On this episode, I speak with an inspiring friend of mine, Vincent Conti. Vin is currently a brand design at WeWork where he collaborates with a cross-disciplinary team of artists, illustrators, designers, and architects to craft the spaces and places people work at WeWork.
How We Met
- Vin and I met while working at a nightclub in New York City called Pacha. I was interning on the marketing team and Vin had just joined as a designer. Prior to the nightclub Vin was working part-time at a non-profit in his hometown and freelancing on the side for friends. One of the freelance gigs was designing club flyers for friends. One of the flyers Vin made actually was for a show at Pacha and eventually, the creative director reached out to see if he wanted to work at the club.
- While at the nightclub Vin was able to work on a ton of different projects of all sizes ranging from wristbands to massive posters. The process at the nightclub was very fast and rapid. While sometimes the deadlines were tight, this taught Vin to be confident in his work and also pushed him creatively to come up with endless ideas.
Vincent Conti flipping through pages of illustrations and designs he looks to for inspiration
Passion Projects
- While working at the nightclub Vin was inspired by the designers such as Jon Contino, Spencer Charles, and Simon Walker. This influenced him to start practicing and sketching typography which is now a big part of his portfolio today.
- Vin also finds time to work on projects for friends whenever possible outside of work. This helps him to practice his skills and do more of the work he would like to do when the opportunity to go independent arrives.
How Creatives Network
- After working at the nightclub for some time Vin moved back home and freelanced at agency while working on his portfolio. During this time Vin was very engaged on Dribbble which is a website for creatives to showcase their work. He was following the work of Jeremiah Britton at the time who is now the creative director of the WeWork team they both work on. Vin reached out to Jeremiah to ask about what his day-to-day looked like and his process since he really enjoyed his work. Because of this Jeremiah looked over Vin’s portfolio and suggested that he apply for the team and from there Vin got the job.
Big thanks to Vin for chatting with me on this episode. Sorry these notes are short for this episode. If you enjoy these write-ups and would like to see more please let me know on twitter or email me!
Footnotes
- Jon Contino
- Spencer Charles
- Simon Walker
- El Cortez
- Commodore
- Old Stanley’s
- Eric Friedensohn
