We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ariel Ling-An Huang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ariel below.

Alright, Ariel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I love telling stories through visuals. It is what I have wanted to do since I was 15. Luckily, I had the chance to do a series of show programs to promote rap stars in Taiwan. Thus, it started my journey as a visual storyteller. For me, being a storyteller is powerful. It can convey thoughts and bring up discussions. It can make people aware of something. Visualization is the strategy I picked and am good at to fulfill my mission to tell stories. Now as a scenic designer for theater and a production designer for film, I am using visuals to help me tell the stories that I want to say.

Ariel, 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?

I started my career by doing a series of show programs to promote rap stars in Taiwan. At that time, me and my colleague, Yeechi, had just started in the entertainment industry. It was a small team so I had multiple roles at the same time. I was the art director, still photographer, program producer, and script writer for the whole project. Among all these roles, I am most interested in designing sets and therefore starting my career as a scenic/production designer. After being a freelancer and working in big production movies in Taiwan, I found out that I still have so much to learn. I headed to LA, the heart of the entertainment industry, learning from the original of the industry and earning my master’s degree.

I do scenic design for stages(theater and dance) and production design for films. Recently, I also branched out my profession as a 3D environment artist. What I like the most about my job is to help my clients clarify what they want. I believe the job of a designer is to figure out client’s needs and do what is best for them. Usually, my clients have a blurred image of what they want for a project, but they are not sure why they want it that way. This is when I come into use, I use questions to initiate conversations. With this back and forth with clients, they can know what they want for the design. This is also the part where I enjoy the most when doing design jobs.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of doing my job is seeing the vision in my head come true in real life. It is a kind of dream come true every time I finish a project. I am passionate about making what I imagine in my head and building it in real life. It is also rewarding to see the people I worked with and my clients see the beauty of my imagination. In between the conversations with the clients, helping them realize what they want is also an exciting part of my job. In conclusion, I enjoy myself as a designer because I help figure out problems and create a vision that everyone is fond of.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I would say the key to building one’s reputation is honesty. It is sometimes difficult for freelancers to maintain stability. There are times when clients reach out to us, and we take almost every case we have at the same time. However, there will be times when cases are more than we can handle. Still, we want to take them all in. That is when I will be honest with my client. I will tell them that I have many things with me, and if they trust me, they will let me in on the project as a consultant or just find another person to do the job. It might seem like I have lost the job. On the other hand, these clients might come back because you are honest with them. They know they can trust you because you tell them the truth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://huangariel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ariel.huang._/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariel-huang-405725212/