Meet Adriana Crespo | Visual Communication Designer & Artist

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

Hi Adriana, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
I’ve thought about ‘balance’ over time in different ways and have most recently realized and accepted that I can create my own balance. Someone else’s balance, or the fitness coach’s balance won’t apply to me, nor will it contribute to my personal or profesional goals. That is something I’m currently focusing on, I’m building my own balance. I now understand, that, if I do in fact want to give more hours of my day to personal work or hobbies, I need to prioritize and sacrifice something else in my day, whether it be erasing social media, keep working after my day job is done, going out once a week, or having a more strict schedule. Though this won’t necessarily work for someone else’s idea of a balanced lifestyle. I think we’ve wrongly adopted a universal idea of what ‘balance’ looks like and we need to rethink it and shape it for ourselves and to serve our own goals and well being.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Something I’m proud of is that I decided to build a freelance career early on, despite everyone’s advice that you should go freelance after working for at least 5 years in a profesional environment. I knew I wanted to own my time, my process and be accountable to my own goals. This was almost seven years ago. Since then I’ve co-founded a Design Collective and a Film Collective, I am the Creative Director for a fast-growing digital platform that develops social emotional skills for kids and young adults, I do contract work for global firms in the developing field and I collaborate with emerging musicians on their album art and music videos. I found ways to keep myself busy early on, but always with a goal in mind,: using what I love doing with purpose. I thrive on taking on new and different challenges. What I work on at 9am is different from what I work on at 3pm, and that keeps me curious and growing as a designer. It wasn’t easy, and it still is not. As a freelancer, it’s hard to put boundaries on your time, you want to take as many opportunities as possible. But most recently I decided to start focusing (quality over quantity). I had to stop and rewrite my long-term goals and remember who I was and who I want to become. I am currently on a journey to work smarter, not harder, and that has required me to let go of certain things, I now thrive on collaborating with amazing like-minded designers who share similar goals.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
As the capital of Ecuador, Quito has a ton to offer! I would describe the perfect vacay day as the following: Waking up for a morning run in the Parque Metropolitano where you can breathe the freshest air in the city and enjoy an awesome view. Next I would take my friend for breakfast at Fankor coffee, order some benedict eggs (my favorite) with a fresh squeezed OJ and have a lavender latte w/almond milk to go! Next we would take a cab downtown (Centro Histórico de Quito), where we would walk around the colonial houses and enter some of the best museums (Museo del Alabado) and churches (Iglesia de la Compañía) in the country. We would then head to La Floresta and have a lunch at Casa Warmi. We would walk down the street to check out the nice local shops. Rest, go gym climbing with friends at El Muro and end the night at some show or party in La Ideal or Las Cuevas del Ilaló. I think I described MY perfect day but it would certainly be my best friend’s perfect day too, if I know her well.

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?
Yes! I dedicate my Shoutout to Father Bronques. I started listening to his podcast called ‘Make Art Not Content’ on Spotify and their episode about ‘Flow’ really pulled me in. I’ve been hooked since then and most recently enrolled at ‘The Mystery School’. ‘The Mystery School’ is an online course for creatives that helps them put their goals into action and live the best version of themselves. Father Bronques has been supporting creatives from all around the world for some time now and I’ve learned SO much from his teachings. Recommend it 100%

Website: adrianacrespo.com

Instagram: @adrianacrespo

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriana-crespo-design/

Other: https://lobueno.org/ https://llegofilms.com/ https://www.purposeproject.org/

Image Credits
All photo credits to María José Aguirre Pita @guirrepita on ig