We recently connected with Amy Wang and have shared our conversation below.
Amy, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
Thank you for having me and I am excited to share my creative journey! “Creativity takes courage.” an inspiring quote by Henri Matisse. As a creative designer, I personally do believe to be courageous in being creative and to keep it alive. Being true to my craft and how I express my passions does take a significant amount of courage to be transparent and to stay honest in what I value through all my art. When I feel stuck in my creative process, it is always a wonderful way to simply step back, and come back with a fresh set of eyes. Once I learned that instead of aiming for perfection, but instead to enjoy the process, I began to embrace all parts of my creative journey and see the beauty in all the imperfections. Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. Its own perfect moments come from ordinary ones. At times, it may feel I need to keep creating within the fast paced world. But nature has taught me to stop and to simply find beauty in all the magnificent big or small wildlife that’s around. My creative designs were inspired by the wildlife, and to keep my creativity alive is to go out in nature and to embrace all the beauty from mother nature. While out in the wild, taking wildlife photography has kept my creativity alive. It combines my two favorite things, being out in the wildlife and art! Everytime I step out into the wild, by observing all the leaves’ colors changing and flowers blooming, it reminds me that life is always changing and creating something new. Which not only kept my creativity alive, but also taught me the magnificent stories about the wildlife that inspired me to share with the world, and to help educate how we can all together help conserve the wildlife.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
As a director and a wildlife artist, I love what I do and I am passionate about creating art that tells impactful stories through visual designs. I believe story is king and with every good visual design always starts with a meaningful message to share. With my background raised in both Asia and American cultures, it opened my eyes to see beauty in each culture. It inspired me to design as a way to bridge the communication gap from different cultures. And has inspired me to create 3D/2D art to bring others serene and hope. I was born in Taipei, Taiwan and raised in Los Angeles. At a young age, growing up raised by two designers, my parents have opened my eyes to see art as a way to bridge the communication gap of the two cultures. Visiting my father’s chair designs showroom was always an inspiring part of my childhood. I was able to see customers from around the world enjoy my father’s chairs and saw how design can help their health. At a young age, I always knew I wanted to become a designer that can bring an impact and joy into the world.
Amy Wang Design is my design studio and online store where I showcase all my art prints and designs which are available for purchase. The mission of my creative arts are all to spread wildlife stories and how we can all help conserve and to protect our planet. I worked as a designer and director for clients such as National Geographic, Netflix, Apple, Snapchat, Comcast NBC, and entertainment VFX studios. I was fortunate to work with many wonderful creative teams across the world, and bring many impactful projects to live! One of my favorite 3D projects was for FKA Twigs music video “Sad Day”. It was an amazing project, where I got to art direct and explore various 3D elegant and abstract forms of organic flower blooming. I also designed for Apple, which I had worked on such as Harry Potter eBook cover design, Apple Music rebrand, Apple TV commercials, Apple Clips 360 AR app, and Apple Store wall display designs which were displayed around the world in 12 different countries. The Apple Store wall display designs were especially really fun to create, and they were displayed at various Apple stores around the globe. As a creative, a few of my favorite projects involve creating design solutions and visual designs for museum installations. One of my favorite projects is for National Geographic AR, where I got to art direct and design 3D visual designs for users to learn about Archaeopteryx through an interactive National Geographic AR experience. The playful and educational AR experience can be used freely to look around using an iPad to display the 3D AR animations. This installation has brought so much impact to many visitors to learn about the fossils and the life before us. It has always brought so much joy to collaborate with different clients on many impactful projects through designs. I am excited to share that I am currently writing and illustrating my book, and can follow my IG and website when it is released.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
It was definitely challenging throughout the creative journey. But I am thankful for all the people I met and family that had supported me throughout the way. For creatives, I believe the three important qualities are: One, be persistent. The journey might look tough at times, but embracing all parts of the process will make your design more enjoyable. With persistent and hard work it has helped me reach where I am today. Second, have empathy and be kind to one another. Especially with many things happening around the world, I believe as a creative designer, it is so important to use whatever we can to help others in need and to simply give back. Even if it’s sharing uplifting messages through my art that can empower a person’s life. Since the pandemic, I have created a 3D art print series with the mission to bring people serene and hope into their home. Third, it is never too late to learn something new. It is so important to always keep improving and developing your craft. For me, keeping up with all the latest 3D software and a positive mindset was very important for me.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
One of my recent books that has played an inspiring role in my creative process, is “Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction” by Thom van Dooren. Van Dooren has captured an emotional story of different species or groups of extinction bird stories. It was definitely an eye opener for me and to learn about different bird’s journeys and how our global economy has impacted them to extinction. As van Dooren writes, “Our flight ways have crossed, and each of us has become implicated in the fate of the other.” Like the Albatross birds, they spent most of their lives gliding inches above the sea, ingesting plastics and other contaminants that they in turn feed to their offspring, resulting in increased numbers of dead offspring. Fishing lines have had an equally devastating effect on the adults. Most humans may never set eyes on an albatross, but by eating seafood or by simply participating in a global economy that relies on shipping plastic stuff, we have all had an impact on these majestic birds. By having more knowledge about what is causing these birds to go extinct, this has inspired me to spread this message through my art on how we can together help conserve these beautiful creatures from extinction.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.amywangdesign.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amywangdesign/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amywangdesign
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@amywangdesign
Image Credits
© Amy Wang Design
