Women and Underrepresented Creatives Need Support
Sound familiar?
My name is Jessie Kate Bui, I’m the founder of Hedge Studio, and my mission is to help creatives heal their self image so they can boldly share their stories with the world.
You are here because you champion diverse storytellers and are looking for ways to help them overcome their struggles so they can share their ideas with more confidence and clarity.
You've already built the courage to deconstruct how you’ve done things before, nurturing patience to face tension and struggle because it leads to more sustainable, inclusive, and diverse stories.
I am here because I am on a mission to help the world heal from the limiting beliefs that get in the way of more connection, love, and understanding. And I believe that diverse storytelling is the key.
Using my background mentoring visual storytellers, teaching at Art Center, and creating educational resources such as Talking Threads: Costume Design for Entertainment Art, I've curated and transformed my best solutions into a new course that helps diverse creatives heal their self image, share their nuanced stories, and find empowerment in their life and work.
Using familiar tools that creatives already use, while weaving accessibility and accommodation into the DNA of the course helps participants access their own untapped abundance.
The content has already helped my past mentees and partnerships with nonprofits has improved access to the content for lower income individuals. By expanding my reach, I look forward to tapping into even more abundant ideas, innovation and progress that empowered diverse creatives bring to the industry and world.
STORY MEDIUM
let's make the struggling creative a myth
WHAT I'M OFFERING
Course Packages to schools and studios looking to provide mental health solutions to struggling students and team members. Helping them to regain trust in their inner voice, access creative abundance, and become empowered to create more impactful stories.
WHY ME?
From both my personal experiences and over 500 hours mentoring diverse creatives, I realized that all too common financial, educational, or opportunity barriers in underrepresented groups trigger the creation of additional emotional barriers. Oftentimes leading the creative to express they were ready to give up on their career. Without healing the limiting beliefs that occur, individuals struggle to use the limited opportunities or resources they do have to stabilize their lives or share their stories with the world.
By combining my mentoring insights with my specialism using psychology-driven techniques, experience deconstructing the creative process in Talking Threads: Costume Design for Entertainment Art, experience teaching at Art Center, and work with creative entrepreneurs, I have created a holistic methodology that helps creatives use familiar tools to solve these new challenges with confidence. Equipping more diverse creatives to share their stories with the world.
STORY MEDIUM
52 week self-paced storytelling course for creatives who have lost trust in their creative intuition due to anxiety, depression, stigmatization, non-inclusive approaches, or lack of representation. We explore film and life through a psychological lens to hone storytelling skills, elevate designs with empowering techniques, and transform their creative practice. By the end of the course participants will create:
A Business plan
A Customized Mindset Kit
A Pitch Deck of an original story
Helping them nurture a more sustainable creative practice and freeing them to show up with more confidence and play. With 12 Live Workshops, 12 Demos, A Discussion Forum, and Workbooks to help them refine their results.
WHY NOW?
Support the growing demand for diverse stories by equipping the storytellers to succeed
WHAT NEXT?
Connect 1:1 in a discovery call to discuss how the course can fit into your existing strategies
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
As a designer, I discovered that story had the power to eliminate my imposter syndrome. And when I felt lost in life, I found my professional art and story tools could empower my therapy sessions and reveal a deep sense of purpose.
My own struggle transformed into a superpower - deconstructing creative processes and finding ways to make them more accessible and pleasurable.
EXPERIENCE
- PROJECT DIRECTOR & CO-AUTHOR OF TALKING THREADS
- CO-TEACHER AT ART CENTER
- VISUAL STORYTELLING MENTOR
- BRAND STORY COACH FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Weaving psychology, identity branding together with my past insights around the healing power of story, and the techniques in Talking Threads, I formalized the methodology that worked for me and built set of exercises to help equip visual storytellers with a process that helps them heal their self image, learn story and design skills, and share their unique story with more confidence.
Now I help storytellers, entrepreneurs, and personal development advocates identify, fictionalize, and rewrite their personal narratives so they can become protagonists in their own lives.
Talking Threads: costume design for entertainment
“Students of costume design, concept art and animation will welcome Talking Threads as an instant classic, and an indispensable addition to their bookshelves.”
CAMILLE BENDA, HEAD OF COSTUME DESIGN, CALARTS
“Talking Threads is a costume designer’s treasure chest, an overflowing trove of precious information, golden rules, and pearls of wisdom.’”
IAIN MCCAIG, ARTIST/WRITER/FILMMAKER
“This book takes you expertly by the hand along this fascinating investigation that is designing for fiction and storytelling. From Chagall to Black Panther, from historical tales to science fiction, the limit is your imagination. ”
GUILLAUME ARETOS, CHAIR, ENTERTAINMENT DESIGN, ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN.
THE METHODOLOGY
PARALLAX METHOD
Named after the original fictional story Parallax that I used in my own healing journey, the parallax method is a 3 step process that is the driving methodology behind all my work. Helping creatives, and audiences regain trust in their inner voice, gain new perspective, and transform their life through the power of storytelling.
STEP 1: FIND YOUR STORY
Using a simplified story structure inspired by Hero's Journey (Dan Harmon’s Story Circle) in combination with the Enneagram (a set of psychological motivational archetypes) to identify authentic story arcs.
STEP 2: FICTIONALIZE YOUR STORY
Using professional research approaches in combination with the 5 principles of design covered in the Talking Threads book to guide your world-building.
STEP 3: REWRITE YOUR NARRATIVES
Take more purpose driven action by slowing down to tune into your inner voice. Using concepts from EMDR therapy and Ikigai.
COURSE FEATURES
Story medium uses the Parallax Method, while complimenting it with practical application exercises developed from over 500 hours of mentoring diverse creatives. Helping storytellers to reestablish trust in their inner voice and stabilize their creative practice so they can reignite their creative soul. Bringing back their sense of play and celebrating in their presence in the world, so they feel more confident to show up, speak up, and change the world.
With accessibility as a priority, the course is self paced, lifetime access, and full of step by step breakdowns, workbooks, recorded lessons, and templates. With each lesson building on the next to help participants flow through their learning experience with less frustration. Live workshops create a space to customize approaches or assignments to fit the learning style, accessibility needs, and project goals of individuals. And feedback forms allow the course to continually improve, serving as a resource they can use again and again.
52 Recorded Lessons
12 Recorded Demos
12 Live Workshops
A Business Plan: "Set yourself apart from the competition with a personal brand story, positioning strategy, and clearly defined services."
Customized Mindset Kit: "Draw on your storytelling skills and fictional characters to tackle daily challenges and reach flow state."
A Pitch Deck: "Learn how to channel more powerful stories and designs then showcase your new skills and unique voice in a pitch deck of an original story."
CASE STUDY
The practical exercises in Story Medium are designed from the real world insights working with diverse creatives. With Amanda, we used story analysis, clear expectations, and step by step breakdowns to tackle abstract prompts and fast deadlines. Helping us discover the true power of her research skills and nuanced insights when they were facilitated instead of interrupted.
MEET AMANDA
A neurodivergent artist on the autism spectrum attending a prestigious design school. She has received financial aid based on income and portfolio. And her dream is to work as a costume designer in film, animation, or games.
In class she receives a prompt like, design a "cool sci-fi warrior". For some this is fun, a what if - they see opportunity. For her this is stressful, she is so caught in the abstract…unclear about the expectations…that she struggles to move forward. What does “cool” mean? What do they expect from me? How can I define a successful solution when it’s so abstract.
She needs added time to find the logic in the assignment through deeper research, leading her to struggle to finish within the timelines given. She’s frustrated the whole time, and then when she gets negative feedback, it’s often just as abstract to her.
After all the effort she put in choosing accurate period options, the feedback is that she needs to improve the appeal, another abstract/subjective word, and it confuses her, making her feel that her approach and efforts aren’t understood or accepted.
Amanda was quickly burning out while coping with an insidious lie:
"my needs are a problem and I don't belong here"
When I started mentoring Amanda she was exhausted, feeling unsupported and deeply concerned about her future prospects.
She was looking to find a way to achieve her goals with one on one help, and we got to work.
MEETING AMANDA WHERE SHE WAS AT
We began by using a simple story structure to create an original fictional story based on her life. By using a story she understood from the inside out, it deepened her understanding of the purpose and impact of each design task, while giving her the opportunity to share how she conquered a limiting belief in the past.
We used this to start identifying what was causing her to feel so lost and frustrated. I helped her see new ways to more quickly translate abstract prompts and emotion based character descriptions into logical prompts that she could understand. I guided her through a step by step process that simplified costume design tasks down to the smallest decisions and actions. Building her comprehension of the goal of each step as we went so she could contextualize feedback more clearly. As we went, we made adjustments, swapping the order of steps, modifying the tools or techniques, all to compliment her way of thinking through each problem.
UNCOVERING UNTAPPED POTENTIAL
Because her fictional story shared her point of view as a member of the lgbtqia+ community. And the insights we both gained as she expressed her thoughts into fictional settings helped us understand what had led to her finding peace and empowerment in her differences in the past. I was also able to understand her unique research and problem-solving strengths even more. The discussions and insights this process prompted helped us break down some of her more recent limiting beliefs (and my own!) in ways she could understand.
EQUIPPING HER TO SUCCEED
We discussed scenarios she would run into during future classes and reverse engineered solutions so she would feel equipped to fill in the gaps created by overly abstract assignments, and meet her deadlines.
By the end of the course she had a story that both demonstrated her new process and techniques, and a more hopeful attitude returning to classes. In the course immediately following ours, she was able to tackle abstract prompts with more confidence and ease and hit her assignment deadline. Throughout our mentoring she was able to fulfill the assignments on the same major deadlines I set for neurotypical artists as well. She was able to improve her assignments in the following class using the custom processes we created together.
Why isn't this transformation more common? Amanda’s neurodivergent needs were ignored for too long and she ended up limiting beliefs about her capability to use her tools, work in the industry or share her story. Burned out and discouraged, she was now telling herself a fear-driven story that was making it harder to use the resources she HAD been given.
Mentoring Amanda, and other visual storytellers all over the world, I have worked for years to decomplexify and deconstruct the creative process. Helping narrative designers gain better comprehension of storytelling and design, identify missing pieces in their process, or more easily refine and adapt process steps to fit their needs.
REVIEWS
Jessie Kate has created a celebratory, open and accepting environment that allows you to tell authentic and impactful stories without judgment or shame. She is compassionate and fully invested in helping you tell your story from your point of view. She is a guide on this journey, helping you navigate the waters within your story so it can evolve into a beautifully authentic tale of your experiences.
AMANDA MORTON, Research and Costume Specialist
As someone who enjoys research, Jessie really taught me the value of being intentional and specific with it to help bring a bigger picture together. I can take what I’ve learned and not only use it for costume design but also for characters or environments or props, and from that can feel like I’m creating a world grounded in something solid.
NATALIA FALCIGLIA, Character Painter
Besides giving us an incredibly rare content with academic quality, Jessie’s mentorship took me on a personal and creative journey beyond my every expectations. I loved our meetings every week, learning about time periods and how to research them, the importance of thumbnailing and how to not edit your ideas too soon in the process, getting extremely constructive feedback that respected my process of developing my own story. I learned many creative strategies for brainstorming, exploring ideas, and a hardly ever present self-compassionate approach during the creative process.
PAULA GUIMARAES, Art Director
As an entrepreneur, it’s critical for people to know, like, and trust the person behind the brand and the best way to do that is by sharing your story in many different ways, and Jessie Kate Bui is an expert at this. She not only gave me a structure to follow moving forward for storytelling, she curated bits and pieces of my journey and created a beautiful personal guide I can refer to. Her knowledge and incorporation of the Enneagram types is amazing and she masterfully takes you through her 8 beat story circle to deepen your message for your audience. You will walk away learning so much more about yourself (a bonus I didn’t expect) and the tools needed to share your story on any platform, making you stand out as an entrepreneur.
TERESA HILDEBRAND, Clarity + Life Coach
I was totally stuck when it came to telling my story and how it led to the creation of my business, until I, serendipitously, met Jessie Kate. She is someone with whom it’s very easy to connect and go deep quickly (not a common trait). Her approach to storytelling is equal parts depth and practicality. She has figured out an original (and I dare say genius) process to get to the gem hidden in every twist and turn in life, and to articulate them together in a story that is impactful while staying in full integrity with the truth.
I used to think that you needed to have a particularly wild and adventurous life to “have a story” that people would want to hear, but Jessie Kate showed me that it’s not about how spectacular your experiences may be, but instead about telling it with the right combination of truth and emotion.
You may think that this is an investment in your business but it may end up being an even more far-reaching investment in your relationship with the past versions of yourself that help you get here.
RAQUEL ROJO, Fashion Stylist
I had been struggling with telling my whole story online for a few years, and always inching closer but never quite hitting the mark. Jessie held space for me to tell her my whole story and not worry about the "outcome," trusting that she would steward me through the process. Thanks to her background in media storytelling, she was able to help me fashion a narrative that spoke directly to my ideal customer's pain points, but then quickly moved them toward my unique way of looking at the problem and solving it (based on my lived experience), which I hadn't been able to nail before. I'm so happy to have found Jessie!
NILIMA ACHWAL, Pitch and fundraise coaching for pre-seed/seed founders
JOINING THE EFFORT
You are already making important strides in helping elevate diverse voices through trade education, financial aid, grants, hiring initiatives or in studio training programs to improve diverse opportunities.
Story Medium adds another facet to those efforts, filling a void while empowering creatives to utilize these existing opportunities more effectively.
Offering Story Medium scholarships through Rise up Animation, a non-profit supporting BIPOC creatives, was our first step to impact more creatives through collaboration. Now we're ready to empower even more voices by partnering with you!
Set up a discovery call to discuss package options today by emailing jessiekatebui@gmail.com. Note ready for a package, consider adding Story Medium to a list of pre-approved courses for employee tuition reimbursement.
WE'VE NEVER BEEN MORE READY
- Growing focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion opening opportunities for more diverse stories
- Pandemic leading to larger focus on the need for work/life balance and mental health tools
- Breaking down of mental health stigma with Gen Z leading the charge with positive messaging around it.
- Authenticity trend in marketing creating a complimentary setting to tell more diverse stories
POWER OF STORY MEDIUMS
Helping your storytellers channel their insights, using the features of their modern story mediums, to take us on transformative journeys...inspiring us to heal, reconnect, and find new joy in a more diverse human experience. Adding to a powerful line up of other change-making projects.
SERIES
Series like Infinity Train, Undone, and Maniac use the medium of series to help us slowly unbury our past pain and face it to find inner peace.
GAMES
Games like It Takes Two help us heal from disconnection in a relationship through a magical mix of real world co-op collaboration as we work together towards a common goal.
COMICS
Long form Comics like X-men highlight the dangers of stigmatization and segregation around unfamiliar differences, exploring a vast variety of characters and “powers” that allow us to find characters we can resonate with, helping us see our differences in an empowering light.
FILM
Everything Everywhere all at once uses the medium of film to tackle the heavy struggles of minority families, generational conflict, and depression in a clever moment in time that uses surrealism and comedy to open our hearts to a simple message of hope.
HEDGE STUDIO
Your purchase of courses not only helps your own creatives, it help move forward the mission of Hedge Studio. A Story Development and Design Studio using psychology-driven techniques to create educational tools that empower truth, immersive stories that inspire creativity, and interactive products that enrich your life with healing narratives. Creating a variety of future jobs specifically designed for underrepresented creatives.
PHASE 1 : EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES FOR STORYTELLERS
PHASE 2 : TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING (PARALLAX IP)
PHASE 3 : HEALING HOME AND FASHION PRODUCTS
VISION & MISSION
VISION: Healthy, stable, storytellers can impact the world by providing nuanced perspectives and powerful metaphors that break down the lies (limiting beliefs) in societies that lead to stigmatization, unstable homes, broken relationships, and loss of personal expression. Because elevating diverse perspectives helps the world heal from the lies that separate us.
MISSION: Using, inspiring and facilitating the use of a holistic storytelling method that combines Hollywood story techniques and psychology tools to help creative individuals heal poor self image and stabilize their lives. Freeing them to share their story without fear, develop their original ideas without shame, and stabilize their creative practice without frustration.
POWER OF STORY
Cultures throughout history have used fictional metaphors and symbols to help guide us to overcome challenges in life. From Shamans to Storytellers to Psychologists, it has been a reliable method to speak to our collective consciousness and heal humanity.
Spiderman inspires us to use our power with responsibility, Cinderella inspires us to express love even in hardship, Dorothy reminds us to appreciate what we already have.
But stories can also create barriers between us, disconnecting us from each other or causing misunderstandings out of fear, shame, or anger.
We tell ourselves stories like "Your differences make you a threat to me, I have to be successful to be loved, all conflict is a sign of rejection
The limitations, lies, and limiting beliefs that result from fear-driven stories can lead to stigmatization, unstable homes, broken relationships, and loss of personal expression…And the more complex our world becomes, the more rapidly it changes…the easier it is to get lost in these limiting beliefs.
But there is hope! Healthy, stable storytellers put a dent in these limiting beliefs by providing more nuanced perspectives and powerful metaphors that break down societies' fear-driven stories.
And America’s most direct forms of storytelling, entertainment media, is elevating the more diverse representation and the insightful creatives who can tell these important nuanced stories. Helping them to show up, speak up, and change our world for the better.
Join with me to help storytellers tackle their own limiting beliefs so we can continue to unleash more powerful, hopeful, and connecting stories into the world.
HEALTHY STORYTELLERS HEAL THE WORLD