Author: Camila Creel Vallejo

This process of transporting the abstract idea I have in my head to the real world has been both challenging and frustrating, particularly because I am constantly questioning myself and my idea. However, I have decided that this is the last time I will state that both in this blog and in real life and I will just go with it.

The Idea

My idea is in a way divided in two things I want to do.

1. Become a connection between creative individuals with different talents (writers, screenwriters, artists, etc.) and people with projects that need to hire this individuals.
2. Helping people bring their ideas to life, helping them in the process of downloading their ideas from their head to the real world. And then organizing and creating the necessary team for their idea to become a reality, however not being involved in the implementation part of the idea.

There are a few reasons behind why I want to do this. First, I intend this to become a business that eventually will satisfy me both creatively and financially. Second, I feel through talking with different freelance creative professionals that it is quite hard to bring their ideas to life on their own or get the opportunity to work on projects they would like and excel in within the industry as an independent creative (not being part of a big company).

I also know that on occasion working for a big company can end up drying up your creativity and thus you become frustrated, unmotivated and it is impossible to live to your enormous potential.

I believe that throughout this few week while I write in this blog this ideas will be filtered and reconstructed a few times, and I am excited to see where they end up leading me. For now, the next steps that I will be following are:

1. Primary research: I will talk to a few people who would be “my potential clients” or stakeholders to see if this idea that I have is actually a need that exists, if it would be desirable to them, and also to try to establish what are the particular areas in which they would need “help” with and where I can intervene.
2. Secondary research: I will do some academic readings, specially in the area of art direction, talent management, collaborative creative thinking/working, as well as in general in the creative industries and management for I think these topics will help me narrow down the particulars of this project.
3. I will think in particular “What is the change I want to see” and “Why”

I was brought up surrounded by books and the captivating stories my father would tell me during the weekends. As soon as I learned to read my paradise became the warm, cozy atmosphere of my school’s library and my constant companions were the enthralling characters I found in my books. As a young girl, I was an introvert preferring the fictional realities found within pages to what I thought were the monotone rhythms of everyday life.

I grew up and my interests expanded outside of the pages and into a world of multidimensional stories around me that I had surprisingly not noticed before. As the years passed by and I shed my shyness and my girlhood, my curiosity exploded, aimed first into the magic of film and later into art and history. I had the privilege of traveling to different countries and every new place I visited captured me with hushed whispers of past and present. I started to listen to what these places had to tell and notice how differently each place told its stories. I felt like a time traveler, an observer privy to the wildest secrets.

When the time came to choose what to study in university I chose Communications with the intention of exploring different pathways that I had an interest in. Through some twists and turns and unexpected opportunities, I ended up in Boston for six months in an exchange program where I discovered that I could write. This revelation changed my chosen specialization from film to journalism.

Right after university, I started working at a lifestyle and culture magazine in Mexico as an editorial intern. Within the glossy walls of my first workplace, I discovered once again another source of stories that I had overlooked: people. I started to listen to everyone who wanted to talk to me. I learned what questions to ask and observed carefully things that people would tell me without words. I rose rapidly through the ranks of the magazine and became digital editor.

Soon, I had outgrown that place and my thirst for knowledge could not be satisfied in Mexico. I set out for London to do my first MA in Creative Industries and Arts Organisation at Queen Mary University. Here, I learned about the different creative industries and the historical impact and importance they have had economically and socially. Though the COVID pandemic sent me back to Mexico just six months into my MA, I decided that London and I still had some blank pages that would need to be filled.

During the two following years, I finished my MA dissertation, worked at a Content Creation and Talent Management Agency, and landed a job at Conde Nast as an adaptation editor at GQ. However, the opportunity to return to London arrived with an acceptance letter to attend Central St. Martins MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries.

And so, one of the most complex yet fulfilling experiences of my life started. I decided that people’s stories needed to be told. I wanted to find a way to become that channel through which creative individuals would be able to tell their own stories and their project’s stories, in such a way that would engage whoever came in contact with them, with the final objective of helping them reach their goals. My project is a Creative Consultancy, based on my experience as a writer and editor and focused on helping young creative individuals learn how to tell the most captivating stories, through mastering narrative structures and tools as well as guiding people to take control of their own creative identities to gain the confidence needed to become their own storytellers.