Tatiana Soash

If you could give your younger self any advice, what would it be? 

I was actually just talking to my friend about this. I think I would just tell myself to not be so nervous, scared and shy. Just to be myself and be more brave and realise that you are only young once. If you don’t capitalise on those experiences or opportunities that you have while you’re young, you’ll never get those back. So i think just telling my younger self that everything will be okay and to just enjoy the ride.

How did you get into design, art & all things creative?

I have always loved being creative, but it took me a long time. I have done so many things outside of design, so so many things - I have my real estate license, insurance license, my advertising degree, I have my substituting license, you name it, I have it. So I actually got into design because I had one of my mums friends come and meet me to give me advice on my career because I didn’t know what to do or where to go! He asked me, ‘what would you do if you knew you could do anything?’. And I said I would love to do layouts for a magazine, that is something that I love. Basically when you get that down to what is it?, it is graphic design and collaging which is a big part of my business and he said ‘why don’t you just do it?

I said well… I don’t know, I don’t have the right degrees blah blah blah. He said you can go on youtube and learn whatever it is you want to learn. So I literally went online and dedicated myself to creating a portfolio that I wanted to present to people. It wasn’t any real work, it was just stuff that I had made up. Then I saw an instagram that one of my favourite clothing labels was hiring for graphic designers and so I threw myself in the ring! I made a really cool resume and really tried to make myself standout and they actually hired me with no experience! That is where I learnt so much of my graphic design, photography and creative direction skills. So I am so grateful for that job and that they gave me the chance & that I literally had zero experience.

What inspires you when creating?

For me, I am very inspired by visuals and my environment. I really love looking at inspiration photos and taking bits and pieces from photos to create my vision. A lot of times I have an idea and it will evolve into something complete different and i love that process of brainstorming and letting my mind think about something. I get a lot of cool ideas when I am going for a walk or when I am away from the computer screen and i’m not thinking about anything. I will get a cool idea and I will just write it on my phone notes. So I think I get really inspired by nature, by imagery and definitely by a cool aesthetic - that visually and emotionally just fills me up.

Talk us through a challenge you have overcome & how you managed it.

I think for sure at first I was really challenged regarding my pricing. I think for a long time I was stuck on time rather than value so I was stuck on that for a long time. So i think just overcoming that and realising just how much my creativity was worth was a big challenge for me. Once I did overcome it, it really changed for me and opened bu my business and the possibilities within my business.