We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jordan Ahava. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jordan below.
Jordan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I’m an autodidact by nature; I ended up spending countless hours teaching myself to draw the summer before my sophomore year of college after switching out of the photo program at Parsons. The illustration program at Parsons was robust, but most entered with the basic necessary skills, so I didn’t want to be behind. This gave me the opportunity to lean into the conceptual and more nuanced teachings rather than getting bogged down in basics.
My biggest obstacles were definitely teaching myself to draw the summer before my sophomore year of college, and subsequently breaking my dominant hand November of that year and teaching myself to draw with my left for finals that first semester.
I don’t think I’d choose to speed up my learning process given the option. I think every discipline I’ve worked in and loved informs all of the others. My work would not be what it is today if I hadn’t gone through all of the artistic practices that I have.
The skill most essential to me above all else is patience. Patience with myself and patience with my clients.
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 grew up doing a lot of musical theater but once I got to high school I realized it might not ultimately be for me. I loved theater, however I knew I wanted to do something where I had more influence over the creative process. I dabbled with the costumes department but really hit my artistic stride with photography, more specifically, film photography. I spent endless hours in the darkroom during those four years. I also worked professionally as an event and real estate photographer and was originally accepted at Parsons for photography.
In my freshman year at Parsons, I found myself doodling a lot and fell in love with a class I took called “drawing for photographers”. I met with my guidance counselor to plan for the next semester and ended up explaining that I felt a bit limited and uninspired, he saw my notebook littered with drawings and asked if I’d considered a switch to the illustration department. I had never considered it as an option for me, as I’d never meaningfully picked up a pencil to draw other than this “drawing for photographers” class. However, the more I thought about it the more I was excited by the prospect of creating from scratch, something I didn’t feel I had the same ability to do in photography. Something that makes me unique in my field is my wide range of artistic experience. Every discipline I’ve studied and thrown myself into informs the others. I think my obsession with lighting as a photographer heavily impacts my illustration style— my oil paintings really exemplify this.
My professional relationships in both real estate and broadcasting enabled me to dabble in graphic design, which I loved. I did freelance design work, in college and after I graduated, in the broadcast and cyber-security industries while making time to create art for myself and further develop my artistic skillset.
These days, I have my own brand and e-commerce site where I sell hand drawn bandanas, scarves, tea towels, napkins, as well as art prints. As covid restrictions lessened, I’ve been able to do in-person markets and festivals as well which I’ve really felt creatively re-energized and invigorated by. There’s nothing better than watching someone buy something I made and immediately wear it.
My brand and e-commerce shop is the thing I’m the most proud of. It gives me a lot of pride to know I built this from the ground up, and even today I’m still basically a one woman band. One of the main principles of my shop and brand is that every collection is produced in limited quantities with no plans to restock. I think this speaks to my work as wearable and usable art, rather than mass-produced products that you can infinitely purchase.
Most of my client-based work is illustration and graphic design across a wide range of fields, from the cover of a high end jewelry catalogue to corporate infographics. In these jobs, my greatest asset is ability to understand what the client is trying to visually communicate and implement it in a creative way. Most of my clients don’t always have the visual language to explain what they want, so I’ve necessarily become good at asking the right questions and communicating adequately with my client to make sure we’re on the same page visually.
I still occasionally do some event photography as well, but most of my photo skills are used for product shots lately.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
The summer before my sophomore of college I worked desperately to become competent in drawing and illustration. After all the work I had put in that summer and finally reaching a point in which I was comfortable with my skills, I ended up breaking my right hand just before my first round of finals as an illustration student; and on Thanksgiving break nonetheless. It was a pretty bad break and required surgery, so my right hand was totally out of commission until the spring. I pulled so many all nighters fighting with my non dominant hand, trying to gain the level of control I wanted to create the visuals I needed. At some point it became necessary to just surrender to the less precise, slight shakiness of my left hand. My drawing professor told me it was his favorite work of mine to date, he said it felt more “free”.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Be loud about it if you love it! Post, tag, leave reviews, and recommend to your friends and family. This may seem very basic but it’s the best way to support your favorite independent brands, besides buying directly from us of course!
I read recently that the economy in the US is at least 50% more concentrated than it was in 2005. A good way to counteract this and support artists and creatives is to see if you can switch out some of the purchases you make for smaller, independent brands. Things like soap, skincare, makeup, the art you hang on your walls— these can all be procured directly from smaller brands, diverting the money you may have otherwise given to a major corporation to a business who will tangibly benefit from the sale. Don’t buy art from IKEA or Urban Outfitters! If an artist you love is selling at a larger store, try to purchase the piece directly from their store. These seemingly small changes make a huge difference.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jordanahava.com
- Instagram: @jordanahava
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Shop-Jordan-Ahava-106101034676054/
- Twitter: @shopjordanahava
- Other: TikTok: @jordanahava Etsy: www.etsy.com/shopjordanahava Pinterest: @jordanahava