Creative Director Lisa Kirchner shares her thought on inspiration and female leadership in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is like a candy land to visual people; a never-ending source of inspiration. The diversity, the people, the food, the art scene, and - most importantly - the endless sunshine makes me want to constantly see things, do things and create things. In contrast, I feel that Berlin, as wonderfully multi-cultural and creative it is, tends to mask its beauty behind a heavy curtain of gray moodiness.
Another thing that inspires me immensely are LA's women. The way they support each other and grow together provides me with so much hope and excitement for the future. In Los Angeles, there are so many female entrepreneurs and industry leaders taking initiative and creating the most wonderful brands and movements. While I used to feel that you had to be one of the guys and it was tough to be accepted (especially in advertising in Germany), I now feel that leading with the feminine is not only accepted but seen as a strength. Vulnerability, intuition, and the ability to listen and constantly learn can get you so much further and make the work so much better than constantly feeding your ego.
Women allow themselves to see things with a beginner's mind; fail and get up 10 times stronger. I am part of all kinds of amazing groups of women where we share what we've learned along the way and inspire and support one another. I am excited to see that more and more men are starting to appreciate and embrace the same values, are supportive and proud to be standing behind a strong woman, and not intimidated any more.
Needless to say my LA community is one of my main sources of inspiration, even though I do miss my Berlin tribe every day!
Lisa Kirchner is a creative director from Berlin, living in Los Angeles and loving every minute of it. She is a designer at heart, with a serious lettering and illustration obsession, and usually works for a variety of international clients and agencies.
Lisa always wanted to see as much of the world as possible, so she studied design in Sydney before attending Miami Ad School, where she lived and worked in Hamburg, Stockholm, and Vienna.
After some time at KOREFE, an innovative design agency, she moved on to work for DDB in Berlin and soon became the head of art on the international VW account. This allowed her to see even more of the world and produce some incredible work along the way. Los Angeles has always been her favorite shoot location.
In 2013 she started freelancing in Berlin, London, and Amsterdam, working with clients like, Sony, Apple, MINI, Audi and eBay. However, she kept being drawn back to Los Angeles, where she finally moved in 2016 and now freelances for global agencies as well as amazing new emerging brands.
www.allthatyay.com
www.fernweh.land
