Every day, I wake up blessed to be building the business of my dreams. Thank you for helping me make this all a reality. We're doing it through creativity, community and collaboration. It's amazing what unfolds when one steps into their purpose.
One too many burnouts forced me to re-evaluate my creative career in corporate social responsibility. Like a flip of a light switch, I knew it was time for me to build my own purpose-driven agency. I left the corporate world in February 2018 - I needed to be the change I wanted to see. It’s been history ever since! To date, we have built a brilliant core team, a talented national collective and a bright constellation of world-changing clients.
Our goal in 2021 is to deepen our financial resilience and to keep shining bright. You can play a role in our story by: hiring us and referring us for mission-driven brand strategy, visual identity and graphic design. Think of us as the go-to creative agency for small teams inside organizations with big dreams. Check out examples of our kick-ass work on our website.
Thanks to your projects, connections and support, here are some major milestones we made possible this year. Join us in the celebration:
With your help, connections, and creativity, here are several major milestones you made possible this year:
This summer our Founder & CEO, Ivellisse Morales had the honor of speaking in front of thousands at The 3 Percent Conference hosted by The 3 Percent Movement. Since its inception, The 3 Percent Movement has helped raise the percent of female Creative Directors from 3% to 29%, while giving agencies a clear road map of ways to champion female creative talent and leadership.
Themed "The Radically Inclusive Future of Work," this year’s conference aimed to address four key pillars about the future of work: agile work environments, wellness, conscious leadership, and multigenerational workforces.
In her talk, "Three Keys to Be #LitOnPurpose: How to Be Creative for a Change," Ivellisse shares her secret to carving out a creative career in social impact, bringing in influences from literature, music, art and her entrepreneurial passion projects that helped folks in her family and community.
Missed the talk? Check out Ivellisse's interview with The 3 Percent Movement (originally published here):
What’s happening right now?
“alarm’s been ringing it’s not too late to wake ourselves up from this senseless state start asking questions ask yourself why use your own senses and sniff out the lies”
^ a short poem I wrote one day when I felt deeply disappointed, depressed and yet radically optimistic about the state of humanity and the planet
What might happen next?
What a time to be alive! We are at an existential crossroads as human beings. We’re globally grappling with the raw realities of white supremacy, patriarchy and global capitalism. “What might happen next?” is a question I ask myself every day. Peering through the fog of fear, there’s one thing I do see with certainty. We’re living ancestors writing history. It’s time to reflect, reimagine, redesign -- collectively, without permission, and with urgency. Let’s lean into the transformation that we desperately need.
What exciting creative opportunities does this open up?
What would it look like if all humans were #litonpurpose? If we all harnessed our creative gifts and angled them towards social, economic, political and environmental justice to accelerate change? How might we reimagine and rebuild our world so we can all thrive? We’ll only get there collectively, and it starts with individual action.
To be #litonpurpose is to embody the change the world needs. Change starts with you (us). And we have powerful renewable resources in our hands: creativity, collaboration and community. In the words of Howard Thurman, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
I believe we all should be employed to solve the great social, political and environmental crises of our time. We’re the creative directors of our shared future on this beautiful blue planet we call home.
The future of our planet is sustainable. The future of business is responsible. The future of work is equitable. The future of humans is #litonpurpose.
This is the first episode of a new series of interviews from Paid Leave for the US (PL+US) with dynamic leaders who are changing the way we live and work.
In this first conversation, PL+US Founder and Executive Director Katie Bethell interviews Ivellisse Morales, CEO of bombilla, a creative agency focused on social change that is on a mission to be inclusive and hire creatives who have been historically underrepresented in the media industry: people of color, Black people, indigenous peoples, and women.
Katie and Ivi talk about what it takes to build a diverse and inclusive firm that puts people first.
Paid leave and having that time to just breathe, gave me the expansiveness to think about what my future could look like outside of climbing the ladder on someone else’s company that I don’t want to be climbing.
IVELLISSE MORALES, CEO OF BOMBILLA
Thanks to Katie and the PL+US team for facilitating this important dialogue. You can learn more about PL+US and their mission to win paid family and medical leave for everyone in the U.S. at paidleave.us.
Pluuus, check out our awesome work together as PL+US' go-to creative agency here!
The theme for this year’s conference, “Here For It”, is about showing up, being present, continuing the fight and striving for progress.
About the Award
The One Club | ADCOLOR Creative Award recipients are creative professionals of multicultural background who have demonstrated noteworthy talent and achievement within the media, creative, digital and traditional advertising disciplines. It’s sponsored by The One Club for Creativity, an international nonprofit organization seeking to inspire, encourage, and develop creative excellence in advertising and design.
Bombilla CEO, Ivellisse Morales, featured in Adweek with fellow honoree Soham Chatterjee.
Ivellisse shares this honor with Soham Chatterjee, Global Associate Creative Director / Writer for WhatsApp and Creative X at Facebook. Other notable award winners this year include Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, Founders of Black Lives Matter, Don Lemon of CNN and Valeisha Butterfield Jones of The Recording Academy.
Rising Up and Reaching Back
Since 2007, ADCOLOR has honored individuals and companies that go above and beyond to make a difference in the creative and tech industries. As an entrepreneur and a creative, Ivellisse has embodied ADCOLOR’s values of "Rising Up and Reaching Back" all her life and especially now through the cultivation of bombilla and its ecosystem of diverse creatives, vendors & suppliers and systems-changing clients.
I’m rising up because people are lifting me up, and I’m reaching back because there’s an abundance of opportunities to share. Thanks to my community I’m #HereForIt.
We are a proudly AfroBoricua-led small business, shining bright from sunny Oakland, CA. We are based in xučyun (Huchiun), on unceded territory of the Lisjan Ohlone people.
We are a proudly AfroBoricua-led small business, shining bright from sunny Oakland, CA. We are based in xučyun (Huchiun), on unceded territory of the Lisjan Ohlone people.
We are a proudly AfroBoricua-led small business, shining bright from sunny Oakland, CA. We are based in xučyun (Huchiun), on unceded territory of the Lisjan Ohlone people.
We are a proudly AfroBoricua-led small business, shining bright from sunny Oakland, CA. We are based in xučyun (Huchiun), on unceded territory of the Lisjan Ohlone people.
