Liana Mikah – Designer, Photographer, & Social Media Curator
Located in a little town in the countryside across the bridge from Portland, Oregon. A creative in love with color, candid moments and who has a serious obsession with mood boarding and bringing dreamy ideas to life.
INTERVIEWED x VICTORIA LOPUGA
Let’s start with your story. How did you start your creative journey? And how did that bring you to where you are today?
I’ve honestly been creating as early as 4 or 5 — it started out as scrapbooking with my mom. That’s where I really remember being creative. I also remember in second grade, being extra colorful with all my homework assignments. Everything was decked out in doodles. Later on, I remember the first floppy disk I owned was a disk of fonts. My friend who I visited every summer in California gave me over 50 fonts to play with in my Word Doc and that was where I truly fell in love with typography. Oh, and I can’t forget my Lisa Frank days — that was my obsession. I would decorate all my books, walls and things with her stickers. And then MySpace rolled around and I remember sitting on the computer until 2am creating banners and layouts for friends and random people on MySpace was one of my favorite things to do. That’s when I realized I wanted to go to school and do something creative as a job. It was in a community college where I landed an internship to be a business admin for a graphic design firm that opened the doors to realizing that I wanted to finish my school education with — a bachelor in arts in graphic design. Working at the firm I showed interest in design and my boss would throw small projects at me to fix the typography on a business card or mood board ideas for a new logo project and then from that point creating a logo that the client ended up choosing — from that point, I realized I would be a creative for life.
Did you ever feel pressure to choose one creative passion or did you find a way to pursue multiple?
No, honestly creating is a part of my life. From interior design to event designing to graphic to photography to creating florals, I believe an artist can create in any form and they should give themselves permission to do so. When I limit myself in what niche I should stick with, I find that ideas stop flowing as naturally.
How does social media play a role in your career?
It’s played a main role. Social media has been a gift to me in so many ways — I developed my voice on there and my audience — Instagram especially. It has been a huge help in my journey of processing who I am and why I do what I do. Sharing my voice and creative on there has only solidified my purpose and has helped me see a different perspective on how others see my work and what they see in it that I don’t. It has helped me build my brand to what it is today.
What do you think makes you different from other creatives?
I do believe it’s my voice, who I am and why I do what I do. Everyone is so unique and has a different way of sharing (maybe even the same story) to others. There are so many people who are doing the same thing but I believe the beautiful thing about that is the different perspective and different approach in how we deliver what we want to share with the world even if it’s in a similar vein.
What does an average day look like for you?
Everyday is so unique in its own way but I do love my rhythm. It may look different everyday but my favorite part of the morning is to always make a good cup of coffee (with my dad’s freshly roasted beans, yes roasting coffee is his hobby — lucky daughter, right?) and spend time with my Creator — to draw in and listen to His Voice and what He is saying everyday. To behold Him. It is my time to rest and meditate in the fact that He holds the whole world together and I am a vessel here, to show up and join Him on this beautiful project He started in the garden.
Music is a big part of my day and rhythm as well — it inspires me and fuels my creativity.
As far as a typical work day — it has changed a lot as I take on a new season of freelancing and have left my 5-year design job so I’m re-learning what a full time freelance job looks like. Today it looks like traveling the world and I’m currently writing this from my friends couch in Berlin — I’ll be exploring the city today again and it’s incredible the inspiration you draw from people in a new city you’ve never been to. Later on I’ll be working on a website project I took on and it’s so fun to be able to manage your own time and be able to work on the other side of the world. I am so thankful that I have the opportunities that I do with my choice of career.
What is something you are currently learning? And what are some future goals?
I’m currently learning that writing a book is a different beast if it’s own. It’s everything I thought it would be and nothing I thought it would be. It’s so fun and super challenging but I can’t wait to release it! Future goals: launch this book and also continuing building out my apparel brand to go beyond a piece of clothing but to share the deep and powerful story behind why I do what I do.
