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

Sophie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

During the beginning of the pandemic, I lost a lot of jobs and sources of income as a photographer. People were pulling their funds from marketing and I was mainly serving small businesses. At first, I was devastated as I loved what I was doing. But after a while, I realized that I needed to change my strategy. I decided to self-taught design, and after a couple of months, I started working as a Head of Design at a startup – I built a team, I worked on rebranding the startup, visual design, art direction… My background in photography and video gave me experience and skills that helped tremendously as a designer. I love working at startups because there is so much freedom and flexibility to try as a designer. You are not stuck to a particular way of doing things (like in big corporate companies).
My designs made that startup look modern, refreshed and professional, attracting lots of new users. They were then able to successfully raise over $15 Million in funding.

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’m a designer and art director at early-stage startups and web3 projects (i.e. NFTs). Specifically, I specialize in visual design – visual design of their product, ensuring it looks on par with the brand, looks modern and is easily understandable from the user’s perspective.

I stumbled across what I do now. I started off in college studying architecture as my dad is an engineer. But I knew that it wasn’t exactly what I liked to do. I found myself drawn to digital products – for example, social media, apps as well as photography & video. I then came to the US to study photography. During the pandemic, I was forced to switch to design as productions were getting shut down.

I have designed for Y Combinator startups, as well as startups backed by a16z. I love working with startups because my designs are genuinely solving a problem, rather than for aesthetical reasons. It’s much more fulfilling and it’s so great to hear that thousands of users are positively impacted because of my designs.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I currently design for prominent NFT artists, and I have also created NFTs myself. I believe that NFTs have opened the door to more creative opportunities and ideas. As the world migrates toward an increasingly more digital place, NFTs or some sort of similar digital art was bound to happen.
There’s already a lot of digital art that existed on digital canvas prior to NFTs. I am definitely in favor of the exciting opportunities that NFTs have brought to artists and creatives.

I think a lot of people see NFTs as cash grabs or scams. However, ever since working with the prominent NFT artist Sarah Meyohas, I’ve realized that NFTs are just as meaningful as other fine art projects. There are a lot of people who utilized the NFT wave to scam others, and I hope that everyone else can identify and look past those meaningless projects.

I am currently involved with an NFT project called NFTitties – it’s an upcoming, impactful project that donates 30% of its proceeds to breast cancer charities, and the project supports women rights. I hope that once the explosion of cash grab projects die down, people will start using NFTs for a more positive impact in the future.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Further expanding on my career pivot from earlier questions.

Before COVID, my short film, The Dragon Dream, got showcased in a cinema in New York — a huge milestone for any creator. After a great deal of hard work, I became a celebrity photographer and videographer. I got to work and meet with influencers I grew up watching, a K-Pop star, and my friends from back home thought I was living the life. I was so excited about my future and the work I could create with fellow creators.

But then COVID hit. I lost all of my jobs. I had no savings and I was on Medicaid. I was depressed. I realized how unstable my previous career was. One month I could make a lot of money, yet in another month I could make nothing.

Sometimes people who hired me would refuse to pay. I was sabotaging my relationships with other people because I was so unhappy.

Even though I could consider myself lucky during these times, since I still had a roof over my head and my health was fine, I just couldn’t help being depressed. I lost friends and at one time became tired of myself.

Every day I wished I never chased my dreams, or I wish I studied a relevant major and got a six-figure job right out of college. However, as time went on, I knew I needed to change and adapt.

Slowly, I found out about the great parks and pay working in tech and I started all over again. Luckily, within a few months, my dream of a six-figure salary became a reality.

But I started feeling insecure. I never had the chance to go to an Ivy League school, and I was totally new to tech. I was meeting people more successful than myself and it turned out that they have their issues too.

We all have our issues. That was when I started appreciating my journey.

I traveled the world, lived in different places, and met people who inspired me. Now, I can tell my story to other people.

I never gave up on my dreams. I finally learned and understood why my business wasn’t working. I realized that my biggest business mistake of all time was investing without a product-market fit, and most of all, I had really bad timing.

I also realized that working in a team made me happy, more than the days when I was grinding alone at night. I learned that useful is more important than beautiful, but most importantly, my dreams changed.

Although I made a lot of mistakes, I also learned a lot of lessons. I realized that it’s okay to fail and get back up again.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAToL3xFImA7jkscHHMTZLw
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophie.vision/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophievision