Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to H&B Creative Development Hannah DiMemmo & Bella Danca. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hannag and Bella, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

While the idea of having insurance, paid time off, and a stable income is definitely attractive, the idea of either of us sitting in a cubicle all day is almost comical. Neither of us would trade working as a creative and pursuing our passion for the security of a nine to five. We truly believe that with great risk comes great reward. Although a lot of our friends have untraditional schedules due to touring or studio time, we also are friends with those who have “regular” jobs. Both have their ebbs and flows, so we decided to take the risk and put our time and energy into our creative endeavors.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

We are H&B Creative Development, a team of two: Hannah DiMemmo from Langhorne, PA and Bella Danca from Naperville, IL. We met in 2019 during our freshman year at Belmont University. We were both in the business school for many of our classes, so inevitably we had a few together. After realizing that we were the only two students in our macroeconomics class that participated in class discussion, we realized that we were meant to work together. This started as a few class projects, which turned into a friendship, and later grew into what would later become H&B Creative Development once becoming roommates. Within our home, we have a studio space dedicated to all of our creative needs. In this space, we hold meetings, have photoshoots, and storage for all of our equipment.
Being two creatives in one household, it was inevitable that we would end up with two sewing machines and not enough space to store them. A solution to this issue arose when our good friend, Christiana Alaire, mentioned that her boyfriend was interested in learning to sew. We found the solution was that we would trade one of our sewing machines for the Nikon camera that she had, but never used. It seemed to all work out, especially since she was in need of social media content for her own music career. We began by doing small photoshoots and other projects with Christiana, and through word of mouth alone, we began booking more jobs. As our portfolio increases, clients post our work on social media, giving us exposure and bringing in a wider range of clients reaching out to work with us for a wide range of services.
The largest portion of what we do falls under the umbrella of photography. A lot of our clientele are in need of album/single covers, concert photography, content for social media, behind the scenes photography, etc. Since we work primarily with musicians, it is important to portray the specific aesthetic of our clients through the visuals that we create. With this being said, our clients tend to be very hands-on in planning and fine-tuning the process in order to achieve the best products. Another large aspect of what we do involves art and graphic design: both in the physical and digital form. Everyone in the industry is aware that musicians need to promote themselves to gain traction, and many of the methods of promotion used by artists utilize visual art to reel in the audience, which is where we come in. We have hand-drawn stickers using Procreate, created posters using Adobe to promote local concerts on social media, and have even hand-carved out our very own stamps from rubber blocks in order to create a merchandise line for one of our clients, in which each item is thrifted and unique. In terms of most recent services, the videography branch of H&B is our newest endeavor. We are currently filming our very first music video with a Nashville based band, Gert Arwood & The Centennials. We are very excited to see how it turns out over the next couple of months as we figure out whether this is a permanent service we will offer.
The main problem we solve for our clients is that we make it possible to bring the visual side of their projects to life. We allow musicians to spend more time focusing on their music while we take care of things such as album covers, canvases, and promotion content. Another problem we solve is serving as a middleman for merchandise based creative projects by figuring out feasibility, budgeting, and the actual creation of the product. While we are very capable of creating the designs themselves, we are also always happy to outsource other visual artists. An example of this is one of our most recent projects: a collaboration between singer/songwriter, Summer Joy, and visual artist, Monet Belle, in which we released a merchandise line for Summer with Monet’s designs. With the visual art being outsourced, H&B took care of the physical creation, budgeting, and selling of the merchandise.
We believe what sets us apart from others is the exact foundation of our brand. H&B Creative Development is built on creatives helping other creatives – we all grow together. As we get better at what we do, our clients are doing the same, and in turn we all climb the professional ladder and grow as a whole. We enjoy working and collaborating with many different kinds of clients, as well as bring clientele together by outsourcing artists to help even more people grow their portfolios and craft, and so that the vision can be portrayed as best as possible. It makes us proud how we are able to help people bring their creative visions to life and creatives together in the process. By working with our creative team, we will be able to hone in on a vision and turn it into a reality.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

While the Massey School of Business at Belmont University taught us extensively about the importance of networking, we did not begin this as early as we should have for H&B, seeing as how we were still figuring out what we do, how to start it, and who our clientele would be. After jumping headfirst into photoshoots and gaining some experience, we realized that we should have been talking about our skill sets with anyone and everyone. Since we have started sharing what we do with those around us, we have made so many more professional connections than we could have imagined, including many we did not expect to happen. Networking really is the most valuable resource in creative industries, especially in Nashville where opportunity for collaboration is everywhere.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Hannah’s mom has always shared with her how special it is to have a passion, and how not everyone is as lucky, and we think it is exactly that lack of passion in most careers that does the most damage in terms of judgment from non creatives. The people we work with are the type that would rather sleep in their car and slave away at multiple jobs in order to ensure they can continue their creative journey. They would never sacrifice their craft for the security of a regular nine to five. These people are not here for security, financial or otherwise, but we didn’t choose to be in this industry, we need to be here.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hbcreativedevelopm.wixsite.com/hbcd
• Instagram: @h.b.creativedevelopment

Image Credits

H&B Creative Development