It was just more like, “screw that person.” I got third in my class for the year and someone said, “Oh, it doesn't count though because your grades were in art subjects.”īut I don't feel like that ever turned me off it. By the end of high school Charli told people she wanted to be a designer. It was like, that's the risky artsy choice.īut it seemed like a risk worth taking. Whereas at that time being a designer wasn't really seen as a good, solid career. Because everyone understands what a teacher is and what they do. It just felt like the thing you were supposed to say. The musicians don't design it themselves.”īut for a while, when anyone asked her what she wanted to do with her life, she’d say “teacher.” She realized: “These people who are making magazines and CD album art, that is their job. It was in a high school art class that she learned graphic design was an actual job.
She remembers spending a lot of time once making sure a “P” was in just the right place. On the weekends in high school, she’d design and create her own magazines, cutting and folding paper and gluing things from real magazines but with her own layout. She always read the liner notes and was fascinated by how they, and the album covers, were designed. When she was 13, she got a job delivering newspapers just so she could earn enough money to buy her own CDs, obsessed with opening the little designed booklets folded in the front that revealed lyrics. “Being a designer wasn't really seen as a good, solid career.”Ĭharli’s love of design started with music. She’s as big a fan of design as she is a practitioner.Īnd it was being a fan that got her started in the first place. I'm just going to tell you about every single one.Īnd she does. Oh and also the one that says “You’ll think of something.” But then she also adds a few more of his prints. She starts by telling me about the print that says “I like it. It reads: “High-Def Hopes and Dreams.” Then I ask her an impossible question – which one is her favorite? I ask Charli which print she’s had the longest and she points to the one she designed herself years ago, inspired by a quote from a friend. Prints cover almost every spot on the wall, expertly placed, nothing matching but everything working together. The cat, Nora, shows up shortly after and almost trips Charli (“She likes to be near me at all times.”).Ĭharli recovers her balance and shows me the most important thing in the room: “Here's my pride and joy: my gallery wall.” The first things I notice are a record player and a cat tree. So why and when did she stop making videos about music and travel and fashion and food? How did her channel go from 0 to 205K subscribers in eight years? And how does she manage being a full-time creator and having a full-time job? That’s what I’m here to find out.īut first, Charli gives me a tour of her home office in Valencia, Spain. My videos will mostly be about design, music, travel, fashion, maybe a few healthy recipes thrown in here and there.
She’s doing that thing almost everyone does the first time they speak in front of a camera – they try to act like other people they’ve seen in front of a camera, instead of themselves.īut Charli’s sincerity still shines through. But I can understand why she’d find it hard to watch now. It doesn’t make me cringe like it does for her – I find it rather delightful. I know because Charli gave me access to watch that very first video. It showcases her design life and process, and shares content to help other designers move forward in their careers. But those shaky first steps are crucial.Įven though Charli cringes when she watches her first video, she knows without it she wouldn’t be where she is today: the Creative Director at ConvertKit, and a creator with over 205K YouTube subscribers.Ĭharli’s YouTube channel focuses on design. It’s normal to be awkward and imperfect when you’re trying something new most creators are embarrassed by their first attempts.
Like many early adopters of YouTube, she’s taken down a few of her first videos. But you won’t be able to find it anywhere. On October 10, 2013, Charli Prangley uploaded her first YouTube video.
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