Grow with Ivy Creatives

Welcome to the Ivy Network

As a creative, it can get tiring trying to think of fresh ideas, produce unique original work for clients, and money can become scarce. Freelancing takes a lot of energy, self-promotion, money and time. You have to really immerse yourself in your work and love what you do to make it as a freelancer. It can become draining when you’re trying to finish projects while also letting the world know who you are, so you gather more clientele. Stepping foot into new collaboration space Ivy Creatives may just help you balance the various aspects of being a freelancer.

Ivy Creatives just had their grand opening on April 16^th, 2019 in downtown Eau Claire, WI at 312 S. Barstow Street. The downtown cinema lights danced through Ivy’s windows as over 100 people stopped by to view the space. Simplistic, modern furniture is placed perfectly throughout the main room with neutral grays, blacks and whites and touches of artwork, including photographs by partner, Kyle Lehman. The space owned by Alak Phillips, offers private offices, window desks, conference rooms and a photography studio for rent. This makes a perfect place for creatives of all kinds to gather and collaborate. Photographers, videographers, graphic designers, web developers, writers, bloggers, podcasters and more are welcome to utilize Ivy Creatives space and some already do.

“I’ve always had the idea of starting a commercial studio that was a studio share because I’ve been through Milwaukee and other places that have studio shares, but I had never thought of opening that up to a wide range of creatives. So, my focus for the past couple of years has been creating a studio in Eau Claire that photographers and film makers could use at any time. And I think with Alak and I meeting and coming together on this – he really brought the whole ‘let’s open it up to more than just photographers and videographers, let’s change the whole entire landscape of the creative field and the creative economy here in Eau Claire,’” says Kyle Lehman.

Background of the two who brought Ivy to life

Owner, Alak Phillips started playing music in middle school, picking up guitar and drums, which led to interest in audio engineering. “I had an internship at Pine Hollow for about a year and a half and that was a great experience, which helped me a ton, way better than school,” expressed Alak. In 2016 he opened his first studio in his home. Shortly after he gained interest in other art forms and started photography work, videography and a little bit of web design.

While Kyle’s background came about in a completely different way, art class wasn’t something he participated in at school. He began by filming snowboard videos with his friends. Hoping to get them sponsored as they were extremely talented snowboarders – doing so eventually led to him getting his first camera in high school. Then he started photographing people at basketball games and friends. “I just started shooting photos and then I started charging in high school because I thought that I was good enough and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Kyle shares. Now Kyle can be found at various events, concerts, shooting weddings and product photography.

The two met through mutual friends, first meeting up at local coffee shop Racy’s to discuss camera gear of course. As their friendship grew, they started to meld their ideas together, “the combination of both ideas, you know wanting to service the photographers for me and then Alak wanting to service the whole entire creative economy, together both of our ideas just fit in the same exact place and that’s how Ivy was born,” says Kyle.

Importance of Creativity

The Eau Claire area has become known for their art and entertainment. Creativity isn’t lacking that’s for sure. From college students who come from various towns, to life-long residents, you’ll find a collection of creatives with all types of backgrounds ranging from web and graphic design to metal work and painting. Each has their own style and skill set to bring to the area. There is no specific model or rule to follow when expressing your creativity with various mediums.

“Creativity is important because there are structures and policies within the corporate realm. So, there is a consistency in doing something the same exact way, over and over and over and the monotony in that. But with creativity you can do anything that you want, you can be anything that you want, you can create just to create. There is also a sense of feeling that comes with that, that is different than doing something that is the same exact process over and over and over and over. With photography it’s great because, and including music production, some of the imperfections in the creative process and the work turn into some of the greatest things that are not replicable. Whereas commercial work or those similar processes like factory type of work there aren’t necessarily imperfections that are beautiful, those imperfections ARE called imperfections. So, with creativity you can actually have imperfections and they can be beautiful,” expresses Kyle.

The Core Purpose

Ivy strives to be a hub for all creatives to collaborate and network with one another, learn new skills and utilize each other’s creative talents. When freelancing it can be draining and difficult to expand your creativity and client pool. By becoming a member of Ivy Creatives you will have access to a space with others where you can get feedback, have help brainstorming new ideas, gain new clients and have access to conference space, a photo studio and equipment rental. Being a part of Ivy will eventually bring work to you, instead of constantly searching for work as a solo freelancer.

“Basically, I see it as being the Eau Claire’s directory to creative individuals. We want to build a community that inspires each other. And by building that community we want to have a network of people, the Ivy network, that spreads out through the city that gives us the chance for companies to come to us and say, ‘hey look we need a marketing campaign, we need copy writing, we need photos, we need videos, we need all of those services.’ We want to provide a group of trained, trusted freelancers that will actually get the job done, that are held accountable for things. One of the biggest things that we’ve seen in the industry here and just in the industry as a whole is that people, they don’t finish what they start, or they don’t go all in on it. Our goal with Ivy is to build that network of freelancers who can go all in on the projects and get it done exactly how it should be done. So essentially you can almost think of us as creative directors. In a sense where if a project comes through the door we can facilitate which freelancers are going to be the best for that specific project,” states Kyle.

As Ivy Creative members become welcomed and settled into the space, Alak and Kyle will be holding more educational programs and workshops. Just a few days before the grand opening they held a film makers forum for those interested in learning about how to start film making, budgeting, equipment and more. Local film makers sat and gave advice on what they’ve done to get to where they are. Ivy plans to continue educational programs like this and expand to various workshops in photography, videography, design, writing etc. So not only will artists have a space to work in and collaborate, but they will have opportunities to learn from local professionals in their fields.

Looking ahead and the impact on the Eau Claire community

After a few years, Alak and Kyle hope to expand Ivy Creatives by opening more offices throughout the Midwest. “We want to spread fast, or grow fast, similar to the plant,” says Alak. “But not be invasive,” jokes Kyle. The goal is to have multiple locations which offer the same photo and video rental equipment and a space for creatives to collaborate. Then, if an Ivy member is traveling out of town for a client they won’t have to bring their equipment with them. Instead, they can stop at the nearest Ivy and rent the equipment they need for the client’s project and use that Ivy office to meet and work on projects just as they would in the Eau Claire office. This also gives members the opportunity to network with others outside of Eau Claire and collaborate on work.

Ivy isn’t just about collaborating and working together creatively, but setting a standard for design in the area and building opportunities for creatives Kyle shares. “I personally believe that Ivy Creatives is going to hopefully set a standard to what the creative process is in Eau Claire. ‘So how do you handle business? What is the standard process? How do we present ourselves as a business?’ Whether you’re a restaurant, a dental office, all of those different things. Eau Claire has received a lot of national press that has been great press and we’re very fortunate for that, but to live up to expectations of those national news outlets that are writing about us we need to continue on a consistent basis. I think that one of the things that Eau Claire struggles with is staying consistent with the overall brand of the city and what the city truly is.

So, Ivy Creatives is hopefully going to be the place where the creative community can come together, and we can actually make decisions together that kind of sets the bar. That sets the pricing structure for the photographers, the freelancers, the kids coming out of college, so that we can actually start building jobs here and not just being some trendy new city that people talk about. Actually, hiring people within the city to work. And we pay people. The goal is that we need to get it through to some of these creatives heads that they are valued. They’re trying to start businesses, they’re trying do jobs, but the hardest thing about being a creative is what do you price your work at. Whether you’re a painter, photographer, videographer. It’s impossible, it’s so difficult. The only thing that everybody does is they go online, they research different markets and they read forums. There is no actual market research done for our city. If we can facilitate that research and if we can figure out the base line minimum for creative services then we can start building, and now we’re talking about salaries, we are talking about job opportunities, we are talking about keeping tax paying dollars within the state. So that’s kind of the main purpose for Ivy Creatives.”

Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or professional in your creative field Ivy welcomes you. Ivy Creatives is a place for growth and offers a ton of resources. To become a member, you can stop in their space to speak with Alak and/or Kyle. The process is fairly quick, and you’re given various member options. You can purchase a parlor membership to use the main room, photo studio and conference space or there are office and suite memberships for some privacy and access to the space 24/7. For more information on membership options or to contact Alak and Kyle visit the Ivy Creatives Facebook page.