Meet Stephanie Jazmines | Designer & Artist

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

Hi Stephanie, what principle do you value most?
There are a number of principles that matter most to me, but of those, I would pick 2: integrity and gratitude. I think those two are also ideas that are inherently intertwined in the base idea of how people value one another and themselves. Being straightforward and honest with people and with yourself is the core of morality, and being grateful and appreciative of people keeps you both grounded and sincerely humbled. That’s all important.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a senior designer in the Architecture Design Studio at Walt Disney Imagineering. I like to tell people that this trajectory started by my being born across the street from the Walt Disney Studios, but it likely involved more than that. I am from Los Angeles and grew up always drawing, painting, and making things. When I was in grade school, I wanted to go to specialty art classes like some of my friends attended, but they were just not affordable for my family. However, when I got to high school, my dad’s friend recommended I applied for a program called “The Ryman Arts Program.” This was a program for high school students who, like myself, could not afford art classes. It was portfolio based, and if you got in, you were able to take college-level art classes on Saturdays for up to 3 semesters for free – supplies included. This was the thing that really set up my career, because after completing high school (and the program), I went to the University of Notre Dame to study architecture, which included a mandatory year in Rome. In parallel to the completion of that Rome year, Marty Sklar — famed Disney Imagineer — had announced his retirement. To celebrate this, the Ryman program set up their inaugural Ryman Sklar internship, open to alumni of the Ryman Arts Program. I applied (and was so last-minute that it had to be overnighted) and was called in to interview against one other finalist. I won. I interned for 3 months, focused on producing character elevations for the Ratatouille area in Disneyland Paris, working with Executive Architect Eli Erlandson. This started my career in a way, but there was still a bit more in between which I will summarize briefly: I finished college with a degree in Architecture and Concentration in Furniture Design, the moved to New York to work for Robert AM Stern Architects. After that, I attended the Yale School of Architecture for a masters degree (and to round out my architectural education). From there, I had won the Gabriel Prize, which was awarded by the Western European Architecture Foundation. This entailed moving to Paris for 3 months to produce drawings. At the same, time, I was also awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for Finland, so after my time in Paris, I moved to Helsinki for a year to attend the Aalto University Wood Program. I then moved back home to Los Angeles and received a call (a number of calls, actually), from the head of the architecture program at Walt Disney Imagineering to come work, and I’ve been here since. Well, except for the 3 month sabbatical I took when I won the Institute for Classical Architecture and Art’s Gabriel Prize, which allowed my to fulfill a dream of living and working at the American Academy in Rome.

So I would say that this path was not necessarily easy or hard, but it did require a lot of interest, curiosity, and willingness to apply myself and take risks. I’m an introvert at heart, and that means I spend a lot of time in self-reflection and absorbing information. This openness to the world and the opportunities it can afford you — even if you yourself do not have the financial means — is central. Pure passion is something that people will always appreciate, and if I have learned anything from this career path thus far, it’s that there are so many opportunities available if you take the time to reflect, focus, and pursue.

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?
LA is a city that everyone has suggestions for, so I’ll keep my list short. A Griffith Park hike is a good place to start and get the lay of the land. I like to start close to the Trails cafe (my brother and I used to buy scones there and start the walk up). We would often head to K-town for all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ after at Castle. Some weekends, my friends and I will get Dim Sum in San Gabriel at CBS or get hand-pulled noodles at LAN Noodle. I think there’s always the big museum hits of LACMA (altho half of it is demolished rn) but it’s also next to the new Academy Museum, which has great exhibits, a great terrace with an extremely noisy automatic shade system, and a great cinema space. The Getty is always a beautiful place to go, especially when the weather is good. Atwater Village and Larchmont are great little walking streets with shops and restaurants. Dune, Proof, and Wanderlust are my Atwater trifecta of food places for lunch/dinner, coffee/pastries, and ice cream respectively. Depending on the season, I also like to see if there are any special shows or installations like Descanso Lights or a Hollywood Bowl show (although the Greek has become a new favorite). I have tons more to suggest, but like any true Angeleno, I keep a lot of those to myself.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Family, always. I lucky to have grown up with a family that was close and allowed me to be expressive in my own quiet and weird ways.

Website: http://stephaniejazmines.portfolio.site/

Instagram: Instagram.com/spectacular.vernacular

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-anne-jazmines-714b9413

Image Credits
John Corrigan (1st image and 4th image). Stephanie Jazmines (the rest)