Meet Destiny Samuel of Ladera Heights

Today we’d like to introduce you to Destiny Samuel

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
First off, I would like to say that is a pleasure that I am being considered for this interview. As you know my name is Destiny Samuel, and I am originally born and raised in Queens, NY. I am currently a professional basketball player; however, I don’t like to consider myself to have any labels, I am simply just a universal creator. I consider myself to be universal now because of how much I travel, but LA is where I got to truly expand my work and my mind. Full scholarships as a student athlete have given me the opportunity to attend four different universities in a span of five years. I’ve had the pleasure of accompanying Temple University from 2018-2020, Binghamton University from 2020-2021, University of South Alabama from 2021-2022, and Loyola Marymount University 2022. Throughout those years it took grace, courage, and spiritual warfare to truly understand my creative niche. When I attended (LMU) for my grad year receiving my master’s degree in education, this is when I started to learn my mind and peak in ways I never thought I would. With the help of my peers and coaches who pushed me to expand myself outside of my sport, I started to network with people who had the same interest as me. I’m moving way too fast, let me tell you the trials and tribulations before the breakthrough. Before entering college, I have always had a keen interest in art, fashion, design, modeling, creative direction, and project management. It just took years to truly know what to describe these ideas as that just flow through my head. When I attended South Alabama, COVID took a toll on our basketball season, so I found the time to go in breakout rooms on campus and expand all of those ideas. First, I started selling my clothes as everyone was always interested in my wardrobe, then I said okay. How about I curate and host my own fashion show on campus. In the process of doing this the school invited me to be a model in their 2nd annual fashion show on campus and to help them expand their ideas. I put my fashion show on hold for the future and moved forward with this opportunity. Just a foot in the door somewhere in the world, where people can see that I was more than an athlete. When I committed to LMU my peers and coaches and university had all of the tools for me to rise in this field. The equipment was just handed to me, cameras, mics, podcasts, interviews, photoshoots, being an extra in music videos, etc. I took my graphic designing and styling tools to another level as I started to make 3D characters to style clients and myself. The blessings started to overflow and that is when I decided to take my hobbies to another level. When I graduated the first thing, I wanted to do in order to start my business off was decide what it was going to consist of. I started to have an overload of all the things I am capable of so i dialed it down to it just being things that I create from the soul, so I came up with the name “Meraki Outcast Designs”. Looking forward to all of my businesses obligations I am slowly but surely taking my time with my ideas and projecting them every step of the way. The aim is to inspire and transpire anything Ive went through for the future. As time goes on small avenues such as a sewing machine, textile designs, and many other complex tools have been added to my work. With the help of this interview not only will my business get more recognition, but my story and many others can be explored and heard.

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?
Understanding exactly what I wanted from this brand was a struggle for me. In the beginning I used my hobbies as side hustles to earn extra money when I needed it. Then overtime the stories behind my work started to impact me and my supporters. It turned into a deeper meaning when I started to create and come up with ideas that impacted daily lives. Iv’e always felt like clothes and style told a story and exuded an individuals personality. Therefore, to overcome my mental battle of creativity, marketing, and balancing my first priority as a student athlete was the first mountain that I had to climb. After I figured out that first step things started to be easygoing and challeneges started to feel like new beginnings. Current struggles that I am facing is finding the right people to collab with for my brand. My creative ideas are so particular that i wnt to have the right resources, image, clientele, etc. in order to kove forward with the next steps. As I know there will be challenges ahead but I am ready for them as now I am in the right head space and have the time and energy to put effort into it.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
To go into more detail about what my work consists of. Not only do I create, but I love to participate in my own work as well. I consider modeling to be an easygoing task as I love to be in front of the camera as well being behind the camera. My imagination, from incorporating things in my daily life to, putting it all on paper and then executing it is what drives me to consider the role of project managment. Timing, duration, and significance is what I have been working on for the past few months in order to attract the proper crowd. This displays my marketing skills in the creative services project management role. On the technology side I like to first draw or write out any ideas that come about and then I will teach myself how to put it all on screen. For example, Ive had the opportunity to not only style myself but style my peers and models in fashion shows, I took those styling tips to another level by creating a 3D character on a gaming app called “IMVU”. This helped me display my talents in a way that I felt like showed my creativity and art. With the help of all my skill and talent my personlaity just follows, so networking has became a breeze and has landed me in such valaubale places as I have modeled for small businesses, been considered to be in music videos, and have collaborated with several photographers in creative direction films and photoshoots.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Ive always considered my luck to be blessings in disguise. Whether it was bad or good I knew that it was all a part of the journey and figuring out what exactly I would want out of my business. Ive always felt like I limited myself due to outside opinions, but once I learned to shut the world out and follow my gut things started to change. Sometimes for the worse and then it always converted to being better. Meraki Outcast has not always been what it currently is today, it didnt even have a name. It started off as boredom, and natural gestures that I never noticed was talent or skill until recognized. Everything it is made of has came about through luck from, the photohsoots, the stylings, the cameras, the textiles, the sewing machine. I started connecting with teammates and friends who ,loved photography and making graphics, naturally. On my 24th birthday I went to my sisters house for the first time in two years and I was so sad because the camera I wnated was sold out and it turned out she had it in her closet collecting dust for years. I drew up a dress for my birthday and detalied it all the way to the fabric I wanted and my mom has a close friend who is a seamstress. She custom made my dress and all I had to do was retrieve the fabric and go get my measurements taken. Learning from her skills she ended up giving me her sewing machine because she wants to update to a new one. So as time goes on I just want God to follow through my brand instead of me trying to control it and then losing control. Now it is all about taking those lucky avenues and racing with myself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @destinytsamuel & @merakioutcast
• Twitter: merakioutcast
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/only1destiny