Check Out Creed’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Creed.

Hi Creed, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always been someone who moved between different creative worlds. I grew up on the West Side of Chicago, and from an early age I was fascinated by art, film, music, fashion, animation, and storytelling. I eventually studied 3D Animation and Film at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, but even then I never saw myself doing just one thing creatively.

A large part of my professional career has been in visual merchandising, particularly within fashion and luxury retail. That experience taught me a lot about presentation, branding, storytelling, and the importance of detail in shaping how people emotionally connect with a product, space, or idea. At the same time, I was always creating outside of work through photography, video, graphic design, music, and personal art projects.

After moving to Los Angeles, those different interests gradually started connecting instead of feeling like separate pursuits. That became the foundation for Xodustudios, my creative and media studio, and later Architects of Mars, which is probably the clearest expression of how my brain works. Architects of Mars combines art, design, music, fashion, science fiction, worldbuilding, and storytelling into one universe built around curiosity, imagination, evolution, and the idea of creating better futures.

Over the last few years, I’ve also become much more intentional about building original intellectual property rather than only creating individual pieces of content. I’m developing animated projects, short films, music-driven visual experiences, apparel, art collections, and other concepts that can all live within the larger Xodus/Architects ecosystem.

The journey hasn’t really been a straight line, and I think that’s one of the things I appreciate most about it now. Skills and experiences that once seemed unrelated have started becoming pieces of the same puzzle. My background in fashion influences my characters and product design. Film influences the way I make artwork. Music influences how I edit and build worlds. Even years of visual merchandising taught me lessons about composition and storytelling that I use constantly today.

At this stage, my goal is bigger than simply making things. I want to build sustainable creative businesses around original ideas, collaborate with other talented people, and eventually use what I build to create opportunities and resources for younger creatives who may not always have access to them.

So I’d say where I am today is really the result of staying curious long enough for all of those different paths to finally meet.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It definitely hasn’t been a completely smooth road. One of the biggest challenges has been learning how to build a creative career while still handling the realities of everyday life.

For a long time, I was balancing a professional career in visual merchandising with everything I wanted to create outside of it. That meant working full schedules and then finding the energy, time, and resources to develop ideas at night, on weekends, or whenever I could carve out space. A lot of what I’ve built has been self-funded, so I’ve had to learn how to be resourceful and make progress even when the ideal budget, team, or amount of time wasn’t available.

Another challenge was understanding where I fit creatively. I’ve always been interested in a lot of different disciplines, and for years I sometimes felt like I needed to choose one. Was I a filmmaker? A designer? An artist? A photographer? Someone working in fashion? Eventually I realized that trying to separate those things was actually working against me. The real breakthrough came when I started seeing all of those interests as one creative language.

There have also been the normal creative struggles: projects taking longer than expected, ideas that don’t work the first time, questioning whether something is ready, and learning when to keep refining versus when to release the work and move forward. I’ve had to become much more comfortable with experimentation and with allowing the work to evolve in public.

Probably the biggest lesson has been learning to trust my own perspective. It’s very easy, especially now, to look around and see what everyone else is doing and feel pressure to follow a certain formula. The more I’ve grown creatively, the more I’ve realized that the things that initially made my path feel unconventional are the same things that make the work distinctive.

The road is still being built, honestly. But I think I’ve become much better at seeing obstacles as information rather than stop signs. If something doesn’t work, I adjust, learn from it, and keep building.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My work sits at the intersection of art, design, film, music, fashion, animation, and storytelling. I’m the founder of Xodustudios, which is the larger creative studio and media platform through which I develop original projects, visual content, and intellectual property. Under that umbrella, I’m building everything from animated concepts and short films to music-driven visual projects and design work.

A major part of that universe is Architects of Mars, or AOM. It actually began as a fashion brand, but as I continued developing the imagery, characters, and ideas around it, the concept started to outgrow fashion. I realized there was a much larger story there that I wanted to explore.

Architects of Mars has since evolved into an art and storytelling universe centered around an ancient, highly advanced civilization on Mars. Within the mythology, the Architects existed long before modern humanity, and part of the larger story explores the possibility that they may even represent one of the original seeds of human life. That gives me a huge canvas to explore ideas around evolution, curiosity, technology, culture, and what humanity could potentially become.

It allows me to combine many of the things I love into one space: science fiction, character design, fashion, architecture, music, philosophy, sports, and visual storytelling. What started as clothing concepts has grown into something with its own history, characters, collections, music, and expanding universe.

I think what I specialize in most is worldbuilding. I love taking an idea and asking what else could exist around it. If I design a character, I’m thinking about what they wear, where they live, what music exists in their world, what their culture values, and what their story might become. I’m rarely interested in creating just one isolated image. I’m interested in creating the larger universe that image came from.

Visually, my work also blends a lot of influences that normally wouldn’t occupy the same space. I can pull inspiration from comic books, luxury fashion, old science-fiction illustration, hip-hop, jazz, animation, cinema, video games, and advertising, then reinterpret those influences through my own perspective. I think that combination has become one of the things people recognize in my work.

What I’m most proud of is that I’ve continued developing my own creative language instead of forcing myself into one category. For a long time, being interested in so many different disciplines felt like something I needed to narrow down. Now I understand that the combination is actually the point.

I’m also proud that the work is becoming more than a collection of projects. I’m building an ecosystem of original ideas and intellectual property that can grow into art, animation, film, music, products, experiences, and collaborations over time.

Ultimately, what sets me apart is curiosity. I’m constantly asking, “What else could this become?” That question is probably at the center of everything I create.

What are your plans for the future?
The biggest thing I’m looking forward to is continuing to grow these ideas into something larger and more sustainable.

For a long time, I was focused on making individual projects. Now I’m thinking much more about building worlds, intellectual property, and creative systems that can continue expanding over time. With Xodustudios, I want to develop more original film, animation, comedy, and storytelling projects while continuing to work across design, music, and visual media.

Architects of Mars is a huge part of that future. I’m continuing to expand the mythology through artwork, music, storytelling, fashion, and eventually more animation and narrative projects. There are still so many parts of that universe I haven’t shown yet, which is exciting because I feel like I’m only beginning to reveal how large the concept really is.

I’m also becoming increasingly intentional about creating a professional life where my own ideas and businesses occupy more of my time. I’ve spent years balancing creative work with a traditional career, and the goal now is to continue shifting that balance toward the things I’m building myself.

Long-term, success for me also includes being able to create opportunities for other people. One of my biggest goals is eventually building resources and spaces for young creatives, particularly kids who may have the imagination and talent but not necessarily the access, equipment, mentorship, or encouragement to explore it.

In the immediate future, I’m excited for people to experience Architects of Mars: Flow State Vol. 3, the latest chapter of the music and visual side of AOM. After that, I’ll begin opening the door to AOM Origins, which takes a much deeper look at the history and mythology behind Architects of Mars and some of the ideas that have been quietly developing underneath the project for years.

With both releases, the music is really the entry point into a larger world. Each project is designed to extend beyond what you hear into tangible pieces people can actually live with, including artwork for the home and wearable products. I’ve always liked the idea that someone can discover Architects of Mars through a song, then find another part of that same story hanging on their wall or represented in something they wear.

That relationship between storytelling, music, art, and product is something I want to continue expanding. I don’t necessarily want people to only consume these worlds. I want them to be able to bring pieces of them into their own lives.

There’s much more coming beyond that, but I’ve learned that sometimes it’s better to let people discover the next idea when it arrives.

The larger goal is longevity, creating opportunities, and building something that gives me the freedom to keep following my curiosity wherever it leads.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.architectsofmars.com and www.xodustudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/architectsofmars
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@aomlo-fi?si=hb-vTxYlsQimCvo9