Aloha!
My name is Julie Hernandez. I am Creative Director with over 10 years of agency experience. My beginnings in the creative field started with drawing—Pokemon specifically—for my third grade classmates. Sold em’ for 25 cents a pop. I never stopped being creative since then. Naturally, I fulfilled my role as “the moody art girl” in high school, listened to my art teacher, and head to the city of Chicago for college, because he said I’d like the scene. I left my hometown on the tiny island of Oahu, bought my first pair of winter boots and an undeniably ugly winter coat when I landed, not knowing any better. I decided to double major in Art, Media & Design and Marketing at DePaul University. After my first 4 grueling winters, I snagged my first agency job at Acquity Group photo-editing pictures of some really cool kicks for the Li-Ning account and the rest is history. Who knew editing hundreds of pairs of shoes in photoshop (without any help of AI) would be such a learning experience? But I’d say my journey in advertising really started with automotive brands at my second agency, Plan B, where I worked with the highly lifestyle-focused brands of Jaguar and Volvo. It set me up for understanding the world of advertising for large scale brands and its endless twists and turns, highs and lows. As a bonus, I gained the ability to fully function off of copious amounts of late night pizza with the team—burning the midnight oil. At that time I still that was cool. From there, I moved on to Designory where I learned how to create all things B2B in every industry from technology, health insurance, finance, pharmaceuticals and everything in between. Nowadays you’ll find me at YAMAMOTO, where I continue to craft meaningful creative for brands large and small. Now, as a creative leader my goals been centered around inspiring younger creatives and help mentor them in the direction they want to go in. I also believe that differing cultures in the workplace gives us the opportunity to put out messages and creative that can change the world. We can believe that advertising is just a big lie, or we can have that change by brining more meaning and authenticity into it. I think we all know it’s needed. It’s about opening up those opportunities to have that happen in ways that we haven’t done before. So yes, I no longer believe burning the midnight oil is what only the cool talented creatives did like I did almost a decade and a half ago, but I do believe in good work ethic and striving to break a molds. It’s all about the intersection of strategy, creative, production and development in my opinion. Good ideas can come from anyone, great ideas come from collaboration. BONUS FACTS
People who don’t like dogs can’t be trusted. Ever.
My mom and dad think I color in coloring books and doodle all day. Yes, even to this day.
I am an Iron Chef, period.
Lasagna is life. And my shiba inu is everything.
Mahalo!
