Q&A with Lionel Cipriano, Senior Art Director at Vera Bradley
Photo: Lionel Cipriano
I’ll never run out of talented Alberta University of the Arts alumni to interview. With the U.S. election (having just occurred with President-elect Joe Biden), it has me thinking even more about my friends living in America. I’m not sure how to introduce Lionel, I feel like anything I write just won’t do him justice but I’m going to give it a shot and tell the story of how we first met. I was at a student gathering for the Media Arts and Digital Technology stream (a stream I thought I would major in) when Lionel confidently strode over and sparked a conversation. When I mentioned I might be interested in Media Arts as a major, Lionel quickly scoffed and said I looked like I should be in the Visual Communications stream and considering that the two girls I was chatting with just before thought I was an instructor and not a student - well it did cause me to pause. Since that first meeting, Lionel became a constant cheerleader for me to get into the design stream and over the next three years we spent in the program I watched his natural talent pair with a never ending energy and drive to create the best work and become a well-remembered star student. He was a favourite amongst our teachers and peers, admired for his high-quality of work and good natured, inclusive and friendly demeanour.
Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your background?
I am an immigrant from the Philippines, my parents migrated to Canada when I was 8 years old. I currently live in the United States, so have immigrated twice! I am a senior art director at Vera Bradley in Fort Wayne, Indiana and before that I was living in New York. I attended post-secondary at the Alberta University of the Arts, formerly the Alberta College for Art and Design. I’m also gay, into fashion, health and fitness and have always strived to be a better version of myself.
What inspired you to go to AUArts? What made you want to be a designer/art director?
I was doodling at a very young age, am a creative thinker and in general have always enjoyed art and creativity. AUArts was and still is a world renowned school and when I was considering applying I saw a brochure that included work from previous alumni and a couple projects were album covers for Madonna and Alicia Keys, I was also very into music and thought - I am going to become a designer and design album covers. So that is literally why I went to AUArts to design album covers, but during our time there, technology changed the way we listened to music, first with mp3s and now with apps like Spotify. Then after working through some of the foundational courses at AUArts I started to aspire to work in publication. I was very much into fashion and thought it would be cool to work in the GQ editorial world. But the timing was kind of crazy as it was during the market crash of 2008 and the economy was down, it was the beginning of the folding of a lot of publications, and there were hiring freezes. That made me want to switch my career again, haha - I couldn’t do album covers or work for a fashion publication. So I worked for a design agency, but fashion was still something I wanted to pursue, it was and still is something I am passionate about and an outlet as an art form.
What made you want to move to New York?
Fashion. I’ve always known I wanted to work in the fashion world and New York is the center of that industry. The culture was appealing, I loved how diverse it is and a lot of what I remember seeing during my childhood in movies and TV inspired me to move here. Once moving and living there you realize that the stuff you see on TV is not true, there is glamour but it’s a lot of hard work, grit and hustle. I think you truly fall in love with the city after living there for an extended amount of time. People have tenacity and their ability to push forward and innovate is inspiring. My initial view of wanting to move to New York was driven by what I saw on TV and in movies, but I’ve come to appreciate New York differently, after living there. Not for the same reasons I had imagined, but mostly because of the people. The people are what makes it feel alive.
What was your first job there and career path to Vera Bradley?
My first job was actually in publication, I interned for Nylon Magazine as a designer, so I got a taste of it. Then I worked with an agency owned by two prominent female designers, Bonnie Siegler and Emily Oberman at Number 17. I had a lot of female mentorship, we had strong female leaders at AUArts that helped shape my career. Then starting at Number 17 with strong female creatives was a great way for me to be exposed to the world of design. After that I learned a lot about design principles and design psychology and the power of form and function, but still wanted to work in fashion. After that I moved to Tommy Hilfiger and was there for almost 5 years as part of the in-house marketing and design department. I started as a senior designer, working on digital banners and print items. Then I worked on photoshoots and campaigns as an Art Director. My favourite projects were the fashion shows but I was also really good with branding which is when I was approached by Vera Bradley and I am currently their Sr. Art Director and have been here for over 4 years working to reshape the brand into a more contemporary world.
What are your thoughts on the election? What are you experiencing with political divides?
Being Canadian in America I try to steer away from talking about politics because my vote does not count here. I have been doing a lot of listening, educating myself to understand the political divide of the country and taking the time to understand both sides. Being a gay immigrant, my values and beliefs are naturally more aligned with democrats. But I do listen and understand the republicans, I have friends that are in both parties and it is fascinating to me sometimes because it feels like it has become a sport. Red team vs blue team and that is sort of how I see it. Americans are very much into sports and very dedicated. I find that they are voting based on this team mentality and I don’t think people are really taking the time to educate themselves, really listening to the facts and getting the information they need to make an informed decision. My goal is to give an unbiased opinion, I try to see it from both sides and encourage those who can vote to make theirs count. I think it’s crazy to see how divided this country really is—my hope is that the future leaders of America really work toward unifying the people and work towards healing and reconciling differences.
How have the Black Lives Matter protests affected you and your city?
In Fort Wayne, Indiana, there hasn’t been much for protesting. This city is not a densely populated area like New York or Chicago. But I have been supporting BLM in my own way. I have donated to a few non-profits like – Black Visions Collective, they advocate for black lives, specifically the black trans community. I have always felt like I do advocate for diversity and inclusivity. But because there hasn’t been an opportunity to protest I’ve committed to learning more about different cultures and race. A few years ago I attended The 3% Movement conference, it is a conference that speaks to the fact that only 3% of creative directors are women, so that is a huge discrepancy. I have always looked up to women and have a lot of female friends, so I’ve always considered myself a feminist but didn’t really know what that meant. This conference opened me up to actively advocating for women as there are similarities in the obstacles women, gays and minorities face, in general. Historically women were the largest population to be discriminated against, so this conference really opened my eyes to that. At the conference I heard from Chris Bergeron, she spoke how she transitioned from a man to a woman at the peak of her career. She was a high powered executive male, that transitioned and lost her male privilege because of her transition. My take-away was that it is important to accept differences and to learn from other perspectives that are different from ours, sometimes it is this friction or even conflict that end up making things better. Pressure makes diamonds - when we are uncomfortable about something that is when things start to change and materialize. After that conference I came back to the office and I spoke about it and really started to advocate for diversity and inclusivity in my workplace. I am happy to say that I am part of a committee that started after the more recent BLM movement. This is when my company took its diversity and inclusion efforts a lot more seriously and now we have a committee lead by a diverse group of people with different backgrounds. We’ve named it Project Quilt and our objective is to foster deeper understanding of our different backgrounds and cultures while promoting more diversity within our workplace. The nice thing about this committee is that we are moving forward, we are making a conscious effort to hire people of colour and educating ourselves on why this will make our team stronger. My personal goal is to learn from people and understand other people’s point of view and perspectives. You have to learn and listen to be able to form your own opinions.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced?
I think my biggest challenge has been to be comfortable in my own skin. Growing up in a conservative city made it difficult to accept the fact that I was gay. My family and friends are not conservative, but I did grow up Christian, so there were some obstacles to overcome. But that challenge helped me to become more resilient. Often times people of colour and Asian immigrants are more resilient because we had to fight for a lot of things. So my biggest personal challenge has also taught me a lot and has helped me become the person I am today. Once I came out I was able to be more accepting of the world and that is when opportunities started to open up for me. There are those preconceived notions about being a gay Asian in America, you are stigmatized, and I still face that but I’m learning and love who I am and that is what is most important. I’ve really corrected how I view myself.
What is the most memorable project you’ve worked on?
One of the initiatives I have been leading at Vera Bradley is collaborations with other brands. Most recently, I got to work on the Harry Potter collaboration, and it was great to relive my childhood. That collaboration was working with Warner Brothers and it was really fun. But we had to rethink the concept entirely because of Covid, it was a challenge and we had to reposition ourselves. Originally we wanted to do a shoot with models, but we ended up doing a still life session in the studio with very little crew as we all had to be physically distant. But it was one of the most successful campaigns we have ever done, we sold out of the product within hours of launching the campaign.
Vera Bradley x Harry Potter collaboration.
I also loved the fashion shows I worked on at Tommy Hilfiger that was one of the most fulfilling times of my career, it was many hours and gruelling nights spent working on those shows, but as they say you have to love what you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to put up with some of those crazy hours that you have to endure. I actually don’t know how I managed to stay awake, but I did! And I remember it so clearly because I loved it and it was exciting. I’m still making more memories, so to be continued.
Who do you admire and why?
I admire my sister, even though we are about 8 years apart it was nice to see her flourish as a designer, she went to AUArts as well. It has been great to see her develop her own sense of style and see how hard-working she is - probably a harder worker than I am. She inspires me because she is always bringing fresh ideas to the table, often times as we get older we don’t get a glimpse of what the youth are doing. Saying that makes me feel old, haha. It is great to get her take on things, we collaborate a lot and started working on a few freelance projects together, so we get to learn from each other too. She has been a huge inspiration, but I also think our parents have been an inspiration, they are both very supportive of both of us and the career path we chose.
What are your big lofty goals for your work?
Continual learning and I would love to start my own creative agency, probably with my sister. We want to start a creative marketing agency for consumer lifestyle products, fashion or beauty as that is where our skill sets and experience have landed us. But that is down the road, for now I want to continue to learn and have even thought about going back to school and getting a masters in something completely out of my field. The world has so much potential but those are my two long-term goals for now!
What are some of your recent reads?
I don’t buy a lot of books, I usually buy coffee table books that are design or fashion related. I have recently read “Find Me” and “Call Me By Your Name”, a romcom gay fictional novel. I don’t normally read fiction books because my mind wanders but this one actually captured my attention, but it could have been because Covid happened and I was stuck at home. My friend Ian Liu also gave me a book to read, it’s called “So You Want To Talk About Race.” I’m still making my way through it but it’s teaching me a lot of things about race and acceptance and why it’s important that we discuss it.
Where can we find you?
http://www.lionelcipriano.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thedandylionel/