We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Co’Meh Shaw. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Co’Meh below.
Alright, Co’Meh thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I’ve always been excited about the arts in every aspect. From re-drawing celebrity signatures in middle school, to learning stunt work for theater, I wanted to dip my toe in every creative pond. I loved reading, specifically architectural magazines, the decor the plants and the colors blew me away. I thought being an artist was unrealistic unless you were a prodigy, so I joined a university as an Interior Design Major; still artistic, but practical in my 19 year old mind. I felt like the traditional classes weren’t exciting enough for me and I realized I wasn’t happy with their education system, I found myself extremely bored and unfulfilled. After class I would hand make birthday cards for friends and create stickers on RedBubble to fill the void. Everyone around me was loving their college experience and I felt like I was missing something, not fitting into any box I tried to put myself in. So, I stopped thinking of “future jobs” and started thinking of what made me excited to get up in the morning. I looked up best art schools in the US late one night and I saw SCAD. It was (at the time) the best school for Interior Design and I immediately applied. I was shockingly accepted with my tiny portfolio of work and decided to treat myself. I enrolled in one typography class to give myself something fun to do before I transferred and left my friends behind. Before the semester ended I actually changed my major to Graphic Design, knowing there was no way I could go back to drawing floor plans after learning how magazines were created in the first place. I knew aligning myself with my creative side would only lead to my happiness and choosing to go to a school that specialized in creativity was the best bet for me. Giving myself the freedom to choose, to allow myself to be wrong, to even change my mind, but I haven’t looked back since.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I started as a Graphic Designer, freelancing in college and now I have about 3 years of design experience under my belt. My full time job as an apparel designer has allowed pursue one of my favorite passions, podcasting. I love listening to life stories feeling a sense of community through shared experiences. So, I created a podcast called : Mandatory Adults, for anyone who feels like they’re just cosplaying adulthood. As a 25 year old, who barley understands how to file her taxes, being an adult is very confusing and the world seems like it’s falling apart. The past 2 years if not entire family members have been stripped away from us due to COVID-19 and everyone is expected to carry on as if nothing happened. I share my story as a post college who has no idea if I’m “doing it right”, I would love some comedic relief and maybe dating advice? Mandatory Adults is all about the sh*t adults don’t talk about and starting conversations that can actually help, or at the very least, make you laugh. The first episodes cover dealing with friendship-break ups, not being approached by men and the real cost of getting married to name a few. Also, the host AKA myself, designs all the graphics you see on our instagram, keeping all the visuals fun, entertaining and most of all aesthetically pleasing.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
The best recourses if you’re looking to also start a podcast is searching for automated sites that have all the editing tools, design tools and access to other creators. I personally use Anchor and it made everything that seemed so daunting about creating a podcast much more accessible. They even give you your first paid sponsorship with allows you to monetize instantly after publishing. As well as editing software but into the website, you can create your cover art, add descriptions, links and last but not least, they give you access to other podcast feeds so you can reach a wider audience. Through those additions, each of the publishers hav their own set of assets you can use, from logos, pre-made social posts and hashtags so they can share your content. Crazy how it takes one connection to get your foot in the door and open other possibilities.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Being able to share what other people have created, wether that’s a social post, or buying their work I love supporting artists in every possible way. It’s rewarding to feel the same excitement from your audience as you felt when creating, so as an artist, supporting other artists is extremely fulfilling. The ability to get people who get you is an indescribable feat. The fact that we all have access to so many tools and can readily share our creations with other artists who can appreciate what you do, there is huge amount of respect that comes from it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://anchor.fm/mandatoryadults
- Instagram: @mando.pod
- Other: https://mandatoryadults.wixsite.com/mandatoryadults TikTok: @mandatoryadults