We were lucky to catch up with Emily Holmes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Emily, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Being a major creative my whole life, I have always had a hard time “settling” on one thing. Be it an occupation, a hobby, skills, schooling, etc. I began learning jewelry design when I was in elementary school, with silly friendship bracelets and the many knots, adornments and other fun design aspects. From there it quickly branched into miniature clay sculpting, using polymer clay, to hand-sewing, painting, wax-sealing & embossing, garment design and creation to beginning to create reproductions and making my own takes of props & costumes used in many different forms of media that I follow. The list continues on with many trials, with some successes and many failures, but overall, a ton of experience in learning what I am truly interested in. All of these lessons have led me to where I am today, being able to work with the local creative community on so many wonderful projects! When I first began to make my takes on props and what not, I did tons of research in regard to schooling, for I had found many movie sets or music video sets, being the two main “worlds” I was interested in being in, usually required a certified “set designer/decorator”. I had found tons of pathways and programs that I was interested in but was never able to settle on one. Years passed and I picked up a lot of passion projects that just melted my heart, and let me learn so many new skills, yet I still didn’t know what direction I truly wanted to walk in. That is when I collaborated with a local creative director on a fantasy photoshoot. They gave me full freedom on wardrobe & set design day-of. After the photoshoot, the director asked if I was interested in doing more set design on different projects. I was beyond excited, especially after seeing what previous work they had already done and quickly said yes! I have now been working with their team for almost six months on a handful of projects from short films, advertisements and music videos. And thus, I have been learning a TON! So coming back around to “how did I learn to do what I do?”, the constant process of being interested in a million things, a wonderful community and the support of my family & friends! I am so thankful and thrilled for what the future holds!

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.

My long journey began back in 2017, with a silly collection of happenings. One day I had seen a gal I had grown up with post a photo in a wedding gown, and at first glance, I panicked due to our only being 17 y/o. After learning that she was a bridal model, and wore gowns to showcase in fashion shows, I was incredibly intrigued! With the help of my mom, I was able to get my first show with the production company and had an absolute blast! And from then on, many shows with their amazing community let me learn to model more in the bridal realm, to fashion shows and charity collaborations. One of the bridal markets that I had worked, I was introduced to another bridal model and our friendship quickly bloomed. She invited me to my first TFP (time for print/photo) back in 2022, in which was a Halloween themed photoshoot. This first experience, I brought only a handful of props and accessories that I was hoping would work to create more of a “story” rather than just a subject in a frame. The photoshoot went absolutely wonderfully and seeing just how well the props and other items I had brought were received, I believe that is where my ultimate joy and drive for set design truly began. Many years have passed since that day, and I have had an absolute blast helping my friends, fellow models and photographers in helping create atmospheres or just in simply styling the model. I have been able to create props, sets for everything from a one-year old’s birthday photo, to a pizza commercial’s set, to a local band’s music video with all sorts of different settings. I love problem-solving and try my darndest to have the “mom” bag of everything we may need on set, and it’s come in handy a bunch! 99% of the time when I pull from my PA kit, they are items that no one thought we would need. I am extremely proud of being able to learn every day with every new experience that comes my way and the gratitude that pours from my heart is never-ending. With each project that comes to the table, the anxiety and rush of pulling everything together to seeing the final product, it’s extremely gratifying. I hope that I can assist in creating and bringing people’s ideas to life and cannot wait to see what new world I can help make next!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I kind of already touched on this with the last question, but it’s getting to look back on what the experiences were like, after all of the anxiousness and chaos and getting to see what I learned, what I can work on to make better progress for future projects and how the client uses the product, and where the connection may lead.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Nothing comes to mind immediately, I feel like I am still too “new” in the game to have a really worthwhile story.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/e.j.holmes

Image Credits
The image of me is taken by Ramon @rncgmedia on Instagram.