Today we’d like to introduce you to Briana Bright.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Briana. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Sure! I started my career as a fashion stylist. This was before I went to the Fashion Institute of Technology and continued while in school. It was great for the time being and the perfect way to get my foot in the door. While I was in college, I explored my options in the industry. I landed an internship at Victoria’s Secret as a concept design intern, which quickly turned into a freelance position. From there, I went on to be a print designer specifically for the concept team where I worked for three years. After leaving my role at Victoria’s Secret, I went on to be a senior print designer for Kate Spade Sleepwear. I was very blessed to have the career of drawing digital and hand-drawn prints for five years, but I knew I needed growth. Shortly after, I landed a short-term Art Director role at a private label swimwear company. And since then, I’ve been a freelance art director/ creative director working directly with entrepreneurs, start-ups and corporations.
While placing myself in a position to call my own shots, I found it important to continue to build my legacy and start a company, which is how Creative Noire came to fruition. I am a huge advocate of giving back to my community and the importance of mentorship. I’ve been a volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters for the past five years. While there, I met my business partner and we co-founded our company, Creative Noire in 2018. Creative Noire is an agency that connects creatives of color with resources while helping entrepreneurs and brands authentically tell their stories and break through the noise. With the ongoing lack of diversity in creative industries, we found it important to bridge the gap.
We continue to grow our Creative Network and encourage any creatives of color working in the design, advertising, tech, animation, production or photography industries to apply and subscribe at https://www.creativenoire.com/.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being a co-founder and creative director has not been a linear journey. Naturally, when starting something new, there are so many questions that you have to work through. Where the company is today is nowhere near where we started. Figuring out your lane is key to answering those tough questions as they arrive. But the two biggest struggles have to be money and people. Creating something like this takes a lot of cash revenue to build the platform to the caliber in which we see it. So funding has been the main challenge. The other is just unprofessional people. It’s hard to know who will be professional and efficient. Resumes and qualifications will only take you so far. It’s how you show up when the work needs to be done that matters. But I do greatly appreciate all the wonderful people we have worked with up to this point.
Creative Noire – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Creative Noire was built to give creatives of color a voice in leading industries like Advertising, Design, Photography, Technology, Animation, and Production. Our goal is to make minority talent accessible and help shape the diversity issues within those industries. We want to make it easy for companies, brands and entrepreneurs alike to find and access the people they need to help their business grow. We also launched our creative agency in January 2020 which provides branding, marketing, design and consulting services to corporations, start-ups, and entrepreneurs. Since then we’ve acquired Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC as a client helping them with their branding, marketing, and event production.
So far, I am very proud to help give back to my company as well as getting people who look like me hired. The highlight thus far has been solidifying major brand partnerships such as LinkedIn and Meredith Corp. and more to help produce a headshot event that provides free headshots to business professionals, entrepreneurs, and creatives. While providing free headshots for our community, we also express the need for mentorship and recruit black mentors for kids throughout the five boroughs of NYC with Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC. With this event, we have increased the number of black mentors by 40%. We continue to look for ways to not only provide jobs, resources and networking opportunities for creatives of color but we also strive to make a direct positive impact on our communities.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I have a few which is a blessing in itself! The most recent was when Creative Noire was asked to speak at Miami Ad School this past November. We were asked to speak as one of their Industry Hero’s, to a student body of 40-50 students. The conversation surrounded around advice we had to students as they start their creative career, who/what inspires us, and the current work we are going. It was honestly such a great learning experience for myself and how.
The second would be being able to co-create the robes for the 2017 Victoria’s Secret Fashion show. I was handpicked, by the then Senior Vice President of concept, color, and print, to conceptualize and hand draw the embroidered florals that went on the robes. Seeing the robes being worn on tv behind the scenes of the fashion show was surreal! To know something, I worked hard on for months prior was being viewed by millions had me in awe.
Contact Info:
- Website: creativenoire.com
- Email: cnteam@creativenoire.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativenoire/
- Other: Bribright.com
Image Credit:
Rashida Zagon, Natiah Jones, Michele Eyenga
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