Jun 20, 2018 The importance of community with Anna Sian.
Anna Sian is a Creative Pioneer. She is a photographer, consultant, marketer, podcast promoter, and all around creative of female creative collective Eddie. She has worked with Staple Design, VSCO, Imprint Projects, as a marketing director, manager, and freelance content manager. Sian tried and true New Yorker who supports her passions; strengthening the voice for all women and Asian-Americans alike through Eddie. We took some time to sit down with Anna to talk about what it means to be a Creative Pioneer. Most importantly, how to be a Creative Pioneer while remaining true to yourself in the context of community.
Sian comes from a family that cultivated her individuality. She grew up in the East Village where her parents, who are now retired Architects, encouraged her to explore her creativity by signing her up for teen poetry workshops.
“Everyone was sitting in a circle introducing themselves, and that was my first introduction to a formal poetry workshop or poetry class. I was probably like 13, and at that moment, I realized that there are people in the room that are like me and have the same interest that I did, and I wasn’t weird or strange. This was the reason that I continue to become more creative and also learn from other people.”
As she began to cultivate her interests, through organizations like the Asian American Writers Workshop in St. Marks, she was able to find a community that greatly influenced her life, passions like poetry, and the foundation of work she is building now through her creative collective, Eddie.
Eddie
Eddie is an all-female creative collective that collaborates with brands and organizations while also addressing gender balance in the creative industry.
What makes Eddie unique, aside from their projects and creative endeavors, is the genuine camaraderie of the team. Although Eddie first began as a side-hustle, Sian realized that what she loved most about Eddie was being able to create amazing content with the people she loved, which has evolved into the brand that it is today. To put it more simply, make dope shit with dope people.
“Eddie was kind of, a side hustle in some ways, but we realized what we loved about Eddie was not only the client work, it was really just being together and making things together. And so over the last couple months, we’ve decided to evolve it into its own brand.”
Before her creative pursuits, Sian was consulting and working full-time at WB Engineers+Consultants as a Marketing Assistant.
The necessity of community was revealed to Anna during her stint as a consultant, working remotely, Sian comes to the consensus that she thrived amongst a strong working community. As most freelancers work alone, Sian knew that she wanted to be in an environment where she could grow through a collaborative process.
“I was doing a lot of marketing consulting work on my own, and I loved it. But a lot of it was remote, and I realized that I’m a very social person. This is a completely personal answer. Moving on from consulting didn’t have as much to do with money or stability or benefits as it did for just my personal work style. And what makes me happy and I what I realized was that me being a computer at home is nice, but it’s just really lonely.”
Finding your people
“I think I’ve always been trying to find my people, in whatever way I can. I have many varied interests. Like I used to be in a band because I love music. And I used to write spoken word poetry, and so I went to workshops for that. I’m very active in the Asian-American like political kind-of community, in my own way. I’m also very active in the Filipino American Community Care. There was a time when I was especially active in that, so I was seeking out people like myself. It was a way to like, amplify my own message or my own like passions, I guess. So for me, communities are like, in this very selfish way it’s a way to grow. But it’s also a way to amplify and powers your passions in, for example, helping a certain demographic or Community.”
When the balance of finding your people and developing your passions are aligned, great things happen. The unique sea of passions Sian cultivates today, were discovered by doing things that she loved, like being in a band, writing poetry and being active in the Filipino American Community. Sian says that “communities are in a way, a very selfish way to grow” because your people, your community, “amplifies your message and passions.” A Creative Pioneer tries everything at the risk of failing. Not just thinking about trying things, but actually doing them at the risk of falling flat on your face. Because the experience of doing is worth the risk of not uncovering your passions.
Being a Creative Pioneer
Being a Creative Pioneer means cultivating a cause. It means asking yourself if you are doing something because you want to matter or because you think it matters. Eddie is something that Sian and her team do to not conform to the norm and overproduced causes of what floods the creative industry. In the context of remaining a creative individual, there is a need to see through the typecasting sameness that is prevalent in the industry. It’s a constant challenge and test in the creative sector to not fall into the redundancy and focus on the cause you are trying to cultivate.
At the end of the day, being a Creative Pioneer means stepping out of your well-structured box and using tools to make something you can be obsessed about, and something you can sit back and say “oh shit, that’s mine” too.
Photos & Writing by: Justin Ryan Kim