Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalia Padilla.
Natalia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in Slidell, Louisiana, but I grew up in El Salvador.
After high school, I moved back on my own to the U.S. with $80 to pursue the dream I’ve had since I was probably 8 years old… to become a graphic designer. I was 19 when I left home with one suitcase.
I lived in the city of Metairie, a suburb area 30 minutes away from New Orleans. I started working as a nanny for some relatives, and then ended up getting a job transcribing the underground pipe maps of New Orleans in auto cad (so random). I would work at Michaels during the weekends just to make a little bit of money.
I waited for one year to get my school transcripts so I could go to college. The day I received the letter of acceptance from the University of New Orlean, was the same day I had to evacuate because of Katrina.
After the storm, everything was destroyed so I couldn’t go back to New Orleans, for one day, I was a refugee. I moved to The Colony and stayed with my aunt. Every time I would mention design, UNT always came out in my conversations with the people I met.
In 2012 I graduated with a BA in communication design with a focus in graphic design, since then I have worked in a variety of projects and different types of design agencies. I started as a Junior Designer at a small design studio called Redonk Marketing, then a startup company came across my work online and hired me as UI/UX design, in one year I learned a lot about the app design world and did the whole brand of “Video” no longer in the App Store but you can see the work in my portfolio. Then an advertising agency came across my work and hired me as a Senior Art Director. I did tons of concept work for retail marketing campaigns that would have a national impact for AT&T and FedEx, but nothing big that I created ever saw the light of the day, this was a bit frustrating.
I started to work on my own passion project that I believe is the intersection of my personal background, my passion for branding, illustration and education. Every weekend or after work, I would visit Houndstooth, Wild Detectives or another small coffee shop in Dallas to draw what today is MY ABZOO®. After four years of working in the advertising corporate world, I lost my job and got my apartment infested with a bedbug.
I threw everything away and started couch hopping and decided to focus only on finishing what today is “A: more than a coloring book.” I wanted to rebuild my personal relationship with my family, so I moved to New York and lived with my mom for six months.
On November 3, 2018, I self-published “A: more than a coloring book.” I also worked in other small freelance projects, I branded a side project for Cultivar coffee shop, designed a magazine called “Holding Pattern” that feature different non-male artists of Dallas, did my friend Jonathan Molina photography book, and kept working and touring MY ABZOO’s first book.
I came across the Office of Cultural Affairs artists grants, and I was awarded my first artist grant for 15k, this is when DSGN FOR US was born. I partner with the Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation and gave a conceptual illustration class to a group of immigrant kids that are the first generation in their family that aspires to go to college. Together we created “LOCAL,” a bilingual coloring guidebook that provides some of the most helpful resources that the city of Dallas offers to immigrants and refugees. The book features the student’s drawings and is divided in seven different categories so is easy to navigate: Civic Engagement. Communication. Culture. Education. Legal Advice. Health. Transportation.
In each category, you will find basic information on the services provided by organizations such as Raices, Human Rights Initiative, Heart House, the Library, the DMA, just to mention a few. The grant originally covered only 50% of the total cost of the project, so I did a fundraiser and had a show exhibit at Ex Ovo Gallery where we showed case all the students work along with the book, by then the guide was only in English but with the money raised the project paid a translator and I redesigned the whole book again that includes both languages. The fundraising is still up where anyone can go ahead and donate. The goal was 15k to cover for the website maintenance for two years, translation of the book and the print of 1,000 copies so we could give the book for free to new immigrants and refugees. We raised 3k.
Now, I am in the process of printing the 60 copies that the project can afford. BUT! The good news is that the fundraise is still up and you can donate whatever your heart desires here:
https://fundraising.
This is a non-profit project that is under the umbrella of fractured atlas (501.c) that allows anybody’s donation to deduct it from their taxes.
Now, I start my day listening to www.creativepeptalk.com updating my portfolio so I have a clear presence as a freelance designer, working on ABZOO’s next book and in the middle of printing LOCAL a much-needed resource for new immigrants and refugees to the city of Dallas. I hope I can collaborate with organizations that have a humanistic purpose, projects that talk about the environment, BLM, LGBTQ+, immigration, Veganism or anything that can make our lives a little brighter through illustration and branding.
I want to design for the world, anything that brings us together. Everything human.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth road? What’s that? I don’t think anyone’s life is smooth, and I am not the exception. I grew up in El Salvador by accident. We were on a vacation when my dad left us. I was four, my brother two and my other brother, a fresh newborn. It was painful, but my mom worked really hard for us to have the best education. She started painting t-shirts and slowly created her business that she named after me “Arte Natalia” I always remember how much she worked that we could barely see her. I still to this day remember her pain, due to my dad leaving us in another country when we were just on vacation.
My grandparents were a huge help during those years. I grew up in a house that was made out of three houses. They were all connected inside, with an average of 12 people daily in and out, my grandparents, cousins, aunts, mom, employees, etc. So I am used to interacting with tons of people and different personalities. Struggles become strengths. Moving back to the US by myself when I was 19 wasn’t easy. I was naive and had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t have a phone or a car for the first 3 years. I walked everywhere and saved every dollar I made through retail or serving tables. Katrina was definitely unexpected. The design program is easily one of the hardest things I have done.
Also, growing up in El Salvador, I always had a hard time feeling like I belonged there, schools don’t have art curriculums, so I would always be doing projects on my own or using paints from my mom’s business, selling stickers as an eight-year-old to buy color pencils haha. I always figured it out. I think that’s the gift that creativity gives you to problem solve. Running a fundraiser! This is so difficult! I only raised 3k and that was the same amount of money that I ended up spending on the fundraise itself, so I net 0. Having an accent, being a woman of color (so cliche, but is true)… having to learn more and work three times harder to be heard has always been a challenge. Finding a place where I feel like I belong.
Please tell us about MY ABZOO and NP Design Studio.
So the idea is that every project that I create will fall under one overarching umbrella of NP Design Studio. DSGN FOR US (all my community design work) and MY ABZOO® are brands done by NPDS.
But yeah, I have two businesses: my design freelance gigs and the brand of MY ABZOO®, which right now is a one-product business, a bilingual coloring book, but the zoo’s vision is to create educational materials and or experiences that are uplifting and helps the user to be more self-sufficient. I am currently working on the next coloring-book for the brand that will be released before the year ends.
My freelance work is in the process of being rebranded so it’s clear and consistent to people of what I am capable of doing, and how my strengths are an investment to someone’s business and an engine to their growth.
I do illustration, branding, a little bit of animation. Because of my four years in the corporate world in regards to advertising, I can absolutely help someone already established come up with their ad campaign in digital or print platforms. My specialization is concept, creating a story that connects on a human level and creating visual systems that can work and grow on their own even when I am gone, that’s what brand really is about.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
“The best way to complain is to make something” James Murphy.
The projects that bring joy, are the types of projects that in some way or form are innovative and improve the quality of someone’s life. I think that I would’ve started “complaining” earlier through my work on how the education system is so un-designed.
On the technical side, I would have been more organized and focused. Getting an accountant from the beginning, consulting from an expert to save me time throughout my own mistakes, maybe even taking a business class. Saying “no” to projects and jobs that didn’t bring me joy.
The problem with finding everything interesting, being curious and wanting to play, is that it’s easy to lose focus. Even though I can’t start all over, going through the experiences that I have lived, has given me the skillset and empathy to understand a business from a holistic perspective, and also has made me realize what kind of life I want to design for myself, who do I want to work for, and what type of creative I want to bring to this world.
Pricing:
- “A: more than a coloring book” $19.99
- My hourly rate as a freelance is $65 but I am currently doing it for $35 until the end of August with a 100 hour contract.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.myabzoo.com www.nataliapadilla.com and www.dsgnforus.com
- Phone: 2148016717
- Email: Natarcita@gmail.com
- Instagram: myabzoo, dsgnforus
- Facebook: myabzoo
Image Credit:
MY ABZOO® product shot by Marshall Cox
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