I'm really proud. We see every project and campaign we do as an opportunity to change the game, and as a franchise we challenge ourselves to reach new communities. I really wanted to do that with this film, and I know that being part of Into the Spider-Verse resonates with people for a variety of reasons.
I had to find my voice to help the team with schedule releases and it was really hard. As I always say, sitting at the table doesn't necessarily lead to better results. voice At the table. So when I came to the table, I wanted to bring a different voice. Megan Skapiak and Christine, you are young women in our organization who have all these ideas about releasing the schedule. I encouraged them to speak up to the larger group. And I'm proud of myself for locking arms with others to bring them to the table.
Do you have a favorite manga cover?
Yes, it was a cover of “Riq da Freak” by Jake Larsen. He's someone I've looked up to for a long time and I've followed him since I started my career. I had a lot of fun working with him and his cover was sick. I think the players saw their own covers and they were the ones that had the biggest reaction. At the end of the day, it was so great to get the players excited about this campaign because people forget to put the players first.
It's a unique theme for a schedule announcement and it sounds like it'll be a really fun project to be involved in. Thinking about your role, what do you think is the most challenging part?
Understand the crossover between self-care and the ability to perform work. I think a lot of people feel like they have to give up themselves to go to work. If you value yourself, you will also value your work. My biggest priority is holding myself accountable to being proactive about my creative blocks. Sometimes you need to close your laptop and go to a museum or help out in your community. I take everything I learned outside of work home with me. In a fast-paced world and industry, I feel like if I step back, I'll miss something, and I try to remind myself of that all the time.
I know you've only been in that role for a little over two years, but what is your favorite moment from your time with the Seahawks?
Karen Wilkins Mickey, the Seahawks' vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, created this safe space for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) employees. She advocated for us to do this civil rights tour with Common Power to the South. There were some amazing moments and I learned a lot. What was so powerful for me was when I made the Truth and Purpose Tour T-shirt, Charles Mauldin, one of the foot soldiers who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama with Martin Luther King Jr., was wearing my T-shirt. He was on that bridge speaking to a group of us, and I never would have imagined that an NFL team would bring this moment to me in this way. It completely changed my life in so many ways.
I'm a designer, but I'm an artist first. In that moment, I realized that my gift isn't just mine; it belongs to my community and the world. One of the questions we were asked on that tour was, “What are you going to do to make an impact?” It really got me thinking about how to use my gifts.
