Today we’d like to introduce you to Giorgio da Vinci and Erika Gribbin. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Giorgio da Vinci began to manifest his creative abilities at a very early age. Because of a speech impediment he was not able to speak his first word until the age of 4, so he found other ways to express himself through his creative talents. Friends and family began to quickly realize that his means to communicate evoked more than simple images. He appeared to naturally have an understanding of human anatomy and the physics of movement. His everyday drawings and sketches, gradually and intentionally, evolved into works of art. By the time he turned 13 years of age, he was creating fine works of art. He effortlessly understood the compositions of pencil and charcoal on paper and at the age of 19, he began to comfortably work with oil on canvas.
Giorgio has a knack of utilizing social media to promote his art business and immediately was commissioned to create oil on canvas portraits for various online celebrities; a few include Logan Paul, Sage the Gemini, Angry Grandpa, and Jake Paul.
After receiving nationwide attention for being a hyper-realistic artist who produced custom paintings for online celebrities, he accumulated a following and had the idea of procuring a DSLR camera to take photos and short videos of his paintings to publish quality content on his social media. This is when Giorgio had the most transformative eureka moment of his life. Due to him abandoning school in the 8th grade, Giorgio learned to teach himself about the things that fascinated him, and thus never had limits placed on his creativity or the modern tools he added to his artistic arsenal. He eventually even coined the phrase, “The camera is the 21st-century paintbrush.”
This sent him on a voyage to teach himself yet another new skill; How to use the camera to depict digital portraits. First, he started a social media marketing agency to help small businesses and school districts produce more organic and eye-catching content for their online presence. He quickly created a niche for himself that then landed him a hefty full-time job at Corsicana ISD. This is where Giorgio had the opportunity to focus on exploring his fascination with the camera and perfecting his craft. He was welcomed with open arms and was allowed to artistically express himself throughout the school district by filming NIKE ads like hype videos for the athletic department. His content was beautiful, fresh, extremely engaging, and educational.
During this period, still only 21 years old, Giorgio realized that there was something missing in his creative process; human connection. Human connection was and still is the driving force behind all of his artistic endeavors. Because Giorgio grew up always desperately wanting to express himself, he spent the majority of his childhood depicting eyes and faces on any paper he could find.
This ignited his curiosity and fascination to learn about cinéma vérité documentary filmmaking and to find a way to share the human experience and the life stories of all types of individuals. This fascination redirected Giorgio to ultimately leave Corsicana and start traveling around Texas to meet different artisans with unique trades. He would spend a few hours shadowing and asking them nonlinear questions all while subtly capturing these intimate interactions on film.
While capturing their stories, Giorgio realized how incredibly inspiring everyone’s story truly is and that there is something to learn from everyone. He believes all humans are walking works of art, but in today’s technology-driven world it’s hard to realize when we spend our time living our lives through a screen and in autopilot mode. He also made the realization that the internet has tricked us into thinking that we are more connected than ever but in reality, we are more emotionally disconnected with ourselves and with others than ever before. It’s hard to realize this fact when our phones have become a mental extension.
Now at the age of 25, Vinci is living in Dallas, TX alongside Erika Gribbin, his lovely wife, and muse.
Giorgio and Erika together have founded Storiium, LLC. Their mission is to bring more human connection back into our lives and to help all individuals realize the power they hold in their own life stories. No matter how much technology is integrated into our lives, nothing can replace the human touch.
Since her childhood, Erika had artistic tendencies but never fully learned how to express herself through any given medium. But there was one thing she always stuck to, and that was her digital camera. She always saw the beauty in things and the joy in every moment and loved to capture life in her frame.
As so many of us do, she lost herself in the noise of society and never followed any of her dreams. She did, however, attend college at The University of Texas at Dallas to try and find the right career path. After graduating with a bachelor’s in business she still felt she hadn’t found that thing that fuels her passion for life, so she began to explore her creativity through photography, modeling, music, and writing. Determined to find a career with a focus in creativity and while still searching for her passion she met Giorgio through a figure modeling job for one of his oil painting pieces and they have been inseparable ever since.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Our biggest obstacle on our entrepreneurial journey thus far has definitely been having to learn all the ins and outs of what it takes to run a successful business. At heart, we are both creatives, not entrepreneurs. But sometimes you have to do the things you don’t enjoy so much to do what you really love.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Storiium exists to cultivate more human connection into the modern world of technology. We create raw, powerful, and emotional micro-documentaries that we call “Storiium’s.” Storiium’s humanize your brand in a way that static marketing never will. Whether it’s an entity or an individual, we share the stories of real people’s lives and give an intimate look into their journey and personal life, as well as professional. With all of the noise online today businesses and public figures cannot stay faceless anymore. In order to truly connect with your audience and build trust among them you must be open, honest, and vulnerable with them.
Consumers want to know WHO they are buying from and WHY they should choose to do business with you. I know personally when I buy a product or follow a new public figure on socials I follow them for a reason, and that reason is that their values align with mine. We choose our circle of friends, why not choose to support businesses and people we would consider friends too?
What do you think about luck?
The harder you work, the “luckier” you get.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.storiium.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storiium/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Storiium
