Meet Ibby Day | Designer & Founder of ATC

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

Hi Ibby, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk-taking, or perhaps risk tolerance, is a quality I’ve thought about to a great extent lately.

In January, I left my marketing job with nothing lined up because it was a poor fit. While it wasn’t a completely thoughtless decision, I think it would surprise most people to know that it was an easy decision for me in the grand scheme of things.

That’s what got me thinking about my level of risk tolerance, and why I’m more willing to bold decisions like leaving my job. While we can boil this down to privilege and access to resources, my deeper insight is that I believe risk tolerance is a quality that most artists, including myself, have consciously or subconsciously developed over time regardless of socioeconomic status.

I love art. It’s the one thing that’s been there for me my entire life. I love that I’ll never be an “expert” because there are so many mediums and skills to explore. It is an ever-evolving field that can be done by anyone at anytime, thus providing an endless source of new ideas. For this reason, me, and many of my peers, are willing to risk everything.

I think artists are also more risk-tolerant because we are accustomed to going against the grain already. Many of us grew up with parents or guardians who were weary of our creative aspirations and pursued them anyway. We had peers and teachers who would impose their ideas of successful careers on us and we chose the unconventional route anyway. Artists are taught to think outside the box and make distinct work that’s reflective of who we are. Most of our peers continue to experience an education system—specifically an evaluation system—that trains us to avoid failure at all costs. But failure is inherent in the creative process and is present with every risk. Every artist knows what it’s like to try a new style or scrap a project entirely after hours of work. We build resilience to failure in a way I think most miss out on, and that translates into both career moves and how we approach our lives.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
At The Core (ATC) Agency is still very much in its launch stage but I think the one thing that I keep reminding myself of is that there is never a perfect time to start, and sometimes you have to put an idea out in the world.

ATC Agency is a design firm and artist collective specializing in the social impact space that was formed from a publication I started in college for fun. The publication has always been about creating a space for artists to create and share work vulnerably, and that’s what my hope is for ATC Agency. As an entity we hope to come together in our respective crafts to produce work together that is honest and doesn’t shy from inevitable challenges.

It has not been easy to launch ATC Agency because, for the last few years, it has just been an idea in my head that took the form of a publication. Transforming a publication to a design agency is quite a stretch because we will have to begin finding clients in addition to maintaining the resources we already provide for free.

But I have hope that this is just the beginning of something great since so many of my anticipated collaborators are already working freelancers. I hope that we can now produce on a larger scale and take on projects bigger than ourselves as individuals. What I’m most excited about though is our structure. We’ve deconstructed the hierarchy of a workplace so there’s no centralized boss so we continue to encourage and support difficult and honest conversations amongst ourselves, which is something I think is lacking in many companies today.

I’m sure going forward there will be so many more challenges and lessons to learn but for now, I hope people know that ATC Agency is hoping to revolutionize the way we work and build trusting environments where conflicts exist without fear and ultimately is a space where there is an unwavering shared pursuit of creating great work.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I moved to LA because I love its range of diversity, both in people and what you can experience. What I’d want to show a friend in a week is the breadth of communities you can find here all within 15-30 minutes of each other.

Firstly, I am biased towards Pasadena because it was my college town, but Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley have some of the best Asian food. Top three restaurants would be Bone Kettle, Borneo, and Golden Deli.

I’d definitely spend a day in Orange County. It’s not as chaotic as the city and the local parks are hard to beat. Yorba Linda Regional is my favorite, but I enjoy Mile Square Regional Park too. If I was feeling up to it, I’d go to Corona Beach in the same day and set up a beach bonfire. As someone who does not stay up late, it’s worth it to experience being out that late at the beach. Just be careful of parking in the lot, they ticket almost immediately at 10PM at closing (yes, I did get a $93 ticket).

I’d use another day in my neighborhood of Little Tokyo / Arts District. There are some affordable and authentic Japanese restaurants, fun museums, hobby stores, and boba. Sunright Tea Studio or Gong Cha are my go-to’s. Just nearby is South LA which has tons of great Mexican restaurants. In recent, I’ve enjoyed Birria on Broadway!

If my friend was looking for a beach town I’d likely opt for going to Long Beach over Santa Monica. I do enjoy the latter, but Long Beach gives the same energy with half the tourists to me, so it’s a little more relaxed. The Long Beach Library is really lovely as well if you don’t mind that unhoused people are allowed to be inside and outside. I’d likely go for Cold Stone Creamery and a walk at the Pike if I were there.

Truthfully, I’d use the remaining days to go out to Big Bear and Joshua Tree. I know SoCal has a reputation for being far from nature, and perhaps I’m biased because I like to drive, but Big Bear is about 3 hours away and it’s such a calming place to be. I love the strip of restaurants nestled in nature, and the ability to go kayaking on the lake. It’s reminiscent of where I grew up in Minneapolis, MN so I’d want my friend to experience what I love about being outside.

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?
This will be the hardest question for me to answer because I believe that every single person I’ve ever met has had some effect on me and my journey in some way, but I will do my best to highlight those I think were the most influential.

Firstly, a shoutout to Samantha Hastings. One of my first friends who passed when I was 7 in a car accident but taught me the importance of choosing to offer kindness in the face of ugliness.

Second, a shoutout to Tasha Minskoff for being the longest supporter of my artistic career (13 years!). She is the one who encouraged me to post my work on Instagram when it first launched and gave me many of my first drawing prompts.

A shoutout to Ashley Yee-Mazawa who was my first mentor on YCS-Interact, a volunteer club I was part of for all four years of high school. I don’t think I would place such a high value on inclusivity and community in my work without her and the entire YCS board.

I’d also shout out Mr. Hall and Celeste Guarneri who were my high school and college mentors respectively and helped me develop my leadership abilities, specifically the ability to take risks and have difficult conversations.

And lastly, to Mary, my first art teacher who sparked my passion, and to Ms. McKenzie, my high school art teacher who continued to kindle the fire by supporting me in my artistic career.

I’ve been so lucky to have such a supportive group of people surrounding me for most of my life and I can’t thank them enough.

Website: idayart.com

Instagram: instagram.com/iday0

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ibbyday/