“ARE YOU UP?” Listening Party

Experiential Design • Community Activation • Storytelling Strategy

Overview
Held Here collaborated with Jess to craft an immersive listening experience for Jess’s debut EP. Designed as an intimate and cinematic gathering, this event invited guests to slow down, listen deeply, and experience the EP as a living narrative — combining music, storytelling, and emotional reflection in a community setting.

Emotional Intention
To create a space that mirrors the emotional arc of the EP. From insomnia and inner tension to peace and release, the decor & designs invited vulnerability and presence that encouraged guests to engage not just with the music, but with their own inner dream worlds.

Outcome
The experience honored the EP’s creative arc, not as a performance, but as a shared visual & auditory story. Guests moved through the space as both audience and participant, engaging with activations that prompted late-night reflection, emotional resonance, and deeper connection to the music and the artist. The event also yielded a content ecosystem and keepsake materials that extended the EP’s impact far beyond one night.

Role
Experiential Designer • Creative Director

Services Provided

  • Immersive experience design centered on listening and storytelling

  • Visual & sound design ideation in collaboration with venue

  • Reflective writing activities & private listening booth

  • Lyric visual displays & ambient installations

  • Content and takeaway design (listening prompt cards, custom merch, photo tickets)

  • Community engagement strategy pre/during/post event

FIRST PITCH Creators Community Event

Experiential Design • Community Activation

Overview
First Pitch hosted its inaugural networking event with the goal of creating a welcoming and intentional space where creators and industry professionals could engage in meaningful conversation and community. The event was designed to move beyond surface-level interaction, encouraging connection, trust, and mutual growth.

Emotional Intention
To reimagine what networking could feel like that is less transactional, and more human. The goal was to foster genuine dialogue and affirm creators as essential contributors to the industry’s future. Every interaction was designed to feel supportive, thoughtful, and connective.

Outcome
The event positioned First Pitch as a trusted and emotionally resonant force within the creator economy. Attendees left feeling seen, celebrated, and inspired. The experience also yielded evergreen tools—like the conversation cards and creator yearbook—that can be carried into future programming.

Role
Experiential Designer · Strategic Creative Partner

Services Provided

  • Community experience concepting & spatial design

  • “Soar With Us” creator manifestation installation

  • Cohort gallery wall to highlight First Pitch’s current creators

  • First Pitch conversation card prompts (for deeper dialogue)

  • Content creation corner for organic brand engagement

  • Documentary-style storytelling: FP Yearbook, testimonial wall

TRAN’S STORY Visual Narrative

Visual Storytelling

Overview
Originally conceived as a graduation shoot, this project evolved into a deeper exploration of Tran’s journey that honored not just her PhD, but the emotional and personal transitions that paralleled it. Designed and directed by Held Here, the shoot became a visual archive of her becoming beyond academic milestones

Emotional Intention
To visually affirm that transformation is nonlinear, tender, and often quiet. This wasn’t about capturing a “grad photo” but more significantly, about making space for reflection, for holding complexity, and for reclaiming authorship over one’s narrative.

Outcome
The result is not just a portrait series but a visual narrative of becoming. Rooted in care, reflection, and identity, this project celebrates the soft, powerful truth that growth happens in the everyday. These images now live on as a living archive of self, held through film.

Role
Photographer · Creative Director · Story Consultant

Services Provided

  • Creative concept development

  • Pre-shoot narrative conversation to understand personal history

  • On-site documentary portraiture

  • Visual storytelling with emphasis on legacy and emotional texture

  • Curated selects & sequencing for narrative cohesion