I first met Tieja MacLaughin, a Toronto-based entrepreneur, in the summer of 2015 and have since then always admired her ability to sell herself as a brand. Founding TIEJA INC. in 2017 she has already bolstered an impressive list of clients ranging from Tic Tac and Kinder Canada to Carls Jr Canada and FERRERO ROCHER.
Earlier this year, I’ve had the chance of working with Tieja on a few projects and I’ve been fortunate to witness the metamorphosis of an amazingly talented women with an incredible expertise in communication and marketing. Initially contacting me for my photography services to promote a side-hustle she’s been working on, I had the chance to catch up with her at one of her favourite Toronto locales, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).
I understand that you have a background in Art History – What was your main draw to this field of academia?
I’ve always loved art as a subject. My Dad was a really talented sketch artist, so perhaps it started there. I used to attend art camp every summer as a kid, and I have really fond, innocent memories of my youth there. So that too. I’m honestly not sure I can explain how or why I am so drawn to it. But isn’t that the point? Art speaks when we can’t.
I was convinced I wanted to be an artist myself, I even had a portfolio put together to apply to college, but was never really skilled enough technically to go that route. So I started to dig into the history of art, and I became really educated in that, and ended up working at an art gallery for my full five years of university. After university I ended up pursuing writing (which is an art form too, I suppose), and wound up in media.
I fell out of it [art] for awhile, but then revisited the idea when I started my business four years ago (TIEJA Inc. is a PR-minded creative house, specializing in proactive online reputation management). I said, why the fuck not? Why can’t I do both? Why can’t I have art influence my public relations process? And that’s been my ‘secret sauce’, I’d say. While everyone else is automating and streamlining their content processes, I’m going the opposite direction. I want my content to be art created by humans, for humans. And I think – knock on wood – this is going to put me in an advantageous position when the bubble bursts on bot culture. Bots can’t feel or emote or understand the nuances of great art.
As the founder of TIEJA Inc., what artistic elements inspire you when formulating communication plans for clients?
Everything! I’m a sponge when it comes to art, and its influence on my work. And it doesn’t just have to be fine art, either. I think anything can be artistic. I see someone graceful walk across a room, I hear a perfectly executed investor pitch, or see an outfit someone has chosen – or, of course, a beautiful piece of art. The perfect amount of inspiration could cross my path in a day, working in tandem to then inspire my content plans for a client the next month or next quarter. It’s a really fluid process, and I try to uncover little nuggets of inspiration everywhere. It’s almost a study of culture. A constant reflection on people and our wants, needs and motivators. Psychology, really.
The technical translation comes through in user experience, design and content creation. Thinking: how do we influence someone through the point of purchase, motivate them to click a button on a website, or inspire them to share a brand message with their community? When we talk about brands, or our favourite products, we remember how they make us feel. We remember the big picture message. And that’s my job: to use art as a medium to share a positive brand message, to protect and promote my clients.
What do you think is the main challenge that contemporary artists face today?
I think that’s a bit of a catch 22. I’d say media and promotion. Because the way it works today is you need to have a strong social media presence to sell your work, as opposed to even a decade or two ago, you’d have an agent, or exclusivity to sell at a specific gallery. The power has shifted more into the hands of the artist, which is great, but it’s also a huge responsibility for them. Artists should be focusing on their art, as opposed to their promotion, so I wonder how much great art – or how many great ideas – are lost because the artist is now becoming a master of two, three, four social media platforms, versus a master of one, single artistic medium and really diving into and exploring that.
Historically, who is your favourite artist?
di Cosimo, Botticelli, Bernini… all of the Italians. Their rich, dramatic, technical style. I just adore it. Artemisia Gentileschi is another one. She’s probably so special because female artists weren’t really a thing, at her time especially. So she came in and painted these stunning “feminist” – I say feminist in quotations because I’m sure she herself didn’t refer to them as such, the term didn’t even have a name in the 1600’s – pieces depicting powerful women, and I can only imagine how shocking this was at the time. And still today, as we collectively work through feminism, gender identity and equality.
What exhibit speaks the most to you [at the AGO]?
How much time do I have, haha? In terms of permanent collections, European Renaissance art is most powerful to me. The technique of these artists is just so incredible and awing. For them, capturing photo-like detail was so important because devices didn’t exist at the time that could do that. So truly, the artists – and the writers – were the ones documenting history. They were masters of their craft, and had a very important role in society.
A more recent exhibit I really enjoyed was Vija Celmins’ “To Fix the Image in Memory”. To be honest, it really surprised me. I went in with relatively low expectations, not thinking I’d connect with her style, but it turned out I really did. She recreates images of sand, space, water, etc through a tedious, intense process by hand – I mean, imagine sitting there and drawing thousands of tiny grains of sand using pencil on paper. When you stand in front of these pieces they just suck you right in.
What artist should we be keeping an eye on as we move into the next decade of art in 2020?
My favourite artist right now – of this generation – is C.B. Hoyo. He’s part of this growing group of artists who refer to their work as “fake art”. If the best art is a glimpse into the socio-economic and political attitudes of a generation, these guys are doing that better than anyone else. I think the idea of taking and turning influencer culture on its head is genius. You know, they’re kind of poking fun at this culture of Instagram likes, but then turning around and using the same platform to catapult their own work into famedom.
Callen Schaub is another one (he’s a local Canadian actually, from Montreal). He’s created this art wheel and does most of his work via a presentational immersive format – spinning the wheel in front of crowds, covered in paint – it feels very raw, gives the audience a glimpse into his process, and becomes an experience. This isn’t the first time this has been done though, I believe Damien Hirst was one of the first to use a paint wheel. So I’d like to see how he [Callen] takes that and truly makes it his own. He’s still young though, so I’m excited to see how his style evolves. Oh and Adrián Villar Rojas, for sure!
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