Meet Jessica Vultaggio
We (Canvas Rebel) recently connected with Jessi Vultaggio and have shared our conversation below.
"Alright, Jessi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out."
My career has revolved around taking risks to build a non-traditional career.
After a year of my undergraduate studies in Creative Arts Therapy at Endicott College, I risked transferring schools and majors to pursue Illustration after being inspired by a visiting speaker and illustrator, Craig Frazier. Taking this leap in my education enriched my eye for design, composition, color theory, Photoshop, and the creative process. My risk and hard work rewarded me with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2019. This choice has strongly impacted my knowledge for my current business and was the driver for everything I’ve done in my creative career.
Post graduation I struggled with spinal health and mobility issues. I had been accepted into SCAD’s graduate program for illustration and had to rescind my seat due to my ongoing health issues. After living in Savannah, Georgia for several years, I took the risk and moved home to Concord, Massachusetts. I faced difficulties finding a full-time position right out of college that offered the flexibility I needed for my health issues. I decided to ditch the traditional career path and continued freelancing. I had freelanced during college as a graphic designer and never considered attempting to pursue freelancing as my full-time job, but I needed the flexibility. I was able to procure a wide range of clientele through cold calling, networking, and through client referrals. I never knew the doors that would open by constantly taking new opportunities. I never said no to a new project. I began designing websites, marketing materials, emails, apparel, and more. Anything I could put my creative process towards, I immersed myself in freelancing for a wide variety of clients. I was fortunate to work for all woman-owned businesses. My career flourished by continuing relations with clients, which developed into more relationships in the marketing world.
Fall of 2019, I took on a part time contract role with a Cannabis company in Massachusetts as a graphic designer and product photographer. Then COVID hit, and the position I held was no longer necessary. I felt at a loss for a while as so many did but had gained so much knowledge from working alongside a marketing team. I truly felt inspired to learn every bit of education I could about marketing and owning a business as I was inspired by the woman I met during the start of my career. I decided to enroll myself in a digital marketing certificate program through the university of Vermont and began self-educating online in business.
I felt compelled to continue freelancing. During my time off during COVID, I began taking portraits again. I started my education in photography during high school. Film photography had truly been my passion, and I had continued developing my digital photography skills over the past decade. As life began to return to normal, I continued using my marketing skills to promote my photography online and started networking with local businesses. The biggest risk of my career was opening my first photography studio in Concord, Massachusetts. I had doubts of course – what if no one hires me, what if I fail, what if I don’t know what I’m doing. I was instantly proven wrong, of course with little mistakes along the way. Because of this risk, I made some of my strongest client connections that continue today. I hosted networking events, content days, and was able to connect with many inspiring people.
My career has been the epitome of taking risks at every turn. No matter the decisions I’ve made, they’ve led me further into exploring what truly inspires me as a creative. Being open to every opportunity, doing things that scared me, and taking major risks has launched my business and given me the freedom to dive into the niche I have a passion for.
"Jessi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?"
My photography business has grown with me over the past few years. I began with lifestyle and commercial portraiture, working with models, law firms, local non-profits, museums, health practitioners and local families/couples. When I started my business I never said no to any project that came my way. I love the challenge of taking on something new. I have experience as a lead wedding photographer, studio and product photographer, interior/exterior photographer, landscape photographer, headshot and branding photographer, and as a family photographer.
Today my business is focused on branding and commercial photography for travel, health, and wellness brands. Although I still have my ongoing clientele of local businesses and families, because we’ve built such a strong ongoing connection! I believe your art style should be a marriage between what you do and what your clients personality is. I create portraits and stock photography for my clients to use in their social media, print marketing materials, and on their website. These images help to showcase who they are and what they offer/sell.
My favorite feedback I’ve received from my clients is about how much I truly put care and invest my time into their project. I believe building a strong connection helps me to create imagery that fits their personality. I’ve always promoted that you can have your personal style, but it has to blend together with the personality of your client. I believe I developed this mindset from my years as a graphic designer and working in marketing. Every project I worked on in my freelancing career had to be tailored to the design of my clients brands. I take time to review the look, feel, and voice of my clients brand. Having a background in design, extensive photography experience, and marketing knowledge has helped me in this process of understanding what my clients need.
I’m very proud of my portfolio and the natural yet advanced Photoshop retouching style I’ve developed.
"Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?"
I am a perfectionist at heart.
Sometimes I will stare at a project for too long and work long into the night. I’ve had to let go of perfectionism, as a trained eye will always find flaws. When I look at a photo I notice everything that’s wrong with it. If something isn’t perfectly in focus or if there’s something I want to photoshop out, I end up spending a lot of extra time making it perfect. I know when it’s necessary, but it’s taken me years to realize that most people don’t see what my professionally trained eye sees. I’ve gotten in the habit of allowing my clients to choose their final images and allow them to make their editing notes. Because otherwise I extend my time and work endlessly to make every minor detail perfect, when no one else would even notice the slight editing changes I made. Instead of nitpicking every detail, I allow my clients to tell me what they see and what they want the work to look like.
"For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?"
The most rewarding aspect of my job is seeing the final product. So much time and care goes into the planning and the creation that seeing work finished is enchanting. When I finish an uploading a gallery, there’s nothing more pleasing than scrolling through all the images and seeing what the experience will be like for my clients. When I finish a website design and see it online, I refresh and scroll through every page to experience what a viewer will be experiencing. When my clients use our photos on social media and on their website, I screenshot it!
It brings me so much joy to know that the work is complete and that my clients are happy with the results.