Alumni
Grad Works For Fashion Brand Committed to Helping Women Escape the Cycle of Poverty
People talk about the FIDM family, but Ashley and Kristin Villatuya have been living it. Their mother Janette Guevera's 30-year career as an Admissions Advisor on the San Francisco campus was a huge influence on their decisions to attend. Kristin is now a designer for Rothy's and Ashley is the Production and Design Director for Lotus and Luna, a fashion retailer based in San Diego that provides fair employment to female artisans living in villages outside of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. We caught up with Ashley to learn more about her life and career.
Tell us about the influence your family had on your decision to major in Visual Communications at FIDM? My mom was an advisor at FIDM for 30 years and my sister was a double major there as well so FIDM ran in my blood. I loved visiting my mom at work and seeing all of the projects her students and my sister created. My mom's office was filled with all my sister's projects. Ever since I was young, I looked up to my big sister and copied her in every way possible that a little sister was capable of. I followed her and her friends around everywhere and before I ever made any decisions, I always relied on getting my sister's advice (I still do!) It's no surprise that I naturally wanted to follow in her creative footsteps.
Tell us about your position at Lotus and Luna: My main role is Production and Design. We all wear multiple hats working for Lotus and Luna since we are a smaller company, but my main focus is production and graphic/visual design. My degree in Visual Communications has definitely prepared me for this type of role since I get to have my hands in different design fields. From creating packaging to designing our trade show booths, I've definitely been able to use many different skill sets that I learned at FIDM.
What do you enjoy most about your job? The thing I enjoy most about my role is being able to travel to Thailand and design products directly with our artisans, spending time with their families, and taking in all of their culture. It's extremely rewarding to see firsthand the direct impact our brand has on their livelihoods. Not only do we give back to the Thai communities, but to our communities here in the U.S. as well. Since the start of this pandemic, we have donated over 150,000 face masks to healthcare workers, schools, non-profits, and numerous other organizations.
You are a graphic and visual designer, product developer, and creative soul. Tell us what inspires you: Traveling is my number one inspiration. Being able to work in Thailand firsthand with our artisan villages is truly a dream come true. Chiang Mai is filled with so much color, texture, personality, culture, and design.
How are you staying inspired during the pandemic? It's definitely tricky trying to stay inspired and creative during these times, but redesigning my backyard into a modern tiki oasis has kept my creative juices flowing!
How have style needs changed since people started working from home (and spending more time at home)? Any best sellers at Lotus and Luna? Ever since we launched face masks our business has grown tremendously. We are definitely one of the lucky ones to have been able to make such a quick switch in our product development plan and are extremely thankful to our artisans in Thailand and our team here in San Diego to have made those adjustments so quickly. Alongside our face masks, our lounge pants have been killing it. Customers have been loving our comfortable, easy clothing.
You came to FIDM with a Bachelor's from San Diego State. What advice do you have for other people who have a Bachelor's degree who are looking to specialize and further their education in the creative industries, like you did? Having a background in both a creative field and business field has been extremely important in my growth, especially while helping run a small business such as ours. I was lucky enough to be brought onboard from the very beginning--creating the brand name and logo and then also aiding the direction for our market and obtaining our first accounts. Having the knowledge from my business education background had a huge impact on being able to grow the company with the rest of our team.
How did you decide on your major? Ever since I was a kid I loved working with my hands. From making my own stuffed animals out of old t-shirts to my own dollhouses out of cereal boxes, I just loved creating. I was also highly influenced from watching my sister, Kristin Villatuya, as a VCOMM major and got to witness all of the amazing projects she worked on.
How do you feel FIDM prepared you for what you are doing now? VCOMM has prepared me to be able to wear multiple hats in our company. I just don't have one specialized field, I get to work in graphic design, visual design, product development, and even event planning.
What is your biggest goal right now? My biggest goal is to just keep growing Lotus and Luna and play a large role in that growth. As we grow, we are able to give back so much more to our artisans and their families. The larger we get, the more villages we get to employ and the more we are able to give back.
Categories: Visual Communication Alumni
