A MULTIDIMENSIONAL CREATIVE POWERhousE PROVOKED BY "THE FEELING"
'the feeling' is my north star, suspending me in a forever state of needing to chase or create it. Starting with my first turns on a snowboard when i was three or four. too young to really understand, but that's generally the case WITH most things when you're a toddler. As a los angeles native, my love for board sports grew parallel with my age, evolvING into years of almost-daily surfing and skating. while always returning to the mountain some 40+ days / each winter.but as life would have it, you gotta pay to play. a little rock vs loose trucks, icy rails & goat trails...a slew of broken bones and surgeries from 13 & on. each one forcing me to focus on other outlets, 'the feeling' became something i had to create rather than chase. BUT that's the thing about the feeling, it only turns to melancholy when left as an unchecked desire. only when i was forced to stop chasing it did i realize i could create it. igniting a new inspiration for the world around me, i began to photograph friends while they surfed so i could still be at the beach even if i wasn't in the water. THIS WOULD LEAD ME TO photoshop and illustrator -- merely just as a way to kill time. what all started as antidotes for melancholy, would end up being MY LIFE.
I TOOK ON MY FIRST CLIENTS IN HIGH SCHOOL-- MAKING CUSTOM CLOTHING, ALBUM COVERS, AND MEDIA PACKETS FOR SURF & SKATE FRIENDS GOING PRO. graduating two years early, i worked as retail associate & creative assistant at a Snowboard company while continuing to grow a client portfolio. After a few years, i moved to costa mesa & began designing at rvca and boardriders- a time period that painted a clear picture for what i wanted. i got to combine my love for art, fashion & creativity with the 'other' side of my life-- summer days w/ an 8ft single fin, ducking ropes w/ friends in waist deep powder & roaming the desert on dirt bikes. up until that point, it felt like it had to be one or the other. like, i couldn't be into aesthetics and a tom-boy simultaneously. realizing i could tap into both changed my world.
after a few years in costa mesa, i returned to la and began working with a private-label handbag & luggage company. hired to create the brand identity of product lines specifically for companies like free people, anthropology, and nordstroms, i started designing the actual products a few months later, creating two full lines, and running their creative dept. six months later. but, while i knew i was accomplishing a lot, and most would be comfortable- i was not. after just over a year, all i wanted was to be back in the action sports world.
within days of that realization, i received an email from motorsport exotica, a performance motorcycle shop & race team, with a sprawling 11,000 sq. ft. facility in burbank, calif. they had recently partnered with a start-up company, and together, the two companies were launching a third. each offered a white-glove level of products, services, or lifestyle centered around cars & motorcycles. the opportunity piqued my curiosity. a solo workload i would deeply question a few months later, but if it were easy, anyone would do it.
it didn't take much convincing... stepping into the facility, i realized we're all chasing 'the feeling', their medium is machine. my awareness, knowledge and appreciation OF said machine grew 10-fold, quickly. my interest in cars was always driven by aesthetics or whatever my father was driving-- i was brought home from the hospital in his m3, days after i was born. a story made crazier when you consider i was born in boise, and home was los angeles. but fast forward to that moment in the shop and all the ones that followed-- in the cars, on the bikes, at the tracks... while creating, shooting, and chasing simultaneously. it re-lit the fire.
WITHIN my first SIX MONTHS, i brought [and still maintain] Motorsport Exotica through a media and creative re-brand, while also launching & maintaining the creative side of the partner company theIR third brand-- respectively, simultaneously & solo. a clinically insane amount of work, but something that gave me passion back. i was finally proud...but it was a feeling that lasted a mere moment before i realized this is just the beginning.
welcome to emxbp-- enjoy the ride.
"By emily blythe presser "
UNDEFINED YET EASILY identifiable. A MOMENT OF acted-upon CURIOSITY THAT quickly EVOLVEs INTO SHEER ELATION. a RUPTURE of the psyche SO deep, WE CHASE IT OVER AND OVER. and then, thAT same curiosity, unless successfully acted-upon thereafter, exists solely to provoke desire. Eventually, this becomes the NUCLEUS from which nostalgiA is born.
