May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month! To celebrate, we are highlighting members of our local creative community by sharing the creative process, achievements, and personal stories of AAPI designers, artists, photographers, and other creatives.
Angelena Phavorachit
Angelena Phavorachit (@YourArtSenpai) is a Lao-American Graphic Designer based in Houston, Texas. Her mission is to build a strong online presence that might lead her to exciting and unique opportunities in life.
What does being Asian American or Pacific Islander mean to you?
To me, being Asian American means I get to live out the dreams of my ancestors, where I get to have opportunities they didn’t have. I get to have the freedom to choose my path in life, and that means I get to be creative!
What are the proudest accomplishments of your career?
One of my proudest accomplishments in my career was inspiring my peers to integrate parts of their own culture into their projects. It feels good to have a positive impact on other people & grow with them.
What drew you to your creative field?
I switched from Multimedia to Graphic Design when I went to my school’s portfolio show and saw there was a student who integrated cutesy designs into her letterheads, envelopes, etc. I was mostly learning to be a jack of all trades until I saw that I could also integrate cute things into my designs.
How does your heritage impact your work?
As a Gen-Z Lao-American woman, most of my passion projects consist of my life stories or my family’s stories. In a way, I’m keeping our traditions alive and our stories heard through art.
How has your creative practice changed or evolved over the past year?
Lately I’ve been learning Typography and Digital Communications. These help me understand how to communicate my clients’ messages, be it serious or playful, to their audience through art and type.
What AAPI designers and creatives inspire you? Why does their work resonate with you?
When I was younger, I used to really look up to Domics, JaidenAnimations, Emirichu, and Lilypichu. I liked that Domics delivered a lot of his life stories in a lighthearted way via animated storytimes. Whenever he’d talk about growing up Asian, it helped me cope with being different in a predominantly white neighborhood. The others inspired me for the same reason. As for Lilypichu, her impact of being a woman in a male-dominated field like music and gaming encouraged me to also dip into that field. Their presence inspired me to take those steps.
Where do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration through music, gaming, and even my peers. I like to mindlessly scroll through Instagram or TikTok sometimes because there’s so many talented artists out there with great ideas.
What’s next on the horizon?
There’s so much I want to do in the future… I want to create little stickers and assets for aspiring streamers who want overlays, and students who want cute little stickers on their digital notes! Eventually, I’d like to make an illustrated book consisting of the stories I’ve collected from my grandmother. Hopefully I do that justice!
Anum Chowdhry
Anum Chowdhry is an illustrator focused on creating south Asian cultural designs in both digital paintings and line art.
What does being Asian American or Pacific Islander mean to you?
Proud of showing and sharing my south Asian culture.
What are the proudest accomplishments of your career?
Selling my art and sharing my heritage with the world.
What drew you to your creative field?
Self expression of my life’s journey.
How does your heritage impact your work?
My work focuses on the south Asian diaspora narrative
How has your creative practice changed or evolved over the past year?
By expanding my style to incorporate my expression of my culture and what it means to me from my point of view
What AAPI designers and creatives inspire you? Why does their work resonate with you?
@papersamosa and Babbu
Where do you find inspiration?
In cultural practices and daily life.
What’s next on the horizon?
Hopefully more opportunities to create and share!
Billy Mounchan
Billy Mounchan is a digital content producer who specializes in creating and producing various forms of digital content for online platforms. Billy is mainly skilled in videography and photography using a variety of digital tools and software to create engaging and interactive content. Billy’s journey in producing content began in his backyard filming basketball videos with his friends inspired by Nike basketball commercials. Throughout Billy’s career, He has worked with a variety of clients, from professional athletes to brands and businesses. He enjoys collaborating with other creative minds to produce innovative and effective content that meets the needs of his clients and their audiences.
What does being Asian American or Pacific Islander mean to you?
Being AAPI means embracing my Lao heritage and cultural identity while navigating the complexities of living in a multicultural world. It also means being part of a community that shares similar experiences, struggles, and showing love through food!
What are the proudest accomplishments of your career?
The proudest accomplishments of my career will always be seeing my clients’ joyful reaction to deliverables after spending all night powered by caffeine to create something special for them.
What drew you to your creative field?
My dad was always capturing family moments with his video camcorder. Naturally I picked it up and started telling stories of my own.
What AAPI designers and creatives inspire you? Why does their work resonate with you?
What’s next on the horizon?
Producing original content centered around things I’m passionate about which is basketball, tech, and my Laos culture.
Jon Inthavong
Jon is most known for his rambunctious laugh and enthusiastic energy around the office and his friends, to which he carries into his creative work every day. He finds inspiration and captures beauty in the small details, always brings innovative ideas to the table, as well as being a huge advocate for the creative talent in Houston. Jon brings collaboration and connection to life in all he does.
What does being Asian American or Pacific Islander mean to you?
There’s ALWAYS something new and interesting to learn about each of our cultures; either it be the food, the crafts, the traditions, or way of life.
What are the proudest accomplishments of your career?
Being able to collaborate on big, multiple environmental concepts, designs, and applications.
What drew you to your creative field?
Drawing dragon ball z and x-men characters in the early 90’s.
How does your heritage impact your work?
It doesn’t LOL.
How has your creative practice changed or evolved over the past year?
Because of the team I work with, i’ve learned new perspectives and techniques within different applications.
What AAPI designers and creatives inspire you? Why does their work resonate with you?
The Great Chris Do. @thechrisdo. The advice and direction he delivers has allowed me to value myself more as a creative.
Where do you find inspiration?
Traveling. Experiencing and learning about different cultures/subcultures allows us to grow outside of our comfort zone.
What’s next on the horizon?
Looking forward to pushing more animation through various media.
