We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Josef Standteiner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Josef below.

Josef, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

Start as soon as you think about it. Every idea, thought, drawing, scribble, and mockup, save it all. Execution of an idea is all it takes to realize the creative potential of all the prior ideas you missed. Never pass one up. Always carry a journal and always be writing, drawing, painting, and singing.

Keep your heart full; listen to good music and eat good food. Surround yourself with people you want to be around. Let them uplift you, drive you towards creation.

Don’t conform to what the people around you are doing or you think they are doing, do what you want to do.

And do it well.

Don’t stop because you don’t understand, figure it out so next time it’s a breeze. Always be learning and put that learning to good use. Don’t burn yourself out because you need money for food and rent, get a different job, find other ways to sustain yourself without hindering your creative power. Creativity is a tool that you must learn how to use. The sooner you begin on this journey, the sooner the creativity will flourish into a realized form. A stream constantly and consistently growing.

Use your creative power to find and attract others that hold and share that same power.

Go to school for something you want to, not something you have to.

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 my journey first and foremost as a creative and continued to pursue my gift all throughout my life. Cooking was my first outlet; the culinary arts was a free, quick and physical way to arrange color and shapes. Beautiful dishes are not from the contents but how they are presented. I then took this and applied to 2 schools in NY. The New School and Pratt. Both for fashion thought I got accepted to Pratt institute and quickly transitioned to a more free and open field; painting. Here I continue my craft working on a variety of projects from video and 3d worlds to high end custom garments. This past semester while continuing my studies towards a Bachelor in Fine Arts I put a heavy emphasis on my process and dove into myself, my surroundings and what it means to create.
I started pushing out tons and tons of fashion items from shirts and sweatshirts to hats and bags. I devoted myself to creation and continue to pursue my digital presence as an artist.

I plan to return in august to continue my final 2 semesters at Pratt and will continue to pursue my own creative endeavors in the meantime.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Music.

Music is a different form of culmination. You don’t necessarily listen to it for the verbal understanding but more so for the feeling that it gives. Music is all about creation and much can be learned from music. Listen to music all the time. That has been the biggest driver for my enthusiasm towards everything I do. Let the music flow in one ear and out the other. Take what you do from it and hold it. Music has a way of connecting people but not in the way language does but in the way that shoes do. People like what they like and until they meet likeminded people that share the same interests they gate keep their own positivity. Music is the greatest teacher for things the mind cannot think through on its own. A rhythm for movement for blood flow, for vibrations.

Listen to music. Create music. Share music.

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

Create spaces for which people are inspired to create on their own.

Start creating projects that are not only functional but also appealing. At the same time as creating something beautifully visual you also create opportunities for artists to showcase their concealed power. People like to look at cool things; make it easier so that cool people can install cool things.

Support the arts at all costs. Education and arts. Arts are the keys to society and they must be shared, taught, and garnered.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jjstandteiner.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strtlzrd/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josef-standteiner-49b0772a6/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@strtlzrd
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/strtlzrd