We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shirin Raban a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shirin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

I came to the US when I was 18 right after high school. I came here from a very different world. Thinking back, I feel it was as if I came from a different planet. I was a kid who spent her teenage years worrying about being suppressed as a woman during revolution, war and sanction-ridden Iran.

One day in a jazz appreciation class at CSUN, the teacher asked, “Who doesn’t know who Benny Goodman is?” Of course, I had no clue who he was. After all, this was American music and in Iran other than religious or revolutionary songs, music was banned. One of my classmates raised her hand and said, “I don’t!” I was so ashamed and embarrassed and could not fathom why she even said that. At that moment, I felt she had exposed the ignorance of all her Iranian friends…

The truth of it is that in America, there were many things that I had no idea about. Pretty much everything! For example, when I was fired from a design studio I was working at, one of the complaints was that I was not submitting my weekly invoice to my boss on time. I was under the impression that it was not polite to ask for money. “If she had asked, I would have submitted it,” I said.

There are so many stories and so many instances where I did things the way I was expected to do if I were to live in Iran in a traditional tribal culture. However, I should have done them in the here and now in the Los Angeles of late 20th and early 21st centuries. Because I was an immigrant and had no clue and was green most of the time, I have made lots of mistakes. But then every time, I got up, dusted my shoulders and moved forward. My positive attitude has helped me survive and thrive, but it has not been easy by any means.

One thing that I would change if I knew what I know now, would be keeping a balance. That is something that I had no idea about and it took me years understand it’s nuances. The balance is between these two opposite concepts: Giving myself priority over the needs of others, and making clients/jobs/work my first priority.

Everyone knows that if you want something, you have to demonstrate that it is your first priority. But the reality is that if you only do that, you will lose yourself and you will become uninteresting after a while. So, you have got to first leave time and space for your own needs, wants and aspirations, before you commit to anything outside of you. For me, as a wife, a mom, a designer, a teacher and a visual storyteller, I have first given to others and now I am realizing the price I paid. It is really just a matter of shifting places. Me first, they second, means you carve time to recharge you so that when you give them your time you are at your best. That is what I am doing now and it is working!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got my foot in the door of the graphic design industry through studying design at Santa Monica College and CSUN and then taking whatever jobs and projects that people around me introduced me to. I did get jobs through ads in Ad Week and LA Times and other posts. I also became a lifelong student at UCLA Extension pretty much as soon as I graduated CSUN. Getting a job as a graphic designer was tough. It took me about four years of doing pasteup for black and white newspaper column ads and computer production for the work of other designers, before I was able to land a design job. And even then, the design jobs were basically pushing text and image around on a page to create a visual layout. I was overwhelmed as a young mother, career woman and immigrant who did not know the culture here. There was no internet at that time. Research and reading were not emphasized in my design education. I learned basic principles of design in college through photography and use of visual elements. But the rest of it, I learned taking classes at UCLA Extension or on the job making many more mistakes than my achievements.

I started with layout design for publishing and moved on to making ads and then packaging and identity design. I have collaborated on branding design for various industries including entertainment, toys, food and beverages. After taking a few years of courses at UCLA Extension and working with Mattel, Saban, Korbel Champagne and Sadaf Foods, I began a teaching career at Cal State University Northridge and UCLA Extension. Teaching made me realize that I needed to learn more. At the USC Center for Visual Anthropology where I received my Master’s Degree, I explored documentary filmmaking with an emphasis on ethnographic questioning.

All of these experiences helped me find my creative voice. I brought together my experience in branding design, filmmaking, and ethnography in creating commercials, documentaries and teaching design. My expertise is in helping to bring out the voice of clients, students and film subjects that I work with. Regardless of project or medium, we look at the core of issues to find appropriate solutions and then we take the projects to the finishing line.

I am most proud of having been resilient enough throughout the past 30 years to be able to sustain a creative career and to help others in the process. I have created branding and advertising in the form of logos, packaging, magazine ads, billboards and commercials. Right now, at Cal State University Northridge I am collaborating on an interdisciplinary project with professors and students in animation, motion graphics and music to create a short film about the creation of Kwanzaa festival.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The driving force in my creative journey is to have a voice. To be heard. To find agency. I lived under a totalitarian regime and left everything just to be true to myself. For me, the most important thing in life is to be able to do what your heart desires. To be the best version of yourself. To do what your soul is calling for. And this is what I have done for myself, and helped my children and my students find. I also do this for my clients’ messages to their audiences. And I do it in my films where I project the voices of my film subjects for audiences who would otherwise never know about them.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is being true to myself. The satisfaction of having agency and doing what you believe in, is priceless. And somehow once you find that truth, you cannot help it but to help others. When we are in our element, the world around us becomes better and everyone benefits. Be it a beautiful package design or painting of a pretty flower, a documentary film or a garden full of plants, art and creativity bring good into the world for all to enjoy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shirinraban.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shirinraban
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shirin.raban
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shirin-raban-3a0414?trk=hp-identity-photo