Tina Michelle Chen

I give credit to my roots, where I grew up. I was born in Brooklyn and grew up here as a first-generation immigrant child. I think I give it a test of that, my roots. My family culture, we're immigrants, and this country is built by immigrants. I'm just first generation, and there's so much history before me. It's also the beat of New York that's shaped me. It's kind of like you have to move, you have to get up and do it as hard as it is every day. The world is in chaos, it's on fire, and New York is no exception. Not everyone can survive a city like New York, and I think you have to go with the waves. When you do find the beat of it, the city will give back to you as well. I don't know if a lot of people can say that.

The best advice I ever received was from my late mentor, Ken Kobayashi, who took me under his wing at Root Studios. He taught me so much about art theory and art critique, which was invaluable since I didn't go to art school. I was always very intimidated by going into the art space because I'm self-taught in design. But the best advice he ever told me was: If the world wants you to shrink, expand. It's a beautiful quote, and I think about it all the time. He was an amazing photographer who shot black and white photos for Aperture Magazine, was featured in 50 magazines nationwide, and was there at the fall of the Berlin Wall. He had 1,500 records and was such a collector. He taught me so much about critical art theory, and I wouldn't be this far in my career if I didn't have those learnings from him.

It's okay to be afraid. You can always start anywhere. Don't be afraid to start. I think a lot of the times, including me, like right now I'm just trying to keep busy. If you want to make a difference, you can make a smaller impact. You just have to try. Don't be afraid to try. I think we wake up every day, and it's about being a better version of ourselves than we were the day before. The world is in chaos right now, and I think without having hope, then what's the point, right?

AI is the biggest challenge and opportunity right now. I'm not afraid of it necessarily, but I don't fully understand or grasp the entire concept of it. There's so much out there. I already know and understand what is OpenAI and the differences between that and ChatGPT, what is open forum AI, what is Claude. I understand all these concepts, but I don't think a lot of the general public does. I think that amidst a lot of fear, especially in the creative field, there are concerns about intellectual property. That's part of my job too, working on contracts and documents. I work on CGI and AI projects right now. But it's the same thing as when the internet was discovered less than 50 years ago. I just feel like there's a learning curve and waves to it. That's why I'm interested in taking more AI classes, because in order for me to be a producer and strategist in my industry, I have to understand the new technology that comes through. I think the whole point of life is also that you should never stop learning. If you do, then that's a shame. You should continue learning all the time.

I believe you have to move with purpose. Sometimes in this world, in order to keep the lights on, I work for certain brands or maybe a certain magazine that I don't really agree with their morals and values, but I do believe that when you do have a choice, you should make that choice. I was working for an agency once on the Walmart account, which is a multi-billion dollar account. I was on that team for about 6 months, but during COVID, Walmart was also contributing to one of the highest gun-selling platforms. This was when schools were getting shot up, and I quit that account. I think passion and morals should align with each other. That's the same reason why I've done journalistic work before as well. I've always voted. If I'm an American, at least the only part that I can say is that I exercise my whatever political power that I can. We need to be together to make a difference, and that's what I believe in. I think it should show in your work. If you do a brand and you had to collect a paycheck for maybe 2 days, you did a photoshoot, but you would never see that in my portfolio. It's not work I would want to reflect me as a person, so that's something I consistently look out for when I take on clients and how I move around in this world. I'm really conscientious of that.