ILENIA MARTINI, CREATIVE CONSULTANT, BERLIN, GERMANY

Tell us about yourself and what you do?

I am a creative consultant and I run Neni Studio which is a visual communication agency that I co-founded in 2017. Neni Studio works with international design and lifestyle brands to create digital communication strategies and content aimed for social media.

How did you get into photography and creative consulting?

I got into photography pretty early on in life. Mine is one of those stories where one of the parents introduces the medium. For me it was my dad, who with both film cameras and 16mm film recorded my childhood from basically birth to age thirteen.

I had mixed feelings about turning it into a career, so I experimented within the field, assisting other photographers and then becoming an editor and ultimately went to film school where I graduated as DoP (Director of photography for Film).

Fast forward to 2015 where after seven years in New York, I relocated back to Europe for a job as Head of Creative for a Design brand called Hem - where I worked until 2017. In the meantime the work I had done for them got quite the traction and started receiving requests for work outside if the brand and that’s when I decided to consult. It was a natural transition.

What’s your creative process?

It’s messy - that’s for sure. It doesn’t really follow any specific rule but one thing is constant, I write everything down on paper, and I sketch a lot - from concepts to ideas that come to mind. You’ll never find me without a pen and a notebook.

A fun fact about yourself?

Ah, I don’t know if this is fun, but for sure for me it is.
I have a thing for pens and paper, well, stationery in general.

When do you feel most inspired?

I feel like inspiration is a muscle that needs constant training, so I constantly work on it. From reading/flipping through books about architecture, typography, art, photography, to watching films with incredible cinematography. I usually dedicate a couple of hours to inspiration and research each week, no matter what project I am working on.

How would you describe your aesthetic?

I would say ‘experimental’. I like to mix colors and patterns in a subtle way and I stay away from matchy-matchy pairings for both work and personal style.

How do you think COVID has affected the creative industry?

It’s a change that has caught everyone off-guard and nobody had the time to adjust gradually to this new way of living.

Here in Europe, I am in Sweden, it’s still a work in progress. Digitalization hasn’t come naturally to the creative industry but I see, very happily, that the ones who embraces this shift rather than resisting it have been thriving. One big change that Covid brought is expose different mediums/possibilities, look at NFTs for instance - perhaps if Covid hadn’t hit, it wouldn’t have had such positive reactions from both art and creative industry in general.

Who are some other creatives that inspire you?

I am always keeping an eye out on the fashion and art world. I am constantly inspired by Gabriela Hearst and Lucy Chadwick.

What kind of flower brings you the most joy?

Ah, this is a tough one because I love flowers. I feel like I have to say roses because I have a huge rose tattoo on my arm.

They are so underestimated and there’s so many beautiful variants that you’ll never have the same experience twice!

What do you hope to achieve in 2021?

Some renewed energy to step outside my boundaries - I’d love to try new paths!

You can find more of ilenia’s work here:

Website

Instagram

Catherine Jensen, Photographer, Melbourne

Tell us about yourself and what you do?

I’m a 31 year old human who’s obsessed with flowers and in perpetual awe of nature in general. I have a few different balls in the air at the moment, spending my days creating photographic floral works for my little print business, making music and now I’m just about to head back to uni (yikes) to do finish my masters.

How did Catherine Jensen Design start?

I started creating my floral prints a few years ago after being diagnosed with a movement disorder known as Dystonia 6, a genetic condition where your muscles start to work against the motions you're most practised at. I’d started having symptoms when I was 18 but because it’s quite rare, it took 8 years for doctors to figure out what was going on. I had many things to be joyful for during that period but it was also a really tricky time. I’d always been very active and loved working with my hands, and I could feel myself slowly becoming less capable of engaging in the things I love most. At the time of my diagnosis, I was in complete no man's land about what I wanted to do career wise, grieving for the life I thought I’d have and struggling to find purpose in my days. The prints where born during this time. I’d become a Christian a few years earlier and despite my confusion over what the future held, I truly believed (still do) that God loved me and and would work all these hard things together for blessing.

Spurred on by this faith, I started getting up every morning and praying that God would give me inspiration for the day ahead and he really met me in that. I kicked off drawing and then when my hand began stiffening up, I moved on to taking photos. I chose flowers as my subject because I was spending my days surrounded by the most beautiful blooms as I worked away in my parents back garden. I became utterly entranced by the abundance of different colours, shapes, textures and seasons that made each flower unique in its beauty, and decided to create a series of works that reflected these characteristics. I wanted to try and share with people what I was seeing when I looked at each individual flower. However strangely, it's through this creative process that I became more able to trust the way God’s made me and rest peacefully in the knowledge that just because my disorder has changed my shapes and colours, it doesn’t make them any less beautiful or void them of purpose. They've just changed the way I bloom. Corny but oh so true. My hope for these prints is that they would uplifting, bringing a little bit of peace and a simple dose of beauty to the lives of those who acquire them. 

What kind of flower brings you the most joy?

It’s so hard to choose just one! But if I had to it would be the Wisteria in all its colours. I love the way they climb and entangle themselves around an arbor or pergola, and how the flowers fall from the branches. It looks straight out of a fairytale.

What’s your creative process?

It usually starts with me having an idea and developing a clear picture of what I want to create in my head. This is followed by a series of photographic iterations and digital editing that goes on until I’m happy with the result. Sometimes it takes a couple of hours and sometimes a couple of days. 

A fun fact about yourself?

I still love climbing trees. I don’t understand why people stop doing this post childhood. It’s pretty darn fun!

When or how do you feel most inspired to create?

Hard to say, because it’s something that ebbs and flows so much for me. I do think though that the times where I’m most inspired to create are born of moments where I’m stirred emotionally to joy, sorrow or anything in between, by various personal or collective circumstances. 

How would you describe your aesthetic?

Minimal and colourful.

If you could choose any vocation in the world which would you choose?

A film composer or some kind of writer.

Who are some other artists that inspire you?

From musicians to filmmakers, writers, visual artists and performers, I'm inspired by so many different kinds of art and artists. At the moment I'm obsessing over a brass quartet called The Westerlies. I've been playing 'Robert Henry' on repeat. In visual arts, the melodramatic old hollywood creations of photographer and film maker, Alex Prager are current favourites of mine.

How has COVID affected The Arts Industry, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this?

With a lot of arts workers in freelance, contract and casual roles the industry's been hit pretty hard across the board. It's a tough time for us, as with so many other sectors. It's not all doom and gloom though, I do have a few illustrator friends who actually say they're busier than ever. I guess one of the results of people having more free time is that they're finally getting around to starting projects they've been putting off. I think it's encouraging that amidst the job losses there are still little pockets of growth. I'm really interested to see how the industry continues to adapt and rebuild throughout and post pandemic. There's an old english proverb that says "Necessity is the mother of invention" which basically means that the greatest innovations are often rooted in need. Creative's are nothing if not innovators, so while the industry and our roles along with it may be changing, I'm confident that we'll be able to evolve with it. And who knows, maybe this pressure cooker we're all sitting in will bear some of the greatest art and innovation the 21st century has seen. 

You can find more of Catherine’s work here:

Website

Instagram