Meet Benjamin D’Oleo | Director & Editor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Benjamin D’Oleo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Benjamin, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I’ve always gravitated towards art or creative jobs. While in school, I used extracurricular classes or after-school activities to find which medium I liked the best. Or better represented how or what I wanted to express. I never thought that you could make a career out of art. I simply like to create and solve problems. I wanted to be able to express myself in a way that I could never use with speech or text. The creator of the universe creates through me.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Ever since middle, I was always infatuated with illusions. I wanted to learn how to do magic as a kid, I used to get magic books from the library. In one of the books, I found how they did tricks on film cameras, special effects, and visual effects. In middle school, I taught myself how to do basic visual effects with adobe’s after effects.

I was that weird kid in school who would make youtube videos and was made fun of it constantly for it. Around 2015 I started posting on an app called vine. I used the tools that I learned in the middle to start posting content on the app. I grew my page pretty rapidly and met many well-known internet personalities through the app. Through those connections, I was able to work with many notable brands and companies to this day. (Netflix, Disney, Marvel) It taught me that I could possibly make “creating” a full-time career.

Since then, I’ve grown my client list and have been able to find jobs pretty consistently. I’m now slowly trying to brand myself and start selling my own products.

I think a lot of creatives when working with a client tend to only make what they need to get by. I like to get the work done and then, take that extra step to make it more special. I find that that is how you grow as an artist and also makes the clients want to work with you again. I like to use that opportunity to make it the best thing I’ve made to make it challenging to top the next one.

What I’m most excited about is the next project. Doesn’t have to be anything notable, just as long as I’m solving problems I’ll always be content with the project.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
God, he’s really shown himself in my life through grace and what is possible in my life and others. My family who has always been encouraging in my career. During college, I was connected with another creative, Joe, who saw my work online and showed me what it takes to make this a full-time career. “Sunny” Taylor, another creative who showed me what great art is capable of. Most notably, I was introduced to Undefined from Miami, Florida, this last year. Those guys believed in me after just seeing some stuff I posted on my Instagram. They’re changing how we consume art in hip hop/rap and doing it at the highest level possible, not for their gain. I’ve always had the same mentality, so I had no option but to follow their lead.

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bendoleo

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BenDOleo

Image Credits
Photos by: kasweezz