Life at Near: Chriss' Take on Crafting Design that Aligns with Brand Strategy
Creative designers bring out the vibrance and color in a creative agency. Without our artists, strategies and executions will look more like abstract thoughts. Their visual interpretations breathe life into the ideas of the team.
Simultaneously handling multiple accounts alongside creative executions for the Near brand, Chriss, Near’s junior creative designer, is a significant contributor in making the brand what it is today: an agency that wins campaigns and a trusted partner of our clients.
This is their Life at Near.
CREATIVE PROCESS OF A PERFECTIONIST-PROCRASTINATOR
Chriss firmly believes that “When the momentum hits, I just ride it until the work is done.” A self-described perfectionist-procrastinator, they tend to put tasks on hold and deprioritize those that don’t require immediate attention. But when that spark of inspiration finally hits, they work with full intention and give it their all, like a true creative.
But every creative knows that accomplishing deliverables daily can’t always rely on suddenly reaching the right headspace. So they condition themself through small routines, like a boost of caffeine, sitting somewhere quiet, or being in the company of their cat rescues, Powder and Truffle. These help them settle and go into focus mode, making them feel present before accomplishing tasks. Once they feel present, motivation and clarity eventually follows. Lastly, one thing they swear by? Never create on an empty stomach. If your body feels neglected, your mind will likely not function properly either.
Chriss’ Principle:
To create from honesty and be intentional with your work, having small conditions that ground you, keep you awake, and emotionally open are all needed.
Chriss’ creative core is rooted in the human experience and tapping into their vulnerability, especially with their personal projects. Outside of Near, they are an artist that expresses themself through songwriting and illustration. Their creative process exists in a spectrum, some born from serendipitous realization and some deliberately created after self-reflection.
For Chriss, inspiration either comforts you or disturbs you, but both are important to artistic expression. They immerse themselves into other people’s art, stories, and conversations because they believe that creativity becomes limiting when your only sources are your own experiences. And despite not having everything figured out yet, they find beauty in how we feel things viscerally and how it breathes life into our creative works.
Chriss on art:
Art comes from exposure, empathy, and feeling, no matter how uncomfortable or seemingly uninteresting.
COMBATING CREATIVE BURNOUT
Given the fast pace of the industry, Chriss too, has experienced the inevitable burnout. Just when they thought they had everything figured out, they began noticing lapses in their work: treating tasks as checklists to be ticked off and failing to mentally engage themself in the process.
They saw this as a turning point that could lead to stagnation if ignored. Especially in a saturated landscape, where variations of design blend with others, outputs can appear technically correct, yet end up lacking depth, perspective, and humanity.
So they confronted their artistic approach, shifting passive execution to more intentional, strategic thinking; starting with asking the right questions and challenging ideas, which strengthened their relationship with other departments. Chriss also began setting boundaries with others and themself. They learned to be more conscious of their limitations and practiced asking others for help, realizing that sometimes the best outcomes come from involving the right people.
Working at Near also enabled Chriss to experience simple things that made them connect beyond deliverables such as Real Human Days, team lunches, and company dinners. They appreciated how it broke the humdrum of office hours and reminded everyone that they’re parts of something more.
DESIGNING WITH INTENT, GROWING WITH THE BRAND
Chriss witnessed first-hand how the structure evolved in Near. Big changes always push for growth, so they perceive this as an effort to maximize ways of working. Starting as a graphic designer that purely executes, they eventually became more involved in conceptualization and project direction; a change they found creatively fulfilling.
When bringing ideas to life, their main thought is to design with intent, connected to a reason backing up the execution and ownable to a specific brand. Chriss claims that identifying the big ideas is the hardest part of the artistic process. The why that connects all branches before materializing the how is what sets us apart from any machine generated insight:
“This is a human problem that requires lived experience.”
Chriss learned one very important thing, that is moving with empathy. Before as employees, they began seeing everyone as humans first, including themself. This helped them ingrain a mindset to treat feedback as a way to strengthen every execution. Filtering criticisms made them grow more as a team player who’s now more open to perspectives and collaboration.
Broadening their perspective on growth also made them choose it every time, even if it means leaving your comfort zone. They say to remember two things: honesty and courage, regardless of the uncertainties. Chriss’current position at Near’s creatives team, they describes it as:
“A rollercoaster ride where you’re seated at the tail end—where everything feels more intense, unpredictable, and fast-paced.”
Sometimes Chriss describes the work as a rollercoaster ride despite managing to ride it only once in their lifetime. Because for them, “a step nearer” doesn’t mean ignoring your worries to move forward, but to choose to do it scared. Working at Near made their experience a rollercoaster of challenge and excitement: frightening and unpredictable, but helping them become more certain and open to new possibilities.
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