think as creative sometimes it's like you know you
love to like dip your feet into like all these different things so it's cool to hear that
you do classes and then but like what is the moment where you were like okay I need to
like switch my career.
Well it was a pandemic moment so I can't say I'm the most unique thing in the world but
I okay so the very last job that I had in music was working for a record label and my
boss was great so shout out to her but the work just wasn't suitable for me like it was
a lot dealing with data and numbers so I was on a streaming team our artists to different
streaming services tracking how all the music was performing across the services seeing
what you know where they were placed on all the playlists so a lot of times that's like
manually counting all the songs to see the number wow where that song is and it's really
really tedious work and I think for a lot of music jobs you have to be 150% in in order
for it to be a sustainable lifestyle so I think I realized like this I did a lot of
other great things but like some of those companies weren't the healthiest places like
and then the last job I was like you know what I've had a lot of fun in this industry
but I just feel like it's time for me to explore other things and I can explore music on my
own terms so probably the most things way for me to put it is I realized I'm a music
person not a music industry person so because it really does take a specific personality
type to do that for your entire life so I just kind of realized okay I'm gonna move
on and I decided to sign up for Shillington which is a graphic design boot camp and I
did quit my job and do the boot camp and focus on that and my art and then luckily I ended
up landing a full-time job at Funkhouse after yeah it's been a good journey which is amazing
and you did Shillington online too didn't you yeah yeah I love that yeah so you know
what's interesting is hearing you talk about like the data and numbers side of the music
industry I feel like sometimes a lot of creative roles turn into like data roles lately where
they're like oh we need to track this like metrics because I worked in social for a bit
too and it started to be like okay how can we just get like the most amount of likes
and views and and some of that too is just kind of like I don't know like let's just
look in to see what is the most popular which can kind of be like a creative suck at times
yeah I mean that's just the case with so many creative jobs right now you're right and it's
like yeah maybe there's not a perfect 100 perfect job out there but if you're in a creative
role that's like very inundated with the data thing and that's not your thing it will really
drive you nuts so I don't know I think yeah that's just really how I feel like streaming
would totally be like that too like it's so topical even with like tv yeah is there so
you like to watch true crime I know you said you're like trying not to watch so much anymore
but are there like any other shows that you're watching because I feel like LA is really
big like topically like everyone's always talking about like movies and shows they're
watching that's a great question yeah oh my god lately I've just been watching Brooklyn
9-9 which is a comedy with Andy Samberg yeah it's nice to watch something that's very lightweight
you know like something that's not serious and that's silly that you can just have on
in the background so I'm not completely sucked into any one show right now that's just what
I've been watching yeah I don't I don't know what else but I mean I will say that I do
love to have a show that I'm like completely sucked into I cannot wait to get back to on
watch I'm just lacking that right now so totally open to suggestions yeah yeah I I watch a
lot of like so there's a dropout that's like you know she had a company and then it kind
of like fell apart I have been on this kick with my mom recently of like scammers so we
watched like the whole Anna Delvey like mockumentary too yeah and yeah it's like almost too real
but it's it's fun to watch there's also Griselda oh yeah yeah Griselda's good yeah but I'm
kind of similar like when I'm working I like to put on I don't know maybe like some music
a DJ set something that kind of has rhythm to it because it helps me stay engaged I kind
of have like a little bit of ADHD and I will like scroll online which can be a little bit
unfortunate to my creativity at times but like all like when I was living with Marlon
this summer we're both big scrollers so sometimes maybe like scrolling and the volumes up and
I'm like okay we need to stop yeah just online I don't know I have mixed feelings about social
media I always have but yeah exactly I think that's like the big issue and I work in social
media so sometimes it's like I go through periods where I'm not on it at all because
I don't have to and I'll be like reading books and then I'll get a job where they're like
we need to make social content and I'm like okay great like let's get let's get back into
the algorithm yeah yeah yeah so mentioning like traveling and adventure tell me about
like the places you traveled this year and do you have any other future travel plans
yes I had a great travel year I feel like I'm gonna forget some now that I'm talking
about it okay so I went to Jamaica in February February is Jamaican music month and so there's
kind of stuff going on and I I've been there a few times and this was like probably my
favorite time going out there because now I have more of a community out there and I
went with some friends who also work in that industry with a lot of Jamaican artists and
like it just and they flew in from New York so it just felt like honestly a week-long
party it was like reconnecting with people being surrounded by music like partying just
it was such a blast it was I couldn't have had a better time and then I went to New York
for a month in May and let's see what else all right God I've done other things but my
upcoming trips are I'm going to Portland in October to see my friends who are a married
couple that just had their first baby and I'm so excited and I'm also going to England
and Lisbon yeah yeah I remember you saying that um tell me about like your England and
Lisbon trip like what do you have planned so I'm meeting up with my mom and her boyfriend
in England for a few days they're actually going to stay there for a month so that's
going to be fun to see them and then I'm going to do a solo trip in Lisbon basically I was
supposed to go to Portugal a few years ago with my mom and sister but I my passport was
going to expire in like two and a half months and Portugal requires that your passport is
valid for three months beyond your stay which I didn't realize okay so
we got stopped basically like we got stopped in England they like wouldn't let me through
and so I spent a week in England and I got to see Stonehenge and Oxford and like I was
based in London but this time is like hey my passport's valid now I'm going to actually
see this trip through and I think it's going to be a blast yeah that's awesome have you
been to Lisbon before never because I've never been you there and I hear so many people go
there and they love it and they just never leave what happens to me yeah I'm I'm kind
of like itching to get out of the country do some more travel maybe even like work abroad
for a bit so if you hear of anything cool like I don't know I like whispers to the grapevine
like like when people travel and they're like oh I saw this cool thing and that's how I
get my wax yeah I actually have heard about something that's it's calling I think it's
called a yawn y-o-n and there work it's kind of like a we work I don't know how to describe
it you can stay there in different countries and just be around other digital nomads or
other people that are like traveling and working but it's like a built-in community and you
can actually stay and work there and be around other people doing the same thing so there's
my little whisper through the grapevine for you okay yeah yeah no I definitely want to
look into that yeah because I was talking with Marlinton he was like you know maybe
I want to travel like three months Argentina or Lisbon I'm like that would be sweet I
wonder we could probably like organize contract jobs but that's always like I don't know
you're kind of like crossing your fingers and just hoping and maybe that works maybe
yeah but something organized could be cool yeah yeah I think it's really good to switch
up the routine and I think something that I'm realizing now is you don't have to do
a year you don't have to like uproot your life it's really nice just to be able to go
somewhere for like even a short amount of time just to get a little taste of it if a
month feels more feasible and less daunting than like do a month but it's good to switch
it up and just be somewhere new because we get very you know we get in our little routines
and I think we're always going to grow if we put ourselves in new environments and around
new people so yeah seriously yeah I meet like the coolest people and I'm traveling and yeah
I'm staying with my parents right now in Idaho and it's been like a very fiery season the
air quality has been like so dusty there'll be some good days but I romanticize like even
like driving up to Montana a lot like camping yeah exactly it doesn't be abroad either I
think that's the other thing is we have so many cool places in the states that we can
go see even just for a few days Montana is gorgeous yeah it's super beautiful I haven't
been to Portland in a minute last time I went was actually 2020 like in February 2020 I
have a friend who lives up there and he makes pants now so like you like yeah he likes to
make jeans and then the agency I'm working at is actually based in Portland right now
so yeah I thought that was interesting yeah yeah I didn't tell you what I ended up doing
but I am like contracted to make memes for Yahoo right now which is like yeah which is
kind of why I was like talking to you about like Tidal and like tech a little bit because
I feel like I've been trying to kind of like get away from tech in my work but it's so
hard to and I'm also working part-time at a studio in Boise and the guy is really cool
like he's actually worked a lot more I think like traditional advertising for like snowboarding
companies and maybe some like adjacent brands like he did some branding for like this snack
food that is like promoted towards like snowboarders and there's like so many like snowboarders
out here and people who ski which is kind of fun like I like the attitude of people
who like sports and don't just you know work too much yeah separate from the culture like
you know when you're in a city and it just feels like you know everything is very like
pop culture related or I don't know how to say yeah or like the trends like there's this
main vein of like what people are talking about and then there's like everything else
like so much else in the world like sport and it's so refreshing it's refreshing to
be around people that are just not that that like don't really care about look having the
perfect fit or yeah be in nature and do sports or do sports touch some grass touch some snow
yeah yeah it's super weird too because it everything changes really fast and what I'm
noticing is like it kind of it's like eating itself right now where people are like we
don't want to be too on trend and like they'll try really hard not to which which is kind
of like I think goes to say like why not just be yourself anyways and like the things you
like you know go out explore the world like learn some new things yeah I couldn't agree
more yeah fuck friends yeah no seriously I yeah I know it's super annoying and I get
annoyed with myself too sometimes because I'm like what's trending and I'm like nothing
like literally nothing like people are annoying cool it's trending in my little universe yeah
zero on that I know I hear that yeah and I love looking at the paintings going on in
the background right now could you like tell me that some of them yeah like so I was to
you I wish I mean I could go grab one that I'm proud of yes please I can wow I'm gonna
be able to put this whole thing into I love it yeah so this one I did for fun I had bought
some big canvases at Home Goods which is another pro tip especially for new painters it's you
can get really cheap canvases at like Goodwill sometimes or Home Goods any kind of store
like that probably you've even TJ Maxx so yeah I got that and I don't have a ton of
experience painting with acrylic so I wanted to paint one of the drawings that I had done
so I like already knew what I was gonna paint I knew the toys I knew the palette but right
now I'm working on technique and I'm learning a lot so with this one I learned a lot and
I know what I would do better next time and then there's another one back there that's
a commission for one of my improv classmates oh cool yeah he saw a drawing of mine that
I put on Instagram and he wanted me to paint it for him so I worked on that over the weekend
so right now I'm just I'm another commission I'm working on that's oil and I'm just like
I'm just gonna keep churning out stuff and it might be imperfect but I'm learning a lot
and right now it's about consistency and not like any kind of perfectionism yeah yeah like
what does consistency mean to you with painting so I didn't paint for a long time so it feels
good to be painting again so I think what it means is it doesn't have to be you know
multiple times a week it doesn't even have to be once a week I just know I need to fit
it into my schedule in some way and also just it's nice to have an extra cash flow so the
fact that some of these are related to income is motivating me to stay consistent yeah but
I think I just you know I felt like there's more to my art than I was really like I wasn't
putting the energy in and since I've been putting it out there a little bit more I've
been getting a lot of feedback I've been getting people you know interested so I almost felt
like I need to actually give this the time and energy it deserves because there's something
more there so I don't know that's kind of a roundabout answer but I think it's just
like a continuous exploration process and that's what consistency is it's not like I
need to make sure I'm you know it's not like any kind of rigid structure but it's just
doing it enough sometimes it's like how does this fit into my life and you it's so cool
that you have deadlines and commissions yeah that helps a lot deadlines it does yeah no
I admire that because you're right you have to put your work out there because if you
want to work with people like no one will know you exist yeah you don't like consistently
show your work that's something I'm working on because I think I'm trying to get like
more illustration for like key art clients outside of my studio jobs right now and then
so sometimes it's like okay like showing my old work but then making new work even if
it's like a pretend project just to kind of like see you know what what I'm vibing with
what other people vibe with yeah well one thing that I am doing that's been helpful
for me is I have a checklist so I think the deadline I said that I don't have a rigid
structure but having like some sense of structure for me has been helpful like some structure
that lets me know I'm moving in a linear direction instead of just like oh I'm making stuff and
hoping that you know people will come to me wanting it so I have a checklist of camp finishing
these commissions I'm gonna put these prints up online I'm gonna revise my website I'm
gonna do X Y and Z so that there's some feeling of momentum even if I don't exactly know where
it's going yeah wait what's your website tell me about it oh yeah Mark so Merlin and I'm
saying this for your listeners even though you just interviewed him Merlin is you know
my my work husband co-worker at Fun House super talented designer photographer and so
many other things he's like everything work husband I just never say a bad thing about
him yeah that's my ever but he actually took the photos of me for my website and usually
I like a little camera shy but not with him I feel like he's a great person to have behind
the camera so he makes you feel really comfortable and he made me feel so comfortable and he
completely like executed my vision of what I wanted those photos to look like so they're
so good by the way I've seen them and he shot some photos of me too like many years ago
but you're so right he's just like disarming he's like he is behind the camera and he's
trying to get a shot so he's like an artist he's not being weird and has some shoots with
like people where they're just being a little weird and I'm like okay I feel uncomfortable
and I'm like can we like can we stop then the photos always look strange yeah and it
helps to be with someone that you feel comfortable around yeah I know him so well and I know
he wouldn't be like judging me or anything like that so that was so much fun and I do
need to go do a website refresh but he helped me like at that time get it to the place I
wanted to get it to and I don't know there's some even though I hate the superficiality
of like having to look a certain way as a like putting yourself out there as a brand
I it was fun for me to actually feel like I looked like how I wanted I looked like the
face of my brand like I wore things that I felt represented you know my art very well
and I don't know I'm not exactly articulating this but it was nice to feel yeah yeah yeah
totally yeah I think it's like you for me like I want to feel like kind of put together
but not like I don't know like I I'm still gonna show up like on a call with clients
sometimes and like be myself and yeah so it's just like that's it's nice to have something
where like people can get a headshot of you too if they were to like write about your
work you kind of have to kind of like hold that vision of what it's gonna be and so
like having a nice photo by Marlon is great what's your URL for oh yeah so it's yeah
healyjean design or notes haileyjeanmartin.com okay great healyjeanmartin.com yes so again
oh yeah okay here it is it'll be updated soon yeah I need to update my website too I think
that's like the the bane of my existence as a designer and someone who makes work is like
uh just website updates and maintenance organizing projects yeah it's it's all yeah it's ongoing
sometimes like I'll I'll put it off for months and then what I'm realizing now is like I
kind of have to do it at least like once a month just so that it doesn't build up and
I don't have like an existential crisis when it comes to doing it that's another thing
is like just chipping away at it instead of looking at this huge lump of work you have
to do so going back to the whole consistency thing yeah if you have the capacity to continuously
update it's gonna make your life so much easier instead of having that huge daunting project
of you know doing a big update sweep yeah yeah um yeah there's so many ways of presenting
work too so um I think sometimes like when I'm trying to find clients it's like you can
just send photos too and sometimes that works so yeah just chipping away at it is good um
do you have any advice for like people trying to like start their own passion project or
break into design so this is something that is a big theme for me lately which is just
don't be a perfectionist about everything and closed mouths don't get fed so both of
those things just put yourself out there um don't be a perfectionist but obviously make
sure that your work looks good keep learning the learning process is never over and um
just be hungry and I mean I got my current job from sending out a bunch of cold emails
to people at different design agencies and luckily one of those emails led to a full
time job and even with my art commissions currently I set my mind to getting more commissions
coming in so I actually reached back out to friends who had mentioned that they wanted
me to do something for them so like if you feel like there's someone that you already
have some creative synergy with maybe do a check back with them and or if you feel like
your work isn't perfect enough that's okay maybe at least still put yourself out there
meet up with that person for coffee just try to like be outgoing and maybe even a little
more aggressive than you're comfortable with because that's really the only way opportunities
will come yeah yeah and when it comes to being aggressive like what does that look like for
people who might be shy yeah okay aggressive is probably not the best word and I don't
want to say it's the only way opportunities can come but I think let's maybe not say aggressive
and just say like persistent okay so let's say you want to land a design job and you
are applying to jobs and nothing's happening so that might look like doing what I did which
was sending out a bunch of emails not even necessarily saying hey are there any job openings
but saying hey can I get on a google meet with you for 10 to 15 minutes to talk about
what you do that's great because then or a coffee but you know I think google meet 15
minutes it's very low stakes and people love to share their wisdom too so like not only
can you have a great exchange from that but they might have you and your name in the back
of their head if an opportunity does come up yeah absolutely I love that too because
it's like I think so many people are applying for jobs these days and then even I sometimes
like I posted something about my work but somehow that like triggered a bunch of people
to reach out to me to work with me if I was hiring I was like wait I'm not hiring I'm
just a person online yeah but I was like okay so that's interesting but then also I think
just like being intentional and like actually trying to talk with people instead of like
hey like are you hiring is maybe a bit more effective because what I notice is sometimes
like I think people have like automated I don't know if they're using AI I think they
are but they have like these automated searches linked and it just almost seems as if like
they're not paying attention and like some robot is like scanning linkedin like I use
like this phrase like are you looking for graphic design and then a bunch of people
were like oh you're hiring I was like no and I realized is because I put looking for in
the pedd inst yeah yeah which is super weird but yeah yeah it's a whole other road to go
down the AI road no it's that kind of stuff can be effective and it's yeah but it is interesting
to see like what the internet gives back to you like you were actually looking for opportunities
but it seized those two words and it's like oh no she wants employees I got spammed it
was super weird yeah so I mean that's just one thing but yeah yeah that's why it's good
to like just talk to people anything else you can think of I'm like trying to think
of like you know what I would say to myself when I started in 2020 and it was a different
world too because I started Chillington in person and then it moved online and then so
I was even like working when I was in the program still and sometimes that was just
kind of like you said like asking people what they were working on like showing them what
I did for design and it was kind of convenient actually because I think more people needed
design than they were aware of because they're like okay like this is actually gonna help
me in my work yeah yeah yeah I mean I think the other thing that comes to mind is if you
have other creative passion projects do those like you have your illustration and who knows
maybe illustration will be your main thing at some point it's really never know I think
it's like always worth exploring all the different things you're you're interested in and seeing
where those lead another random thought that comes to mind is just be yourself I know that
sounds very cliche but like speaking about social media and that kind of thing I guess
now people are maybe wanting a less curated look like people want to actually know who
the other person on the other end of the phone is like you don't have to look perfect or
present perfectly you don't have to do a copy paste of the video that an artist that you
admire did if it if it's not authentic to you so yeah those are just two of my little
nuggets of wisdom is just like don't be afraid to fully be yourself doesn't have to look
like what the next person did even if what they did was successful yeah yeah just keep
like being curious about creating sometimes people are recognizing too like they're afraid
of perfection like if something seems like too good to be true it almost is like a hindrance
they're like wait can I reach out to this person yeah yeah exactly yeah it's like oh
that's too it's above my I'm not looking for all of that yeah yeah yeah all right um
okay I'm gonna have you pick a card I made Marlene do this too okay and then these are
kind of fun too like I think with design sometimes I try to be more playful so it's like you
know sometimes you don't always have the answers but here one two or three I'm gonna do the
one on your left um this one oh maybe the one this one okay oh this one's cool it's
black jaguar claim your spiritual power oh yeah I love these cards too that the illustrator
is like really yeah okay and then we're gonna do some rapid fire so you ready um painting
or designing painting nyc or la la fall or winter well coffee or tea coffee planned or
spontaneous spontaneous lake or ocean ocean magazines or posters magazines okay great
that's all I have yeah yeah no they are it's kind of like a nice way of rounding it up
it had so much fun talking with you and I'm curious you know maybe like like I overthink
a lot in my design work and but I like to ask you about their dreams like what's your
dream for the future doesn't have to be work related but like just what you imagine yourself
doing yeah I so I think I don't have the perfect uh work answer to that um because I'm still
figuring that out but otherwise I mean I do love traveling that's like obviously everyone's
gonna say that more traveling but yeah I think it's I just want to keep enjoying life and
like I do want to have the freedom and flexibility to go to places I want to go it doesn't have
to be you know huge extravagant trips it's I literally have a chalkboard right there
that's like Tahoe Big Bear you know certain little things explore more of California um
so I want to keep like being free living life being creative having fun uh continuing to
surround myself with positive loving people pretty much all the things I'm currently doing
I've been having a lot of moments of gratitude lately just feeling like oh I have I really
have a good life and I want to be able to just see that and appreciate it and keep doing
that so that's my answer yeah totally you have a great life you're living in LA you're
making your art you have a design job and you have peach she's amazing who's been so
quiet she's been good yeah sweet well I love it um okay thank you so much Paley for joining
us on the pool party all right friends so that was our interview with Paley on this
episode of the pool party go check out Paley's work her links are in the description and
I just wanted to remind you that I am selling key arts this month throughout the rest of
the year if you are a DJ writer podcaster who's looking to bring your brand to life
please feel free to reach out to me you can go to my website juliaespiro.me furthermore
if you're an artist and designer and you would love to be featured on the podcast hit me
up tell me about yourself or tell me about your friend if you think they should be interviewed
this podcast is all about sharing creative ideas supporting other creatives and that
is what I seek to bring out through the pool party so hope you have a great week and I'll
see you next time.