Ash Aarrestad is your bestie-next-door voice actor with a wide array of professional creative experiences. You’ve heard her friendly welcome at Dolly Parton’s theme park resort, as the hype-woman for NBA’s Portland Trailblazers and she's lent her chameleon voice to an array of audiobook characters. Known for her emotional range, fearless versatility, and a finely tuned ear for dialects, she brings depth, wit, and a hint of mischief to every role. Whether it’s heartfelt or hilarious, Ash makes it sound like she was born to say it.
"Making decisions based on the hope of what could go right vs. the fear of what could go wrong". More about this coming soon!
It’s a little edgy haha. It’s about how to better understand people you work with (team members, clients, etc) so that you can push projects along without losing your sanity. (Spoiler: it all comes down to communication styles. You don’t have to like everyone. You just have to understand them).
Recapping a decade of drawing, designing, and making mistakes. Insight on getting started, finding clients, pricing, working for yourself, "networking", and some life lessons learned along the way.
The theory of "Short steps long vision", soft selling your work, becoming a top tier internet sleuth, and a couple hot takes on the design industry may be included.
We live in the most advanced and connected times ever in history, and yet, as creatives, we often feel numb, overwhelmed, and burnout.In this talk I share my journey and three realizations that helped me cultivate a sense of wonder and enjoy a richer, more meaningful life as a creative professional.
Kevin Green is an entrepreneur, chef, former public educator, and keynote speaker raised on Southern grit and second chances. A former Division 1 distance runner, hybrid athlete, and Food Network’s CHOPPED competitor, he brings a rare blend of discipline, vulnerability, and humor to every room he walks into.
Through his company, Kevin Green Elevates, Kevin helps organizations transform identity, culture, and engagement by connecting who people are to the work they do. Drawing from his signature onion metaphor and 3P Framework (Purpose, Passion, and Potential), he guides teams to peel back the layers, name what truly drives them, and turn that clarity into meaningful action.
From emerging creatives to corporate leaders, Kevin’s work sits at the intersection of story, strategy, and performance. His keynotes and workshops help leaders and creative teams spark identity level shifts, deepen staff engagement, and build cultures where people do not just fill seats at a table or feel like they do not have a seat at all; they take their seat of significance and contribute their best work.
This keynote speaks directly to the creative in the room. Before you design, lead, sell, or ship anything, the most important project is you. Once you know who you are, you can finally decide what to do and how to do it in a way that fits.
Using his 3P Framework (Purpose, Passion, Potential) and signature onion metaphor, Kevin helps attendees unlock their own creative capacity by anchoring their work in a clear sense of identity. You will explore the tables you build, the tables you sit at, and what it looks like to take your own seat at the head of the table in your career and creative life.
Attendees will walk away with:
Graphic designers named Mike from Prague with 20+ years of experience. I love the web and I thrive off of using its full potential to complete business challenges.
My forte is beautiful and user-orientated graphic design. I create logotypes, icons, and illustrations. And design websites, applications, games, and user interfaces.
This is a tough-love, highly actionable talk and mini workshop is for creatives who want to do work they love, make real money from it, and keep their identity intact as they grow. It includes quick exercises that attendees can do in the moment to help gain clarity on their future success
Practical takeaways:
You’ll learn how symbolic visual elements light, color, composition, and subjectmatter, can tell a story. Through a live digital painting demo, and guided practice, you’ll explore how allegory and symbolism can elevate your work.
CREATIVE SOUTH 2026 — WORKSHOP
Joel Santana | Illustrator
Beyond Pretty Pictures:
The Art of Visual Storytelling Through Symbolism
Most illustrations stop at the point of “pretty” or “well-crafted”. But what if your
work could say something deeper, something more meaningful and story-driven?
In this hands-on workshop, Joel Santana (clients: DISNEY, Penguin Random
House, Foot Locker, WACOM |founder of ImageMakers Society) will walk you
through his digital painting process for creating art that tells a message.
You’ll learn how symbolic visual elements light, color, composition, and subject
matter, can tell a story. Through a live digital painting demo, and guided practice,
you’ll explore how allegory and symbolism can elevate your work across editorial
illustration, branding, children’s books and personal projects.
Walk away with an illustration study exploring contrasting symbols and a practical
framework that adds intention to your work. Whether faith, philosophy or personal
narrative drives your work, this workshop will help you create art that resonates.
Bio:
Joel Santana has spent 20 years bringing stories to life as a professional illustrator
and designer. His work has been featured by Disney, Footlocker, BOSE Music,
Penguin Random House, mobile gaming studios, Comm Arts Magazine and more.
He's also passionate about teaching, having instructed over 30,000 students in
digital art worldwide.
Social & Contact:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imjoelsantana/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@imagemakerssociety
Website: https://imagemakerssociety.com/
Creative Mints presents a workshop on lateral thinking, their proven approach to turning chaos into conscious, flexible, and reliable creativity without losing instinct or curiosity. They will share their path and show how perspective shifts unlock ideas in real projects, high-pressure cases, complex problems, and creative dead ends - boosting portfolios and real-world outcomes.
Creative Mints presents a workshop on lateral thinking, their proven approach to turning chaos into conscious, flexible, and reliable creativity without losing instinct or curiosity. They will share their path and show how perspective shifts unlock ideas in real projects, high-pressure cases, complex problems, and creative dead ends - boosting portfolios and real-world outcomes. You’ll leave with practical frameworks and exercises to train creativity beyond the computer and apply them immediately.
The hard truth is that Talent may attract eyeballs, but it’s sales skills that pay the bills.And that’s not all…Sales skills allow you to work with people who respect and value your work, with bigger budgets, in more fun projects, where you can create the most impact. That’s the dream, isn’t it? Let’s get you there!
If you’ve been paid already for doing creative work, you DON’t have a talent problem. Your skills are likely good enough.
Why aren’t clients raining over you with work then?
The hard truth is that Talent may attract eyeballs, but it’s sales skills that pay the bills.
And that’s not all…
Sales skills allow you to work with people who respect and value your work, with bigger budgets, in more fun projects, where you can create the most impact.
That’s the dream, isn’t it? Let’s get you there.
In this interactive workshop you’ll learn (and practice):
If you do great work but your business is not growing as you’d like to, more design tricks won’t do.
You need to learn how to be better at business and sales.
This workshop will help you with that.
You in?
Your Recipe for Success walks attendees through three of Kevin’s core frameworks that establish identity, unlock potential, and connect big picture questions (who they are and why they do what they do) to the work they show up for every day.
This interactive workshop brings Kevin Green’s signature process to Creative South in a concentrated, high-impact format. Your Recipe for Success walks attendees through three of Kevin’s core frameworks that establish identity, unlock potential, and connect big picture questions (who they are and why they do what they do) to the work they show up for every day. Participants will work through portions of a 45 page workbook that includes guided practices, journaling prompts, worksheets, breakout conversations, and whiteboard exercises.
By the end of the session, attendees will have language for their unique identity, clarity around their purpose, passion, and potential, and a simple plan to align their daily activity with the life and work they actually want. This does more than deliver career clarity. It empowers professionals, entrepreneurs, and founders to create the work they love and the life they were always meant to live, which translates into more engaged staff, healthier culture, and better creative output for the companies, teams, and clients they serve.
Participants will:
Learn how to turn basic type into bold, client-ready vector sticker designs. We’ll use the Tool Panel, Appearance Panel, and Warp tools to build layered, editable typography with tons of depth and personality. You’ll leave with a repeatable workflow, finished designs you’re proud of, and the confidence to apply it to real-world client projects and your own personal workflows.
Creating bold sticker designs with typography in Adobe Illustrator. Learn how to turn basic type into bold, client-ready vector sticker designs. We’ll use the Tool Panel, Appearance Panel, and Warp tools to build layered, editable typography with tons of depth and personality. You’ll leave with a repeatable workflow, finished designs you’re proud of, and the confidence to apply it to real-world client projects and your own personal workflows.
Designing With Duct Tape is a hands on workshop that reimagines duct tape as a design tool and art medium. By working analog, participants will explore vector based thinking, composition, and constraint in a tactile way, creating physical work that strengthens their digital design process.
This hands on workshop explores how core design principles translate outside the digital space using duct tape as the primary medium. Think of it as manual vector art you can physically build, cut, and rearrange.
Participants will use tape to explore shape, composition, negative space, and constraint, mirroring how we naturally design with vectors on screen. By removing digital shortcuts like layers and undo, the focus shifts to intentional decision making and problem solving through making.
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