Creative spotlight: Turning chaos into clarity with Lisa Kyle from NEST Fragrances
| September 30, 2019
Lisa Kyle is the Project Manager of Design and Photography at NEST Fragrances – a brand quickly taking the fragrance world by storm with its unique scents and exquisite packaging. We sat down with Lisa for a conversation about her role at NEST, creativity and staying organized amidst all the chaos.
About NEST Fragrances
NEST Fragrances is a luxury lifestyle brand for scent lovers who appreciate and desire fragrances that have a real presence, captivate the senses and linger confidently. From citrus to woody and aromatic to fruity, each fragrance has its own distinct personality and creates a different mood.
Thanks for joining us, Lisa. We’re excited to have you with us today. Tell us about NEST. What makes your fragrances different?
We make candles, perfumes and body care products that are sold at Sephora, Blue Mercury, ULTA, Neiman Marcus, Saks, boutiques all over the country and on our own website. We recently opened our first brick and mortar store in a beautiful building in SoHo, in New York.
I think this brand is just going to rule the fragrance world! Our products smell beautiful, and they look and feel beautiful, which is incredibly important to our whole team. The boxes are gorgeous and a lot of them actually have texture as well. So the experience is very multisensory.
We use Canto to send product photography to all the boutiques that carry NEST fragrances for use on their website. It’s pretty widely used and everyone finds it very user-friendly.
What does your role at NEST involve?
I manage the digital assets. I organize everything for photo shoots – I have a closet with all the products in it and I make sure we have what we need for the shoot.
I’m also the project manager of the design department. We usually have around 50 projects going on at once. My role is to make sure the team knows what’s coming up next: I keep up with the dates and the people who make the products and get them photographed. So it’s a lot of organizing, which draws on my background. I also work with the packaging team and the marketing team to make sure their creative teams have everything they need to get their work done.
I’m actually a photojournalist by training and not a commercial photographer, which is why I don’t do those big gorgeous photos you see on our website with all the flowers in them or the photos you see in Sephora. That requires a different skill set – so I’m not very involved on the creative side of things. But I do get to keep people and things organized which I enjoy very much.
How does Canto fit into your workflow at NEST?
We use Canto across several teams, from marketing to sales to PR. We use it to send product photos to all the boutiques that then use them on their website. The e-commerce team also uses Canto to share images. It’s pretty widely used and everyone finds it very user-friendly.
It sounds like you’re something of an organizational maven. How does that play out in other parts of your life?
I have my own business – which I don’t have much time to do anymore – but it’s called A Fresh Nest. I organize offices and people’s kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms and bedrooms.
I also offer packing and unpacking services to people who are moving. I even hire the movers for them. I’m kind of like the foreman on the day they’re moving. It’s so much fun! I love organizing things. I find it so satisfying, and it’s something I enjoy very much.
What advice would you give someone who is just starting out as a creative professional?
Well, everybody is going to tell you that you should do something you love, and that you want to be able to get up in the morning and be excited to go to work.
But many things that we love don’t actually pay the rent, so you have to find a way to set some goals for yourself. Ask yourself where you want to be. Where you want to live. How you want to live. What kind of house you want to live in. Are you okay living in your van, or do you want to live in a five-story brownstone in New York City? I think your goals can change over time, but you should kind of have an idea of where you want to end up in life, or where you want to be in 10 or 20 years.
It’s hard to do but it makes a big difference in your career path. If you’re lucky enough you’ll be able to just do what you love and make the kind of living you want to make to support yourself and not go hungry. But sometimes you have to adapt to make the things you love work.