To kick off In the Making, host Teresa Au explores how you can use the principles of design to create a career you love. She speaks to Puno, a web designer, content creator, and the founder of online education platform ilovecreatives. Puno shares her journey from working on the Call of Duty video game to building both a design studio and a trade school for digital design. Puno’s practical advice for taking a thoughtful, iterative approach to career building can help you take your own next step.
What you’ll hear on this episode:
Why Teresa loves Puno’s Webby Award Honoree reel “Compressed PDF - Even Cat Can Do It"
Puno’s marketing degree leads to her first, failed business attempt — which then leads to her first job
A peek at Puno’s work at Activision on Call of Duty
What burnout looks like
The financial aspect of quitting your job before you find a new one
Why it’s okay not to know what you want to do, and not have a plan
Analysis paralysis — why thinking is no substitute for doing
What Puno did on her creative “gap year”
The importance of skill-building
Turning your most personal and creative projects into income
What is a slashie? And how was Benjamin Franklin the first slashie?
The power of iterative thinking
Three questions to ask yourself each day
Puno describes what inspired her to start ilovecreatives, an educational and community platform for digital creatives
The mistakes people make when quitting a job
Designing a new career with intention
How Puno defines success now
Puno’s one word for 2023
ABOUT THE GUEST
Puno is the founder of ilovecreatives, an online trade school where designers, illustrators, and animators can build their skills and find community. She is also Executive Creative Director of ilovecreatives.studio, a boutique design agency. She loves writing and directing funny videos and doing photoshoots with her Persian cat, the Instagram starlet Muad’Dib.
ABOUT THE HOST
Teresa Au is an executive for community engagement at Adobe. Her career path spans diverse creative fields, from New York City's fashion industry to San Francisco's architecture and tech sectors. She has always prized working with distinctive design and the interesting people behind it. On creating In the Making, Teresa says “I knew I wanted to highlight and amplify the incredible personal stories of the talented and unique humans I’ve met online, on social or in person.”
See the full list of episodes from this season of In the Making.
