Industry Spotlight is the name of a new series of weekly interviews dedicated to sharing the inspirational stories of key individuals within the entertainment industries.
Last Monday I launched this series, interviewing the young and articulate Liam Tootill; Managing Director of SBTV. One week later and it’s time to showcase another inspirational entrepreneur, this time a female by the name of Livia Lucie. (No Andy Gray or Richard Keys business here!)
I met first met Livia when she was recommended to me as I was searching for a graphic designer to assist with one of my projects. I was immediately blown away by her portfolio and did not hesitate in commissioning her for her services.
A few years later and i’ve worked with Livia on multiple projects as she is an incredibly talented individual. As not only an entrepreneur but also an example of a young forward thinking mind, Livia is this week’s Industry Spotlight…
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Livia, I’m 19 and I run a very small design business, Three29Design. Currently it’s just me and a coder, but I hope to expand in the future. I officially set my business up early September 2009, so it’s in it’s second year, and I’m happy to say, so far so good!
I’ve worked for record labels (e.g. Pyramid Entertainment, Sonnet Music, The Black Wall Street), recording artists (e.g. Smiler, To The Republic, Ashley Noot), Club & Radio DJs (e.g. DJ Grind, DJ Stylus), Night Clubs (Tasty, Pure Nightclub Caesars Palace) and local businesses (Car-Stuff, Plumbers & Dentists).
How did you get into the Design industry?
It’s all thanks to Myspace. It all started by customizing my profile, designing my own layouts and then learning to code them. One day I got a message asking me ‘How much for a…?’ Making a bit of cash out of creating things had never crossed my mind before.
Networking via Myspace played a huge part for me – this was back in Myspace’s golden days. I connected with some brilliant people, who gave me a chance, even though I was very new to everything. A couple of names would be the former DJ Grind and En’rico ‘ESQ’ Dion. I appreciate every single person who has chosen to work with me, there’s so many talented people out there that they could have chosen instead, but they decided on working with me.
I started in the urban design scene but it’s now definitely time to – not leave that area for good – but to move on and ‘spread my wings’. I still love working within the music industry, however, hip hop only based work is no longer for me. I think that jobs for To The Republic and Pyramid Entertainment made me realize this. I’m definitely trying to be more local with my work too, and Nick over at Car-Stuff has helped me to do this.
Was this how you had planned things to go or are you capitalising on opportunities and simply rolling with it?
Everything I’ve done in the past has been completely unplanned. The opportunity to do this for some income grabbed me and I had to take it. I don’t like to waste an opportunity. I also think it’s quite hard to plan for things in this field.
We’re in a new era where anyone can create opportunities for themselves. Do you agree?
Definitely! However it requires a lot of self motivation and usually a lack of sleep, so be prepared.
Would you rather have 100,000 twitter followers to market to or an extra £10,000?
I’d have to take the £10,000. So much more could be done; upgrading programs, hardware, promotional prints and advertising to help market my business etc. Especially as the spam on twitter is so bad now, how many of those 100,000 would be real people?
What one thing can you not live without?
Music. It fuels everything!
If you wasn’t in this field, what would you be doing?
If I didn’t do graphic design, I would be serving in the Royal Artillery as an officer. That’s what I always wanted to do. I used to say I’d never get an office job, however, things don’t always work out the way you planned. If I get a chance in the future, I’ll be joining the Territorial Army.
With so many talkers and gamers out there claiming to be experts and influencers. Do you consider yourself a smooth talker, a real talker or a don’t talk to me i’m not a talker?
I’m a quiet person, I’ll wait until everyone else is done talking to say my part, but it will be truthful. If your bum looks big in that dress I will let you know! Same goes for clients’ ideas for their projects. I’m by no means an expert though, in fact I’m a very long way away from being an expert at any of this.
Am I an influence? Well I must be, seeing as I have had pieces of my work completely stolen by people claiming it as their own, chopped up and altered, or my style completely copied. This is not the influencing I want to do! In the end they’re still copying the old me and making the same mistakes I made. I’ve moved on. One day hopefully I can influence others properly, but for now I am quite happy being one of the influenced, there’s so many extremely talented people out there.
Name three people who have inspired you in your life.
In the design side of things these people have inspired me:
• I’ve always been a fan of C-Le’s work, and last year I collaborated on a project with him, which was pretty cool!
• When I stumbled on Godmachine’s work it blew me away, and made me want to get into illustration based pieces.
• I love how Chuck Anderson aka NoPattern works with light. Seeing his work made me want to try out more light based effects.
If you were a superhero, who would you be?
I’m going to have to live up to my twitter name and say I’d be a villain, with hair of fire and super strength. It seems so much more fun to be a villain …plus the costumes are better 🙂
Sidenote: When I told Livia that I meant which ‘actual’ superhero would she be and not to describe her own one imaginative one; she said… “apparently Alice (from Resident Evil) is a super-heroin so I’d be her. Always wanted to kick zombie ass.”
Glad we cleared that up o_O
What does the future have in store for you?
I hope that my business continues to do well, and eventually expands. I’m looking forward to interesting projects that will have me biting my nails… because I always find it’s those projects that always turn out the best, and make you evolve as a designer. Oh… and hopefully a nice Bentley GT 🙂
And finally, if you could give one piece of advice to young creative minds, what would it be?
Go for it! Put your heart and soul into it, and you can get to where you want to be… even if you do become an insomniac whilst doing so.
You can check out Livia’s full Portfolio here http://www.three29design.com where you will find all her amazing work! Feel free to get in touch via her Portfolio or by any of the social networks below!
Follow Livia on Twitter & also follow her company Three29Design
Make sure you ‘like’ the Three29Design Facebook page here
If you want to suggest somebody who you believe needs a spotlight shone on their head, drop me a line via the contact page.