Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jacob Wiant. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jacob, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Currently, I am producing an interdisciplinary narrative, Beasts From Before, spanning written narrative, photography, and experimental film under my design label Wiant Works. This is an opportunity for numerous creatives to grow their skills and portfolios under an unconventional method of creative output. Collaboration is centered on creating engaging design solutions with entertainment not just for an audience, but also for all the creatives involved.

Jacob, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have been constantly driven by stories. I have found that a story is the primary way for anyone to remember information and to be convinced of an idea. From a very young age, art, rhetoric, and creative approaches wildly appealed to me. The intersection of all these things is storytelling. For years, I have studied adapting narrative into visuals. This craft, transforming words on a page into imagery is at the core of my work. An interdisciplinary approach inherently resides with this shift. This is the thing that excites me the most. Alongside this, there is a collaborative element as well. No matter how brilliant the author, a story will never be told in a vacuum. This truth calls for collaboration between various creatives that comprise the side of the teller and the side of the audience. This inspired me to create Wiant Works, an interdisciplinary production studio that provides a collaborative space for creatives to communicate their experiences through unconventional artistic methods.
When creatives work with one another magic sparks and innovative and memorable solutions are created. With my design label taking a holistic and equitable approach to narrative, we are committed to creating a narrative that reaches people in various modes. Frequently, in contemporary media and storytelling, there is a lack of quality both in the product and in the process of creating that product. Production studios or design houses are controlled by trends, formulas, or tradition. With Wiant Works, the audience can experience not just the product: the film, book, painting, garment, or space that an artist makes, but they are invited into the process of creating the product in each step. This new experience of encountering stories changes the ways we have been experiencing narrative.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

To build a “thriving creative ecosystem,” one has to support creative decision-making. Supporting creative decision-making begins with education. It is about asking questions that have no one right answer. For minors, this could occur in a classroom setting, inviting people to learn beyond the confines of ABCD. For adults, incentivizing research and learning that broaden their current skill set or knowledge base. This could look like funding exhibitions, experiences, or entertainment presenting artwork dedicated to providing solutions to current issues. This would get people to stop viewing contemporary issues as equations to be solved and help eliminate complacency to these problems in the first place. Supporting local artists and creatives means providing a space, both physical and ideological, where two answers can be correct at the same time. This dual affirmation would generate space enough for a variety of creative people to begin working, researching, learning, and problem-solving, thus creating a “creative ecosystem.”

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I feel most rewarded when I see someone’s eyes light up as they encounter a new idea or something unexpected. This is the most exciting moment of the creative process. It primarily happens in two spaces. First in collaborative spaces, when I and other creatives are bouncing ideas off one another, and then someone says something that seems just a little crazy but maybe could work, then everyone’s eyes light up. The same thing happens when someone sees something you’ve made or worked on, and there’s a spark that happens, behind the scenes of their face, that ignites when they experience the story you have just told. This light, excitement, or realization makes it all worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wiantworks.com/
• Instagram: @wiant.works