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

Alright, Erica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Consistency. The longer you do something, the more knowledgeable you become when it comes to the field/subject. I’m a firm believer that the more consistent you are, the closer you get to your goal. I’ve also learned over the years that focusing on one thing at a time will give you more results than trying to do everything all at once. I’m definitely guilty of trying to do everything (wanting a career in design, running my own brand, etc), which was very ineffective in the end. I didn’t know the first thing about being a professional designer and I also didn’t have a brand to show for it. I learned I needed to focus and hone in on one thing first (a career as a designer), gain that knowledge, then apply it to my next goal/project (owning my own brand). That served me more than trying to do both at the same time. Of course, everyone is different and can juggle multiple things at once, but I definitely learned about myself and what I can handle.

Erica, 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 am a designer at a marketing firm in LA specializing in events and tradeshows. My journey started when I moved from my hometown of San Diego to the Bay Area. I left a pretty stable career in government/public service for my first love, art and design. I moved to Oakland with no structured plan, my only plan was.. be a creative professional. From there I joined a community of early stage designers at former Oakland Digital, now BRIDGEGOOD. Met some of the dopest creatives and jumped at opportunities such as site visits to Facebook, Google, Lyft, LinkedIn, and so on, where we were able to speak to designers and learn more about their journey and learn about solving problems.

From there, my fuel to a creative career was definitely burning brightly. I sought out to sharpen my skills as a designer by going back to art school and really trying to make my goal attainable regardless of how tough it was staying in the Bay due to housing prices. One of my close friends who I had worked with at a previous design gig referred me to a position and I then ended up contracting for two years as an in-house production designer at a tech company based in San Francisco. This experience really expanded my knowledge on production design.

In 2020, pre-pandemic era, I ended up in LA, worked remotely for over a year and capped out my 2-year contract in 2021. Then I was back to working on my portfolio in hopes of landing a new gig. I was then referred to my current position by old boss which led me to further my career here in LA after 2 months of searching. When I say, “Make sure you continue to network and maintain you professional relationships” I mean it. These are the people that know how you work and the type of work that you produce and most likely are the ones that will vouch for you more than anybody else.

The type of work I do now is definitely different from working in-house as being in an agency setting, I’m able to work with different brands as opposed to working on one brand. A lot of people in creative will say I did things backwards as most designers/creatives usually start an agency setting then move in-house down the road. My work is usually fast paced with designing graphics for spaces to production (install) in a matter of weeks -which definitely keeps me on my toes every week!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn that everything needs to be going well for me to feel that I’m doing my job well. Before seeking guidance from my Creative Directors, I would beat myself up when there would be hiccups in projects I worked on. I would let it weigh on my shoulders for days on end and really made me question if I’m cut out this. Not a good thought process to be wrapped in on, for sure. So I reached out to people who have been in the industry for decades and concluded that everything is a team effort and it doesn’t all weigh on me. I also learned that having a hiccup only means an opportunity to learn and improve on for the next project.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The feeling of fulfillment. Hah. It sounds so cheesy but it’s true! When a project I worked on is well received or I just see it out in the wild, I feel accomplished. Nobody, I mean, nobody knows I worked on it… but I do. And I love that feeling, it drives me. I like solving problems, bringing color to a space and just design in general -knowing that people interacted with what I worked on brings such a happy feeling. I recently started printing sample shirts and giving them to my boyfriend to wear out, and I know I don’t show much excitement when he tells me people have been giving him compliments on the shirts -I do geek out on the inside. And its not even because I made them… its really just knowing that the design works that brings the feeling of accomplishment.