Liyanna Baloca
Graphic Designer / Illustrator / Social Media Strategist
Bay Area, CA / Manila, PH
www.liyangelique.com
instagram @liyangelique
youtube @liyangelique
tiktok @liyangelique
Q What do you do?
“Hello! I’m a graphic designer specializing in branding and advertising materials. As a designer, I push for large-scale implications of small-scale moments. My process is intersectional, personal, and lateral to dig deep at human insights to express community culture in context—and culture is everything. ”
Past experience includes working on brands like Jack Daniel’s, Alka-Seltzer, and Pearle Vision for Energy BBDO, and graphic design needs for Popeye Media and Notre Dame’s Idea Center.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
In college, I majored in marketing to pursue social media marketing because internet fandoms and online communities basically raised me, and I’ve always admired the connections you can make with people you’ll never meet. But, the majority of my class requirements focused on things like finance and economics. So, I sought learning experiences in social media through startups and nonprofits. These experiences were mostly self-guided, where I’d gain access to their social accounts, which would become my playground to learn and experiment with what works and what doesn’t. But, I often found myself focusing on the visual executions of content rather than the strategies behind them. Come the internship search before senior year, I found most of my “social media” experience was strongest in graphic design. So, I interned with Popeye Media for a summer to see what a serious creative career looks like, and I’ve been obsessed ever since. I decided to take graphic design seriously for a year and see how far it would take me. In my senior year, I picked up visual communications as a supplementary major and landed an internship with Energy BBDO for the summer after graduation. Now, I’m in this gray area not knowing if I want to find work at an agency or try my hand at freelance, but setting up this profile is my way of shooting my shot at freelance!
Q How do you stand out in your field?
From a work standpoint, my business education does allow me to understand where clients come from in terms of business goals. This gives me a unique understanding of how creative work solves a business problem. While I can’t tell you what I learned in managerial economics, I still incorporate important principles like analyzing the competitive landscape or how social media. Being able to play the middle-man between business goals and creative work also allows me to understand the root concerns when clients ask for revisions. The logo doesn’t need to be bigger, it needs to be memorable.
But on a personal level, I’ll put community culture first in any way I can. I always think of a brand in terms of its large-scale impact in a community context. When a brand is in the hands of its audience, how does the audience share it with their community? In what context do people talk about the brand to their peers? My current belief around brands is that they serve as shortcuts to storytelling. So, as the world becomes increasingly social, consistency in how a brand talks about itself versus how others talk about it becomes increasingly important in building a community that feels uplifted and represented by the stories a brand evokes.
Q What are you working on right now?
Vlogging!
Content creation is such a double-edged sword for creatives because content is a creative execution, but the purpose is to serve algorithmic business goals. It’s like when you’re sharing your work, the critique comes in numbers, not in dialogue, I always fall trap to following a formula instead of what genuinely interests me.
Especially as a designer with a business background, I just naturally think very hard about what the numbers are and how I can design to boost them. But, I recently watched Didi, a movie which captures a lot of that fun millennial’s had with the early internet. Just filming themselves for fun. Posting on the internet for fun. It’s easy to think too big with how the internet has evolved and been capitalized. In knowing all the opportunities regular people gain from posting on the internet, its hard to stop thinking aspirational, or for personal gain, and then the pressure is on to be good.
That’s why I’m trying to focus on calling it vlogging, to mentally keep it separate from the amalgamation of content creation. I’m not creating a personal brand, I’m not going to post top 10 fonts you need to know about, and I’m not going to use editing techniques that prioritize engagement over the story. I just want to document for me, and share to connect with others. Ugh its not that deep!
Q What’s your style?
I think the core of strong creativity is bringing together two ideas that don't make sense together initially but do with a good story that ties them together. Design can make everything look pretty, but without a strong idea at its core, something will always feel flat about it.
For instance, in my branding for The Daily Bird (https://liyangelique.com/dailybird/), I took the Age of Enlightenment and reframed it in the context of how coffee can be a symbol for mental health awareness. Bennett Allan Weinberg writes "Before the rise of coffee, the European drink of choice was alcohol… a depressant. Then, all of a sudden, the drink of choice shifts to coffee… a stimulant." So, if coffee played a role in ending a culture of frequent substance consumption, today it can be supportive of mental health awareness and in motivating individuals who may be struggling. Like how the early bird catches the worm, the early riser deserves a cup of joe.
So, to keep doing creative work, we need to uncover new stories to draw ideas from. This is why I find cultural identity and niche subcultures fascinating. For, when we have a diverse pool of experiences to draw from, we grow the ideas that we can combine and tell compelling stories around.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
I studied industrial design for a year actually. I love that it reminded me of my middle-school dreams of being a production designer for Broadway shows until I realized I was just doing it for the pure enjoyment of it, and that I should probably study something I could see myself in career-wise. I still think of my intro classes very fondly, and it made me so hyper-aware of everything tangible in my life. Like, literally everything in my bedroom was thoughtfully crafted and designed by someone—and before these things were manufactured, someone first sketched it out. Like that’s so ??? crazy how so many things in life first start as a drawing. I remember hearing once that what separates humans from animals is our ability to craft tools. Craft. Create. Being builders, artists, and creators, are so fundamental to who we are as humans and how we’re shaping the world, and all those mumbo-jumbo philosophical arguments are just overcomplicating things.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
I’ve been trying to build a visual archive of artists and work that inspires me so I can really develop my taste and understanding of the kind of creative work I like. The thing is, with social media, work posted on the medium is inherently creative in some form of photography, graphic design, videography, etc. Because I personally follow artists and designers, what I see is more very close to the creative work I want to make myself. But social media is also consumed so fast and mindlessly, that I can’t process how much I like the work I see—so I scroll past it and my visual archive remains empty.
On the other side, I sometimes think creative work is worth adding to my archive when it’s not. Sometimes it's just a quick aesthetic reel all flashy—that I’m convinced something is impressive when there’s no strong idea standing behind it. But since social media is so quickly consumed, I'm not going to think hard about the idea, I'm just gonna think about if I like the way it looks. And then I just don't know what I think is good or what I think is pretty, and then I’m like… what am I even building an archive for again?
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
Probably social media engagement for my own accounts. I love strategizing and doing it for other brands, but when it comes to myself I find it really difficult because it’s hard to define the line between using my socials for industry clout vs. watching funny cat videos. So, if I can pay someone to boost my reach while I watch a video of a podcast with subway surfer playing on the side, that’d be chill.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
I wish I told my 12-year-old self to trust who you are when you are alone! Something I’ve noticed about myself whenever I’m off school and have no responsibilities is that I binge everything I’ve been waiting to watch in like 3 days, and then I start some random, artsy, side project. And like one, art is work. Period. So, if I’m off, doing an artsy project, the type of work I just naturally want to do is creative. And, if I’m doing it for myself for free, why don’t I do it for other people as a career?
I’ve been at battle between what I think I should be doing with my life vs. what I want to do for so long, that truly if there’s one thing I regret in life, it’s that I took too long to admit who I am and what I love. And okay, I need to chill I’m literally 22 at the moment I’m writing this haha. The world is my oyster—I just wonder how far I’d be if I realized that sooner.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
This is probably a generic answer but AI (artificial intelligence, not Adobe Illustrator) for sure. For me, I think there’s a ton of big scary ideas that get thrown around the conversation, but the big picture for me is what will AI do to our sense of purpose? And human connection?
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
I would love love love to make my name known as someone who works with independent musicians. Creative self expression is something is some of my favorite type of work, and I love the personality that new musicians bring. I've also been practicing photography by going to local concerts near me, so if there's any opportunities to blend that with graphic design would be super cool. A Tumblr quote once said something where if art decorates space, music decorates time. So I think it’s really cool when the two come together because a highly immersive experience can come about it.
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
When I interned with Popeye Media one summer, I asked the daring question “If they’re the client, is it that irritating when they want revisions to your work?”
I probably asked it more politely, but I still cringe that I even asked in the first place now that I’ve been in their shoes. Their answer was that when clients are difficult, its more like a sign that there’s no trust in your work, in your experience, and in your creative taste. There are certainly projects I’ve since been on where I’ve felt that. And, they haven’t been my best projects.
So, I would appreciate getting to know the people I work with, their goals, and what about my past work they like. When there’s an appreciation for my work beyond my abilities to use creative software, I think we can make some really cool shit together :)
Q: What is your rate?
For a base-level expectation, my hourly rate is $45 but! I do believe that incredible projects can be achieved at any budget, so based on your budget, I can organize a specific approach for you. I'm also open to passion projects that resonate with me emotionally, so if it’s something I see going a long way, I’m open to discussions.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
Please reach out through this form!
Q Who is a creative you admire?
Offgod is an incredibly talented and self-motivated artist
Karo Krafts has amazing world-building around her brand
Edgy Katrina I admire that she’s expressed difficulty in putting herself out there, but she does it anyway!
Spooky Woods In a world of digital art, his clay figures are so refreshing
Kayli Sandoval THIS is mixed media
Jackson August the most real music videos, storytelling
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Stop looking in the same places
This member profile was originally published in September 2024.