WORKING NOT WORKING
During AAPI Heritage Month, Working Not Working launched an ongoing partnership with the Asian Creative Foundation, an organization and advocate for AAPI talent.
Through this partnership, we are working towards a system that not only inspires and nurtures the next generation of AAPI talent but provides visibility that leads to opportunity.
Together with Asian Creative Foundation, we collaborated on actionable initiatives that combined educational conversations with results. Through our connections, tools, and resources, WNW can be a means to further mobilize AAPI talent and the important work these community leaders are doing.
We began our partnership with the sponsorship of the Asian Creative Foundation’s inaugural “Be Brave” Festival, which set out to bring together hundreds of AAPI creatives and address the value of AAPI creativity and perspective in the industry. Together with the Asian Creative Foundation, we facilitated multiple days of inspiring and insightful conversation, including an in-person panel discussion in collaboration with Industry City and NYCxDesign and a virtual portfolio workshop the following week.
A key element of both events was providing a platform for conversations between AAPI talent, ACF educators, and Working Not Working recruiters.
Post-festival, The Asian Creative Foundation has remained a stalwart of support, shepherding attendees onto the WNW platform, and culminating in the curation of an AAPI talent playlist, which provides an opportunity for the thousands of recruiters on Working Not Working to discover, contact, and hire creatives in the AAPI community.
If you’re a hirer with an active Working Not Working subscription, be sure to subscribe to ACF’s AAPI Talent playlist and add it to your Dashboard.
We’ll continue working on new ways to nurture meaningful connections that can positively impact the creative industry.
Schools like Useful School and organizations like the Asian Creative Foundation are elevating the creative industry with inspiring missions and engaged communities. We hope our work with them serves as a strong introduction to their work and communities, as well as the future of creativity.
A huge thanks to our in-person panel, which included Frannie Rhodes, SVP + Executive Director of Creative Talent at MullenLowe, Sunita Deshpande, Creative Director at M Booth Health and Co-Founder of The Side Show, and Augusto Piccio IV, Designer at Working Not Working, as well as moderator Cindy Leung, former Workplace Design Director at Nike Asia. (And thanks to Lionel Carreon, Executive Director, Global Creative Recruiting @ TBWA\WW, and Hana Sato Thomas, Executive Director, Talent @ FIG, for their perspective and wisdom at the virtual workshop. More on that soon.)