We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Noah Scalin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Noah below.

Noah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

In 2001 I left my last full-time job working for other people and have been making a living from my creative output, in one form or another, ever since.
I studied theater design in college, but ended up shifting to graphic design as I graduated college. I was lucky that an internship in my senior year, became my first job the following year. But I always did freelance work on the side. Eventually I found myself spending all of my weekday evenings and all weekend doing client work and I realized it was time to shift gears into making a go of running my own business. I launched Another Limited Rebellion in 2001 as a socially conscious design firm and never looked back.
The key with making my business work, was moving from New York City back to my hometown of Richmond, Virginia, where the cost of living was much lower and I had plenty of resources. I also started teaching part time at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of The Arts. So I was able to have that steady income as my client work fluctuated.
Over the years I grew both my business and my art practice and eventually I created an art project that launched me into international recognition: Skull-A-Day. What started as a personal project to get out of a creative rut (I had burned out after working for twelve years as a creative professional) turned into a global phenomenon. I ended up getting book deals, opportunities to show my art in museums and galleries and ultimately it led to a new phase of my work.
In 2010 I started getting opportunities to speak about my creative practice with corporate audiences based on my experience with Skull-A-Day. It was initially just a periodic side gig, but in 2014 my sister saw a new business opportunity in that work and asked if she could develop it with me. In 2015 we relaunched my company as a creativity consultancy that we co-run and we’ve been working together ever since.
My time is now split between creating fine art and consulting about creativity using my artwork as a way to teaching the fundamental skills of artists to professionals in corporate spaces, as well as with schools, government agencies and non-profit organizations.

Noah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My parents are both artists and art teachers, so I feel like I had no choice but to end up in a creative field. Having seen that both of my parents became teachers, I assumed that studying fine art wouldn’t offer me a path to a sustainable career making art. I didn’t want to be a teacher, so I forged a path as a commercial artist, which allowed me to get paid for being creative. Though, try as I might to avoid it, I did end up teaching after all, both in the university space and now as a consultant working in learning and development programs.
Currently my company offers a variety of programming around growing the creative capacity of individuals in organizations in service of supporting sustainable innovation. Over the past decade I’ve traveled the world and worked with some of the largest corporations working with tens of thousands of executives, despite not having a background or education in business.
As a visual artist I create a range of works using non-traditional materials, including large scale installations made with donated clothing and detailed collages created exclusively with mass produced children’s stickers. I also do regular experiments with painting and sculpture. Beyond visual art I also created a collaborative science fiction universe called League of Space Pirates. It has manifested in a variety of forms, most notably as a performance art band, that includes a robot and alien creature.
My consulting work is directly inspired by my artistic practices, so I’m incentivized to constantly innovate in my own art, creating even more opportunities. Through the years I’ve developed new techniques that have gotten me exhibitions and awards and in turn have inspired new keynotes and workshops for me to teach. I love that these two disparate elements form the backbone of my career. I find that switching between the two modalities, from solo work in my studio to speaking in front of large audiences, is incredibly satisfying and inspiring.
I am most proud of how my art has been able to touch so many people’s lives. I’ve heard from people nearly a decade after working with them and they’ve told me art and messages are still resonating with them all these years later.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

My job as a consultant is to literally teach people that there’s no such thing as a “non-creative”. Everyone has the ability to grow their own creative muscles, However many people often think that art and creativity are synonymous and that’s just not true. Art requires creativity, but creativity doesn’t have to manifest as art. But artists have been trained to use our creativity and consistently innovate and those are valuable skills to have. What’s important is helping people understand the value of their own creativity – which has always been a part of our survival as humans, but has become even more important as we learn how to distinguish ourselves from the ever-present AI that’s being infused into every aspect of our lives.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In March of 2020, when we went into lockdown, every aspect of my work as both an artist and a consultant came to a halt. Even my part-time teaching job came to an end, as adjunct faculty were let go, and so I had no guaranteed income as the co-owner of a small business. Then I got a call from The Martin Agency, a nationally recognized ad agency based here in Richmond. They were familiar with my artwork made from everyday items and wanted my help with their new client: Old Navy. With all of their stores closed Old Navy couldn’t run their new ad campaign, so instead they wanted to share about their donations to people in need. Would I be able to create a massive triple portrait clothing installation in five days without the help of an assistant? Honestly, I’d never done that before, but I said yes, knowing that I had developed my capacity through my daily art practices. The documentation of the end result was initially supposed to just be used on social media, but the CEO was so happy with the result that it ran as a traditional TV spot. The commercial ended up being one of the most watched ads of 2020, racking up billions of views. What seemed like the worst time for me, ended up being one of the biggest opportunities in my career.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.noahscalin.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noahscalin/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noah.scalin/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noahscalin/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/noahscalin
• Other: https://www.anotherlimitedrebellion.com/
  https://noahscalinkeynote.com/