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

Anita, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

As a kid, I LOVED reading (still do) and we had to do a lot of book reports in elementary school. These book report projects could simply be written summaries; however, I was always trying to find fun and creative ways to showcase the books I read. My parents would tirelessly help me shape clay into castles, pour tea onto paper to stain it “spooky style”, and overall they supported whatever zany idea I had that month.

Today, as an adult, I am often following the whims of my ideas in my creative work. That support and push to “just go for it and figure it out later”,was something my parents taught me through their unconditional support. On top of that, my parents are refugees from the Vietnam war so throughout my entire childhood, I witnessed their perseverance and learned to never be afraid of a little hard work. It is this work ethic that helps me push these ideas through into completion.

Anita, 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?

In my mind, I divide my creative work into two camps– design, and illustration. I found my way into both by accident.

On the design side of things:
While I’ve been playing with photoshop and coding websites since I was literally 10 years old, I didn’t find my way into brand identity design or website design until 2016. That year, I opened up a meditation studio with two business partners and to save us some money, I designed the brand and website myself. While I didn’t continue on in the wellness industry, my work caught the attention from other folks within the small business network and I began getting clients through word of mouth. Fast forward to today and things are still pretty much word of mouth! I’m very lucky to get to work with good people, doing great things.

As for what sets my work apart– I’d say that my niche is really in understanding small business, having started my first biz at the age of 23. My approach to branding is to humanize brands as much as possible (through image treatment and colour palette– going beyond the logo), and my approach to websites is to see them as a work of (user friendly) art. With that said, I think my biggest differentiator is that I like to give my clients lots of flexibility and education to take their visual identity beyond what we do together. My passion is in empowering clients to feel comfortable navigating their brand and website so that they don’t need to come back to me every time they want to change something.

On the illustration side of things:
Just like with design, Ive been drawing since I was a child. However, because my style wasn’t “realistic”, I didn’t think my art was any good. Fast forward to 2018 when my niece was born: I began to babysit her once a week and as she grew up, we would draw together. To be honest- her amazement at my little doodles gave me the confidence to take them more seriously. It has led to my ethos with my illustration which is– “playful artwork for the young and young at heart”. I always strive to speak to the inner (or outer) child and to convey a sense of warmth in my work.

As for what sets me apart– all my work is done with traditional media (cut paper, pastels, paint, etc). It results in a whimsical, textured effect that I think doesn’t show up as much in illustration trends these days. Along with picture books, I am interested in working with like-minded brands who want to stand out from the crowd in a playful way.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think the thing that most folks don’t understand about creative work is that in order to be productive, there needs to be time to be… unproductive (if that makes sense). I’ve gotten to a place now where I can detect when my “creative well” is running dry and I have the places I go to/ the things I do to try and re-fill. For me, that’s participating in hobbies, spending time with my nieces, being outside, cooking, etc.

It took me a while to figure this out, especially in regards to pricing myself-because it isn’t just about the billable hours at the desk. I learned that in order to be reliably “on” for clients (and to always knock it out of the park with on-the-nose, unique, creative ideas at the drop of a hat), I need to factor in the hours in-between and make sure my pricing and net income supports this time as well.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Hands down, it has to be the ability to see an idea into completion. It still blows my mind– whether it’s design or illustration work– how something can start as just a picture in my brain and then it becomes something real!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.neets.studio / www.neets.art
• Instagram: instagram.com/hi.neets
• Youtube: youtube.com/@neets-tv
• Other: Substack: https://neetsnotes.substack.com

Image Credits
Photo credits: Amy Teixeira