Mai NOZOE

What was your very first job?

My first job after college was working in house in the Marketing Department at Tiffany & Co.  While I was in college, I also worked in retail to understand firsthand how people chose to buy into lifestyle and luxury accessories. 

Please describe, in your own words, what your job is and what work it entails.

As the Vice President of Creative Services at alice + olivia, I oversee all creative branding and global image direction from concept to execution. This includes the supervision of photography, videography, casting, styling, advertising, art direction, design, and production of brand collateral and website.  

How did you discover that the creative world was right for you? Was there a time in your life that you credit to this discovery? What was there train of events that brought you to where you are today?

I grew up in a creative family. My mother was involved in the visual arts, and in my teenage years, my father was in the movie business. My aunts and uncles all worked in costume design, music composition, and production for modern Shakespearean theater in Japan.  Having grown up surrounded by creatives, my cousins and I would develop our own creative projects by redesigning magazine covers and developing theatrical pieces to present at our family gatherings.  In my first job, when I was invited to participate in a  photoshoot, I knew it was exactly what I wanted to do. It felt natural and took me back to what we did growing up.  It’s funny how the first idea of ‘play’ ultimately became a ‘vocation.’ 

In your constantly growing and expanding industry, how do you find inspiration to keep your work fresh, innovative and relevant?

Inspiration comes from everywhere –  travel, photography, architecture, books, films, art, and people on the streets. 

At work, my constant source of inspiration are the fashion designers that develop a new collection every season,  the established photographers that introduce me into their different visions of reality, and the young people joining our company that keeps us on our toes with their take on creative taste and social  media. 

If you had to pick one piece of work or project that you are most proud of, more for the creative work and innovation it required, rather than its recognition or industry “success,” what would it be?

Regardless of whether a campaign image runs in Times Square or seen as a small post on social media, each photo / video shoot is its own baby and I appreciate the opportunity to have developed them with a group of talent. It’s not the commercial recognition of a campaign, but all of the effort that you put into it together as a team that makes it successful.