Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Adesanmi.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Victoria. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Growing up, I’ve always been creative. It’s so funny because a couple a weeks ago, my parents came across my kindergarten report card and my teacher at that time shared how much I enjoyed doing art and sharing my ideas. To be honest not much has changed since.
However, growing up in a traditional Nigerian household my parents wanted me to pursue a traditional career — either being a doctor or a lawyer. To them, art was a hobby.
However, when it came time to apply for college, surprisingly my father introduced me to Industrial Design. It was a fair compromise where I could still utilize my creativity. I graduated from North Carolina State University in 2013 with Bachelor of Industrial Design and had dreams of working in the fashion industry and moving to New York City.
Fast forward to 2014, I was living in NYC and I was miserable at my first job out of college. I thought, “Okay God – I know I did not spend four years in college for a design degree to owe hella student debt and not be happy.” I enrolled in an evening class at FIT as an outlet to keep my design skills up to date, where a colleague of mine introduced me to PENSOLE: a footwear design academy based in Portland, OR.
At this time, they were a hosting a design competition where winners would be selected to participate in a 5-week footwear intensive. I applied, got in, and took a leap of faith to quit my job and head across country to Portland, OR. It was definitely nerve-racking not having a job lined up for sure, but I was like hey what is the worst that can really happen? Now the rest is history, as I currently work at Adidas as a color + material designer for special collaborations here in Los Angeles, CA.
Outside of my 9-5: I am a multidisciplinary designer and creative director. I love all things as it relates to design and as I continue to elevate in my career, I want to expand upon on my talents and not be defined by the label of my corporate job. I’ve always had a love for interior design, set design, production design, and art direction. I promised myself as soon as I stepped foot In Los Angeles, CA I would make these dreams happen.
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely not. If there is one thing I am learning: process. Immediately, when I knew I wanted to expand upon my design skills, I decided to enroll in UCLA Extension for Interior Design. Working full time + enrolling in school full time was no joke. I decided to switch to part-time because I started to become overwhelmed. I accepted that time is on my side and I had to remind myself what’s for me won’t miss me.
It’s kind of ironic now that you are interviewing me in the midst of this process. However, in this season, I am learning what it truly means to bet on yourself. It isn’t easy by any means and you have to be willing to be confident in the things you do not know to be able to ask for help. The biggest thing I had to resolve was taking to the time to reflect on how I want to define myself. Society has conditioned our generation to be extraordinary at one thing, but there are many things I personally enjoy doing that I excel at. I am finally accepting that I can be a “jack of all trades” and that I can empower and define how I want to be labeled versus taking labels that have been placed upon me.
Honestly, it has been nothing but my faith in God himself that has gotten me this far and that will continue to propel me to all the great things He has in store for me.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
As a multidisciplinary, I do it all. Whether it is doing art direction + set design for an event or helping clients transform and curate their personal space to make it uniquely their own.
My most favorite project to date was a project I did in January 2019 for 0106. Plus: a multi-disciplinary collective of musicians, designers, photographers, and artists. They create digital content, offline events, and tangible products for creatives to learn, connect, find inspiration, and highlight their talents. This collective hosted their first event in Los Angeles, CA in collaboration with Trillectro where I was able to do the art direction + set design for this event.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @vic.adesanmi
Image Credit:
Photography by Jon Thomas + Dylan Millsap
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