Daily Inspiration: Meet Eleena Bakrie

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eleena Bakrie.

Hi Eleena, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Kids are simple creatures. Do you remember in childhood where the kids in school that had the most friends were popular because they could do a simple thing pretty well? Like how the kid who could run the fastest became popular by default??

Anyway, I was that kid who could draw Pikachu really well, and to any little kid in my day that was super cool. Just ask my mom; she would vouch for me. Feeling liked was a pretty nice feeling, and feeling liked for being sort of good at something was all my kid brain needed to be convinced I had some sort of direction in life. All that is to say, I’ve gone this far chasing a feeling I had as a five-year-old, and also that I might have peaked in kindergarten. Which we all know is a giant green flag and total babe behaviour.

Everything beyond that is a pretty standard immigrant success story, picking your answers in life’s version of the choose your own adventure questionnaire, a lot of good luck, supportive family and friends, and a sprinkle of diligence. I’m not going to pretend that I always knew what I wanted to do with myself; I just knew I wanted to keep doing something that made me feel good, ended up in America and found myself a career that helped me keep doing just that, and I’m endlessly thankful for all the help I’ve had along the way.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Here are my top three:

1.) Moving far away from home and letting go of everything I held dear for the first 20 years of my life.

2.) Coming to terms with the fact that I have a commercially artistic career and that I cannot for a fact spend my days bumming around in the sun baking bread and planting flowers.

3.) Accepting the quickening pace of time/inevitability of mortality while my spine becomes increasingly shrimp-shaped in my overpriced ergonomic office chair.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I come from humble beginnings being an illustrator working in Motion Design! I used to love both design and animation, but these days I’ve moved more to specializing in design.

What I enjoy most about myself is that I don’t take myself too seriously, and I try to have fun in my work wherever I can. If I can draw something silly where it doesn’t usually belong and bring a little cheer to someone else’s day, I would consider it a good day of work.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I would like to think that the pandemic has changed everyone’s perspective about work-life balance and that the importance of being on-site is being reckoned with by employers. While work is important to give an individual a sense of belonging and purpose, it’s also incredibly important to have support systems outside of it, as well as hobbies and interests besides your career.

I’m very fortunate to have a fully remote position which allows me to travel and work abroad, which gives me a chance to still be a part of the lives of the people I care about who are strewn across this globe. I would never be able to do that being anchored to one spot, and I can speak honestly on how much it has changed my life for the better. The pandemic has also opened up the possibility of working with people all across the world, which leads to a diverse way of thinking and a meshing of cultures.

If anything, I hope that even with such a bizarre and unfortunate situation like a pandemic, we can take it as a chance to understand the things in life that should be prioritized.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinncau/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleena-bakrie/
• Other: www.eleenabakrie.design

Image Credits
Patrick Knip Eleena Bakrie Peder Barratt-Due