Valarie Sakota
Brand Strategist / Designer / Product Developer / Co-founder of Barbari
Portland, OR
valariesakota.com
instagram @valarie_______
LinkedIn
www.barbarishop.com
Q What do you do?
“I help brands and founders hone in on their core purpose, actualize into products, and manifest through design.”
Day in, day out, I do many different types of things (one of the side-effects of entrepreneurship) but I’m in my element when working on brand design, brand strategy, presentation/layout design, product development and content creation.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
I received a bachelor of Fine Arts from University of Oregon in 2013 and started working in the advertising industry straight out of college. I first worked for a small creative agency, which gave me opportunities to dip my toe in many different components of the creative process, from photo retouching, design, conceptualization and copywriting to working to execute those visions on-set. During this time, I also began building my own CPG cannabis brand, Barbari, and navigated a lopsided period: I was used to generating aspirational ideas and lofty concepts but I didn’t yet know what it meant to translate those ideas into budgets and timelines, while executing for a client.
After experiencing some creative burnout, I moved into a larger agency setting and decided to switch gears into a project management role, managing a creative agency team for clients including Adidas and Netflix. This experience rounded out my working knowledge of how to execute an idea and gave me operational and managerial experience. I worked in this position for about two years before being accepted into an accelerator program for my own brand, Barbari, which had been evolving as a side project. In January of 2019, I decided to step away from my salary and dive full time into building and scaling Barbari. Through the accelerator program, we received a crash course on all things business, from go-to-market strategies to fundraising to sourcing. We completed the program with a small friends and family fund-raise and began scaling our product into eCommerce, wholesale, and licensing the brand for distribution within the regulated cannabis market.
As the creative half of Barbari, I oversee product development and brand. While we collaborate on nearly everything, my business partner primarily focuses on business development, sales and marketing strategy. I formulate all our products, source the ingredients and packaging, create production SOPs, oversee the website, brand design, and overall brand expression.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
I have a wide range of professional experiences that have honed my ability to think big and execute functionally. With 6+ years of entrepreneurship under my belt, I understand that brand design and strategy doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Building out a brand for longevity requires an understanding of the larger business infrastructure from packaging MOQs to understanding the lifecycle of the customer, how the product is intended to be received in the world, etc. I’m intimately aware of the delicate balance we uphold as small business owners to maintain growth (even if it's only incremental) while also prioritizing how and where to invest our time/money/bandwidth. Thanks to this experience, I’m able to partner with my clients in a more functional way and provide options (both aspirational and modest) that meet them where they are now, while carving a path for future growth.
I also have 6+ years of formal creative agency experience, primarily working with clients that are multinational corporations (including Adidas, Netflix, and Puma). That exposure has structured my creative process, honed my project management, and laid a foundation for large scale creative thinking. I have produced treatments for projects from large production budgets and global campaigns down to grassroots brand initiatives for mom and pop operations.
Q What are you working on right now?
I’m currently focused on product development/packaging design/sourcing with a couple of startups in the botanical space. I’m also working on an event series concept with a enthogenic brand as well as developing a few new offerings for Barbari’s product line.
On a personal level, I’m learning to apply design concepts in new mediums like garden design and rug making!
Q What’s your style?
I find a lot of inspiration from natural elements and textures in my work. I lean towards color pallets that are rooted in nature and botanicals — I rarely work with true white or true black.
Graphically, I love to disrupt the generally defined structure of an element (square corners and straight edges on digital photos, for example) and I love to lean into organic forms, natural dyes, earthy textures and analogue film. Some of this perspective can be found as executed through the Barbari brand.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
I am my most inspired and blissful in the early concept phases of projects. In the space of learning and ideating. I love sliding onto projects early on in the creative process, when I am able to help inform the larger vision. For me, that’s one of the most important points, where brand design and brand strategy intersect, and it’s where I enter my flow-state most effortlessly.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
Instagram/social media generally. Finding new ways to engage on Instagram to stay afloat in the algorithm is mentally exhausting and I really have to hype myself up to work on content creation + social strategy for myself and my company’s accounts. Sometimes my inner luddite wishes we all still used the yellow-pages to market ourselves…
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
Organize and archive my digital files! I have a pretty structured system, but I’m well overdue for a thorough clean out of all the project folders and a general tidying. If someone (other than me) could clear out old working files, discard random screenshots, duplicate exports, archive old projects, AND create an easy to implement organizational system for me to work from, I would be a very happy creative.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
Take more multimedia classes in art school. Dabble in the mediums that seem unrelated to your artistic practice. Learn the foundations of as many mediums as possible while you have access to the resources and the experts rather than being so laser focused on a single road. Now, more than a decade after graduating from college with a BFA, I have so much creative energy to express and a deep desire to do so in mediums I’ve got little technical experience in. For now, I’m remedying this by dabbling in new (to me) mediums like sketching, painting, textiles, ceramics, when I can. I look forward to the day when I’m more proficient in these and can really express myself unrestricted!
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
Packaging and materials. What is the industry insider information about what materials are truly sustainable, versus what is only used as aspirational marketing talking points. What are unconventional new bio-materials (like algae ink😍) that can be used instead of the more standard go-to options. I want to learn the nuances of packaging form factors, materials, recyclability, manufacturing logistics, etc. As I continue to ideate more products into the world, I want to be confident that I am able to actually minimize the potential waste-factor of the packaging that is inevitably at play.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
1. Brand strategy + art direction + design (visual center, packaging, presentations and collateral)
2. Product development/consulting within the herbal CPG space, sourcing (packaging, ingredients, vendors).
Honorable mention capabilities include copywriting, photography, photoshop/photo editing, basic graphic/layout design. I typically bust these out on any given project if/when needed but don’t often take on projects where any of these are the singular need. Also, I’m a kickass project manager (toot toot!)
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
Right now I’m looking for project based clients who have a few immediate needs but are open to an ongoing working relationship. I love working with clients who know exactly what they need but I’m also comfortable helping to define and hone in on solutions together.
I can merge easily into your workflow and will look to my clients to set the pace of the project. On my end, I come prepared to every project, with a workflow plan and estimates for time/cost, but I know what it’s like to juggle many things as a business owner. I never want to put added pressure on my client. In my experience, when there is good communication and the feedback is constructive, even the most chaotic projects can feel smooth.
Q What is your rate?
My projects typically ballpark around $1200. That said, I’m not super rigid here and will happily consider projects that have a lighter budget/needs, especially if it’s a fun opportunity to work on something new.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
Email is a great place to start, or through the form on my website. Drop a quick summary of who you are, what you want to do together, and your availability for an intro call. Budget considerations are always helpful but we can discuss/define that after digging into your needs a bit further.
Q Who is a creative you admire?
Salomée Souag - Salomée is a designer, painter, muralist, activist, artist with an incredibly defined visual and social perspective. Her work can be seen all over the streets of Portland, including the Adidas world headquarters. I’m so inspired by how she’s merged her fine-art practice and social activism with commercial work she’s done for brands and clients. @_____________sola on instagram.
Ivan Vidovic - He is a motion and graphic arts magician and more recently has been generating some really fun work with AI tools as well. I love how he’s defined his visual perspective and is constantly using his art to interact with the evolution of technology. @ivanvidovic on instagram.
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Play in the garden without expectations… or gloves.
This member profile was originally published in August 2023