Meet Freya Yeh | Designer & Animator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Freya Yeh and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Freya, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I like art. This is a simple answer. But for more in-depth one would be, I’m loving how art is able to bring impact to people. For me, art is intuitive and authentic. As it transforms to “design”, it becomes more practical. Since the form of art and design is fluid, they are easier to arouse people’s emotion and feeling as apply them into different purposes, whether it’s in advertisement or illustration form. In this way, I am enjoying that I can make art and also join the design project that would have some influence to a brand, or some people at the same time.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am Taiwanese, born and grow up in a little island in Asia. It’s always hard to live and work in the States as an “outsider”. I always know that I want to work in the States one day when I was still a college student in Taiwan. So I set up a five year plan to get where I am today. As an outsider, money and visa are the first thing I need to deal with. I worked 12 hours a day as full-time animator and freelancer for two and half years in Taiwan to sharpen my skills and earn money as much as I could. Then afterwards, I figure school is the best way to lead us into a real industry in the States. So I decided start applying grad school. But the money I saved at that time wasn’t quite enough for the expensive grad school tuition, which only covered my one-year life expense. So I still got my student loan and booked a one way ticket to Georgia to finally start my journey from SCAD motion design graduate program. I treated every projects in grad school as commercials. So I would try to find my own blindspots and improved them every time as I got opportunities to grow. And try to learn as much as I could from professors and classmates. Thankfully, I got an offer as designer before I graduated from grad school.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Beach is definitely my go-to spot in LA. I like Malibu and Laguna Beach. I enjoy spending my weekends on chilling besides the sea and having some nice conversations and peaceful moments with my friends. And as Taiwanese, I have to say Taiwanese food is LA is pretty good and authentic. Like Pine and Crane in Silver Lake and Din Tai Fung in Alhambra are my favorite.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
It’s hard to name only one person in this part. I am really grateful for everyone I meet in the journey of my career. My grad school professors taught me skills and shared lots of their experience to me. After I graduated, I went to Brand New School for internship then landed on the job as a designer at BUCK. Thanks to lots of opportunities these two great companies give me, I keep growing as designer in this creativity industry.

Website: https://www.freyayeh.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freyayeh_art/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freya-yeh-811228133/