Krystle Mobayeni

Bio:

Looking back, it's clear that my love affair with digital design came from two very specific things. First was growing up in a home that had a room with no less than 5 computers at one time (no joke), thanks to a father with a computer science PhD. Hours were spent in that room trying to hack my way through Leisuresuit Larry. The second factor? I simply wanted to design rave flyers. Luckily at Philadelphia University, they started the Digital Design program in my sophomore year. After Philly, I moved to New York to work with some amazing people at Agency.com and Big Spaceship before starting Neon & Sons in 2010. Now my day to day consists of anything from janitorial work to animation to accounting to visual design. When I'm not visual problem solving, I try to visit at least one new country every year, eat like a queen, put together better outfits than the models hanging out on my doorstep and just feel the music.

• Title: Creative Director/Founder
• Age: 29
• Location: SoHo, NoLita
• Contact: @krystlemobayeni

Where do you look to for design inspiration?

I have a small group of friends who are artists and designers, and we are constantly sharing our work throughout the work day, they are my biggest inspiration (and critics!). I'm not going to go and list all the design sites and blogs we already know. But, for me personally, the best work comes from taking in the city, films, photography and applying that to interactive and digital.

I have to admit I've been loving this recently though: http://jjjjound.com

Having to work everything from accounting to animating to helping build rich media websites, what is the most useful thing you have learned by having to be so flexible and wear so many different hats?

I'm convinced it's a superhero power. Switching your brain like that during the day takes a lot of focus and discipline.

But really, being a small studio, the most important thing is being able to be agile, and not get stuck. You need to make sure you keep things moving. Sometimes that means doing things that you don't like or aren't necessarily the best at. But specialization is boring, and being a generalist goes a long way.

Which projects at Neon & Sons have been your favorites to work on so far and why?

This might be cheating, but my favorite project is a self initiated one we did for our good friend and client Kai D, a menswear designer. We shot the Fall/Winter collection on an epic rooftop in Brooklyn, and created a interactive video lookbook, which was something I hadn't seen much of at the time. Working with gorgeous content and being able to basically do what we wanted (since it was self initiated) made it the perfect project.

As an avid traveler, where is your favorite place that you have visited and why?

So far, Iceland has been the most unusual, inspiring place. The landscapes are unlike anything I've ever scene: you're standing on a black sand beach, overlooking hobbit house and a misty beach, while behind you you have a lava field and an enormous glacier. And all that is paired with Reykjavik, a really cool and interesting city, just makes the whole place magical.

That being said, I'm writing this after my first night in Tehran, Iran. This is my first visit here, so ask me in two weeks and my answer may be different. I've set up http://fromtherepublic.com to document my time here.

Who is your favorite musical artist/group currently? How do you like the music scene in NYC?

It's funny how in NYC talking about music can be as serious as talking about politics. I'm still a huge last.fm fan, http://last.fm/user/krystlemobayeni - easy to see my favs, and its accurate! I feel so lucky to live in a city where if you miss your favorite band or dj this week, you know they'll be back again soon.