BETTER IN THE ROOM TOGETHER

By Amy O’Brien, Co-Founder of Thread Original

My favorite part of art direction has always been the people in the room.

I studied photography and advertising at Brooks Institute and spent years working in Los Angeles and New York as a photo stylist and then as a photo art director. I love the visual side of the work—the color, the light, the clothes, the composition. But what keeps it interesting is working with other creatives who see something I don’t.

A photographer sees a different angle. A makeup artist brings an unexpected color. A stylist changes one piece, and suddenly the whole image feels different. Someone suggests something you hadn’t considered, and now you want to try it.

You come in with a direction. Then the people around you give it somewhere else to go.

That’s the part I love.

EVERYONE HAS AN EYE. AND AN OPINION.

On a shoot, there are plenty of both.

You try things. Move things. Have a conversation about a detail most people will never consciously notice. Sometimes you put everything back where it started. Apparently, we needed to see the other version.

But I always learn something. It might be a new way to light a surface, a combination I wouldn’t have chosen, or a small adjustment that makes the whole frame work.

After years of doing this, I still love that moment when someone else’s idea makes me look again.

DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS. SHARED VISION.

That’s a big part of what I enjoy about building Thread with Kim.

She brings 17 years at Urban Decay and the experience of getting ready wherever the day takes her. I bring years of thinking about how things look, feel, and work together.

We notice different things. We bring different references. And we’re two strong, opinionated women. Sometimes we don’t agree. Shocking, I know.

But we respect each other enough to listen, talk it through, and work it out. I trust her experience, and she trusts mine. We can question an idea without questioning each other.

A practical question can lead to a design idea. A color can start a whole conversation. And sometimes the idea we land on is better than either of the ones we came in defending.

GOOD DESIGN HAS SOMEWHERE TO GO.

With a photograph, all those decisions come together in an image. With Thread, they become something you carry.

We bring our own ideas, then ask questions, try things, and make adjustments. The way something looks matters. So does what happens when someone actually uses it. Working through both is where our different backgrounds come in handy.

I love getting to bring my creative background into those everyday details. I love that Kim brings her own perspective to the same questions.

And I love that, after all these years, I still get to work with someone who makes me see things in a fresh way. Even if we occasionally drive each other nuts. Mutual respect does not mean matching opinions.

We bring the light. We both have thoughts about where it should go.