The creativity bug bit Marina Skye from the moment she made her grand entrance on this earth. Now, that same passion is allowing her gifts to make room for her.
“Everything about my entire existence is about being able to express myself and allowing and giving space for others to express themselves,” Skye told BAUCE. “Allowing people to express themselves collectively or individually, just being creative.”
Coming from a family filled with creative entrepreneurs, it is a no-brainer that Skye’s journey is somewhat similar.
“My mom is a painter and a baker. My grandmother is a seamstress and she’s just an all-around creative,” she shared. “So, I think just being creative as a child has always been something that I never strayed away from and it was always welcomed and appreciated and fostered in my youth. I just didn’t know how that was going to reveal itself as a professional career as an adult. I’ve always been creative. Always.”
After launching her career as an intern working across various music video sets with Runengund Broadcast Agency, it wasn’t long before Skye’s passion, coupled with an intense work ethic, landed her the role of creative director for Coco Studios.
By 2015, she joined First Taste ATL, a premier event planning and production company, and worked as a set designer and creative director, spearheading events like the Milk & Cookies Festival.
“There was definitely a shift in my career at one point,” Skye recalled. “I think me shooting with my friends who saw First Taste ATL and being able to be over the creative for those parties was the beginning of that – that was like the fire for me.”
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Her introduction into the industry, coupled with working at a prop house in Atlanta, as well as designing for a local escape room ultimately made Skye think of creativity from a different perspective. Before long, she was launching Set by Skye and the rest is as they say… history.
“I didn’t really ever have a specific plan or vision when launching my business, I just knew that I loved to create and it really, like God really, just allowed my gifts to make room for the opportunities,” Skye expressed. “There was never really a decision on my end to become a businesswoman. The decision was just always just to be a creative and then the projects really kind of led me to start a business.”
She continued: “My first big project, which was called daydreams, I quite frankly had to start an LLC in order to put the money that I needed to spend in order to make this building, to make it legit. So, it wasn’t even my decision. It was nothing but God. I just kind of worked and ran with it.”
As a visionary, Skye has curated everything from stage designs for Summer Walker’s performances on “Jimmy Kimmel” and “BBC,” as well as, creative consulting for Backwoods Cigars, 21 Savage, and the Trap Music Museum of Atlanta. Recently, she led the creative direction for Dolphland, the traveling pop-up museum honoring the life and legacy of late rapper Young Dolph.
The young millennial reflected on some of the biggest lessons she’s learned as a creative entrepreneur.
“I think it has definitely stretched me to the point where I’ve been stretched too thin, I think, many times,” said Skye. “I think that is a part of being a creative that we don’t speak about enough in the industry. But yeah, I think that was the biggest thing, just realizing that I am not a machine. I can not go for 12 hours straight, working on multiple projects. I have to be able to give myself a break, multiple breaks. I have to eat. These are things that when I’m into it, I’m so driven by whatever the thing is that I will truly forget to eat.”
Skye continued: “What it’s taught me is how to listen to myself and to figure out healthy boundaries. Healthy work-life boundaries for myself and my clients, because people will run you to the ground if you let them, but it’s up to you to figure out how much time you want to dedicate that works for you and your well-being.”
Looking ahead to the future, Skye has big goals – one of them is to work alongside every creative’s favorite creative, Virginia native, and music and fashion icon, Pharrell Williams.
“I’ve been a fan of his since I was in middle school, but also just for Black fashion and Black music and how he is the prime example of how those two concepts can live in a world so harmoniously together,” she explained. “I plan on meeting and working with him and this specific fashion house [Louis Vuitton] because of the work that they have done in the past and the significance that the brand has on Black culture and music.”
For more on Set by Skye, click here.
