Three creative entrepreneurs on starting your own business
Do you know how to become one of the best action sports photographers in the world? How to write a travel guide that caters to the nebulous nature of the modern creative? What about how to start your own award-winning studio that works with Nike and MoMA?
These are just a few of the things our speakers at Semi Permanent Sydney managed to accomplish in seemingly impossible timeframes. So while hanging out on-site at the Dropbox Studio, SP founder Murray Bell asks how you can kick off your own creative endeavour (and avoid burnout in the process).
Michael Canning, Founder, Exceptional Alien
Throughout his career as an award-winning creative director, Michael Canning has covered a lot of ground. What he couldn't prepare for however, was the experience of what it meant to work in an entirely new culture from scratch. He founded Exceptional Alien — a city guide for creative professionals — to fill in the gaps. "I like talking from the bigger cultural perspective, how working in new cultures influences creativity. I find some of the chats I have are really fascinating, where people can pinpoint where their approach might have changed while working [overseas]."
Scott Serfas, Photographer
Scott Serfas is a legend in the action sports photography scene. With over 100 magazine covers to his name, the Vancouver snowboarder has worked on everything from feature documentaries with Travis Rice to brand work with GQ and Red Bull. "You just have to let nature dictate what the day is going to be. That could be the best day or the worst day; it could mean accidents and avalanches or days where you say 'how did you do that."
Lana Kim, Co-Founder and Executive Producer, Ways and Means
Having previously produced music videos for the likes of Beck, Bob Dylan and Depeche Mode, Lana Kim co-founded Ways and Means to broaden the parametres of creative production in a new world order. After working with brands like Apple, Beats and Kenzo, we collaborated with them (and Dropbox!) to produce a four-part mini-documentary on designing the Semi Permanent 2018 opening titles (check it out!). "Seeing how [the design team] were video chatting and sending files to eachother and using Dropbox Paper to map out their inspirations and direction, that's the meat of the process and a lot more interesting. Giving creativity some room to breathe and grow — amazing things come out of it rather than boxing it into a pre-conceived idea of what something should be."
