We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sydney Fields. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sydney below.
Sydney, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
You get out what you put in. I think success is largely driven by how much you put into your work.
Growing up, we are told the same narrative that education = good job which = good money which = success. I think many people assume this simple equation is the key to a successful career, but what sets apart good from great lies in hard work. The student who puts in countless late nights, the junior employee who takes on a high level project, and the CEO who insists on learning and innovating their company rather than riding the wave. A huge amount of dedication and effort to learn and get better and better is what it takes to be successful.
There are many reasons why I chose to go into this field, but easy success was not one of them. Apart from having a natural creative talent, I knew I had the true desire to wholeheartedly put the dedication and effort into my skills to be successful. I knew this was a competitive industry, I knew it would be hard to find my niche and book my first clients, I knew there would be a great amount of learning, problem solving, and failure before I even got a running start. But above all, I knew I had the ambition to put in the effort to be successful.
Regardless of what industry you are in, consistent dedication prevails.
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 back background and context?
Like many other creatives, I realized I wanted to go into this industry from a very young age. I was always interested in art, design, business, and psychology and decided to pursue an education that focused on enhancing and honing those skills. I started freelancing in college and immediately knew this would be something I’d continue throughout my career. Though I always looked at my freelance work as a side hustle, I soon realized I was interested in growing my company.
I have been working in the industry for about 6 years now and have dabbled in many fields from visual merchandising at Nordstrom, footwear design at Vans, creative direction and product design at a tech startup, to my current role as an experiential brand designer at a global architect firm. They say to find your specialty and master it, but I disagree. I wanted to broaden my skills and soak up as much knowledge and experience possible.
During this time, my freelance work was growing at a rate I was unable to keep up with while working full time so I decided to launch an LLC in 2022. This gave me the ability to scale my business and bring in more talent without compromising my full time work. With this company, I have had the incredible opportunity to work with amazing brands from all industries to provide services such as brand identity and strategy, creative direction, apparel design, marketing, motion graphics, UIUX and product design.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I enjoy solving problems in creative ways, thinking outside the box, and making a positive impact. Within both my freelance and full time work I am excited to tackle obstacles of clients and come up with innovative solutions.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Always be a pleasure to work with. A powerful skill I learned from working restaurant and retail jobs was customer service. I believe this is something that helped build my reputation as both an employee and business owner. It it not enough to make great work, you must also be great to work with.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sydneyfieldsdesign.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fieldsdesign.co/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydney-fields-92033616a/
Image Credits
Photo with Sydney Fields, credit to Xun Chi.