How You Create

After a long hiatus, How You Create is back and hopefully better than ever. In this episode, Joshua and Ben walk through the most recent Link Up post from the newsletter. Which - spoiler alert, Joshua hadn’t read before the episode, so if you haven’t either, that’s okay. The guys discuss and try to break down things like OpenAI’s chatgpt, the future of NFTs, Airbnb and fees, the state of the market, the hype of brand collaborations, wedding photography, and a whole lot more.

From Michigan to Hollywood, Maegan Houang talks with Joshua and Ben to share her creative journey and pull back the curtain on what it's like to work in Hollywood, build a career in film, and share how much money you need to live as a writer and director.

Maegan Houang is a writer/director interested in exploring the crushing absurdity of the human condition. She recently released two new music videos for Mitski. She is a story editor on Shōgun (FX) and previously served as a staff writer on Season Two of Counterpart (Starz/MRC). She also co-wrote the feature film Jamojaya directed by Justin Chon (Blue Bayou, Gook)  starring Indonesian rapper Rich Brian. In 2018, she received a VSCO Voices Creator Grant from Access Ventures to direct a short film she wrote In Full Bloom starring Kieu Chinh (The Joy Luck Club). The film premiered online on Short of the Week and played at numerous film festivals including Fantastic Fest, Atlanta Film Festival, Oak Cliff, Hollyshorts, New Orleans, LAAPFF and Sidewalk Film Festival. She is currently in post on a new short film Astonishing Little Feet.

Maegan has also directed music videos for artists such as Mitski, Vagabon, Charly Bliss, Hana Vu, Chastity Belt and Skylar Spence. Her videos have been recognized by SXSW, Noisey, Fact Magazine, UKMVAs, Stereogum, Pitchfork, Raindance Film Festival, Vimeo Staff Picks and Videostatic. Her work primarily focuses on the complexity of the Asian-American experience, intergenerational trauma and her own experience living as a mixed-race American.

Watch some of Maegan's work here: https://maeganhouang.com/

This ain't no hobby. Amber Vittoria joins Ben and Joshua on the podcast this week to pull back the curtain on how she has thrived as a working artist. Most recently, Amber has embraced the digital art world and has minted numerous NFTs and has received attention and buyers like Reese Witherspoon and L'Oreal to support her work. 

Amber Vittoria is an artist and poet working in New York City. Taking advantage of the fluidity of her ink, color pencil and acrylic paints, Amber creates aqueous rainbow gradients that dominate her compositions. Punctuated by simple graphite line drawings and impactful words, her work draws on her relationship to femininity, emotion and societal expectations.

Amber has three sold-out NFT collections, is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Recipient,  One Club Young Gun, Society of Illustrators Gold Medalist, American Illustration Chosen Winner, AOI World Illustration Overall Winner, and ADC Annual Award Winner. Her work has been recognized by Print Magazine, It’s Nice That, Computer Arts, HuffPost, and Teen Vogue. Some of her clients include Facebook, Warby Parker, Apple, The New York Times, NBC, Google, Gucci, Condé Nast, Adidas, and Snapchat.

Follow her: @Amber_Vittoria

Joshua and Ben take a look back at the past year and discuss the highs and lows of episodes on the podcast, creative trends, creative tools, NFTs, and anything else we could remember. We also talk about what we expect to see happen in 2022. We'll be honest, I think we're conditioned from experiencing 2020/2021 to expect the worse so that we can be pleasantly surprised if the year goes well :)