Meet Anh Phan

For our monthly segment giving you a bit more insight into the Creative Mornings Denver community, we sat down with Anh Phan, who owns and runs SFERE out of the Converge creative space, and got her take on all things Denver, collaboration, and the wild way that life unfolds. Over coffee at Huckleberry Roasters on Larimer, Anh weaved together all the random and unexpected turns that have led her to her creative ways of today, and to Denver. These events involve an ironically fortuitous encounter with a moving Suburban, a bold shift in career paths from the engineering world to one of design, a Barnes & Noble revelation of her most inherent passions from her days designing layouts for her high school yearbook, and orchestrating the entire event experience for the Paper Fashion Show.

When I asked her to pick what she enjoyed more between conceiving ideas in her head, or bringing ideas to life with her hands, she noted, “I can’t! That’s the best part…! I get to do it all”

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CM/D - You’ve come to run your own shop called SFERE. How would you describe your unique or distinct craft?

AP - It’s interesting and challenging to describe exactly what I do in a concise way. It also has changed quite a bit over the past few years. People like cut and dry labels a lot, so in that sense I’m a Display Artist and an Event Designer. But it’s much more than that. I love working with people who may just have a seed of an idea; they appreciate my aesthetic, they want my vision, and they need something actually built. And this thing has to exist or live for a certain period of time. Ultimately, I create experiences in the physical world that offer unique human interactions, and perspectives. I approach everything with a graphic design mentality, but ultimately I physically design moods and atmospheres into tangible 3D space. Everything we do is custom to the client, the actual site we are working with and the audience we are engaging. No project is like another.

CM/D - How long have you lived in Denver and how’d you find yourself in this place?

AP - I’ve been here for 11 years. There was a moment about 12 years ago in a Barnes & Noble in Michigan where I was re-inspired by the art and creativity of the layouts and design in a photography book. These things had a major influence on me historically, when I was a part of the team designing for my high school yearbook. It was in that moment I realized I could make a career out of “this” kind of thing, even if I didn’t know exactly what that looked like. My father was creative and inspired by jewelry and photography, so there are some family ties to my creativity too. I have really explored and discovered my creative interests over the years and I’ve tried to listen to what my passions, talents and interests truly are. Very quickly after the Barnes & NobleI revelation, I left Michigan (and the beginning of a career in engineering), and attended the Art Institute here in Denver for Graphic Design.

CM/D - What’s the most exciting adventure you’ve been on in the last 12 months, locally or globally?

AP - It was in New Orleans, in February, at a gallery on Royal Street. Pinterest has introduced me to inspiring art, projects and people and I had seen some work by Heather Hansen in the past years. I turned the corner in the gallery and there was this 9’ by 9’ piece that I just stumbled on that I had never seen before but knew it was her work. It was fun to discover something unexpected in a random place that you somehow are already familiar with.

CM/D - How has creativity evolved for you?

AP - A handful of years back, I was working for a shop called Moxie Sozo and had a bad encounter with a Suburban that landed me in the ICU and involved a two-year recovery time. That accident literally and figuratively stopped me in my tracks. It’s ironic how that time in my life forced me to step back, slow down for a bit and really consider what and how I thought of creativity. I had waded into my creative career and there was no turning back for me, but the exact way I wanted to exercise my talents and passions was still uncertain and I noticed it was changing and expanding quite a bit. In fact I think it will always change. Creativity for me is something that is constantly evolving.

CM/D - Can you share some of your creative passions and outlets?

AP - I have been involved in the Paper Fashion Show quite a bit over the years. It’s a beautiful combination of my appeal for engineering, fashion, graphic design, and style and layouts. As the Visual Creative Director for this year's Paper Fashion Show, SFERE was in charge of creating the event experience for the attendees at Bindery on Blake. We concepted several different art installations, including custom light fixtures, a photo booth backdrop and the runway design. We collaborated with an artist who built these amazing string installations for the event as well. We also couldn't have built and set up everything without our team of 20 volunteers that day! They were really the ones that made it happen.

CM/D - The Denver creative community seems to be on a tear! What have you noticed and what do you admire most about what’s happening around town?

AP - A lot of people have decided to go out on their own, and to work for themselves! There are so many small businesses within the local creative community. I’m really proud of the Denver community for being so creative and courageous, building something from scratch. People have these great talents and they are noticing all these different needs that exist. They are building their careers around their passions and those needs. The “Support Local” movement is largely related to the product based businesses, but I see this expanding in to creative services quite a bit! Denver is a great place to run a passionate creative business!

CM/D - What is your draw to Creative Mornings? What do you enjoy most about it, and what do you get out of it?

AP - I have a range of creative interests and they are all fed by Creative Mornings and the variety of speaker and topics. Creative Mornings is also great opportunity to catch up with colleagues that I don’t get to see consistently.

CM/D - How many CM Denvers have you attended?

AP - I’ve been to at least 12 at this point!

CM/D – This month’s global Creative Mornings theme is “Collaborate”! Can you share your perspective collaboration in your world? How have you experienced collaboration?

AP - Listening to your gut is very important when collaborating, which can be challenging because there are lots of guts involved! I think it’s important to understand our roles when we are collaborating and it’s important that expectations are laid out in the beginning. Unbridled collaboration can yield amazing things, but sometimes by design you need to have a certain structure to afford the best collaboration. Collaboration is essential when you have constraints and parameters around a project, and you need to maximize possibilities in the most efficient way.

CM/D - Thanks for sharing your story Anh! How do people say hello to you?

AP - anh@SFERE.co

Our CreativeMornings/Denver community is filled with creative and inspiring people. As part of our mission to gather and celebrate that community, we’d like to use this space on our blog as another way to tell your stories and hear your thoughts on our monthly themes. We hope to reach out to a few folks every month - please drop us a line at denver@creativemornings.com if you’re interested in sharing your story with the community!