I’m Kyle Garcia, an art director from Chicago, now based in New York. I build brand worlds. That means finding the visual language, tone, and point of view that make a brand feel like itself, then keeping it consistent everywhere it shows up. I’m a little obsessed with how things get made, and I’m usually within reach of a record crate or some half-fixed piece of vintage audio gear.

For more than a decade I’ve worked where music, fashion, and culture run into each other. Early on, that meant working across tours, creative, and marketing with the Grammy-winning team behind Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book. I helped create RapperRadio, a first-of-its-kind platform that let artists use Twitter to mobilize fans and push a record, the engine behind “No Problem,” which went on to win a Grammy for Best Rap Performance. It was my first taste of building something that didn’t exist yet and watching it move culture in real time.

I then moved to New York, first joining Payday as a Creative Director, where I helped relaunch the storied label with DJ Premier-led singles. From there I moved to Ultra Music, under Sony, in Creative Direction and Special Projects, running projects for global artists like MK, Dom Dolla, Austin Millz, and Smoko Ono.

Around this time I built something of my own: OHBOY, the Brooklyn brand and restaurant I created from scratch. I handled all of it, the logo, the interior, the feel of the room, and the campaigns that pushed its first year past $2 million, earned global impressions, and landed it on The Drew Barrymore Show. It was never really just a restaurant. It was a spot people wanted to belong to, and proof I could build a brand people believe in on my own.

Then came Roc Nation, where I became the company’s first-ever Multimedia Art Director. I built the department from nothing and grew the team from one person to six in a single year. I was also responsible for the Roc Nation brand itself, creating and curating all of the content across our social and channels. I lead campaign and content rollouts for artists across the roster, including A$AP Rocky, Lil Uzi Vert, J Balvin, Momo Boyd, and Infinity Song, with work that spans building and creating for brands like Megan Thee Stallion’s Chicas Divertidas, the Super Bowl, FIFA, Fanatics, and Ray-Ban. Along the way I’ve directed music videos for artists like Diljit Dosanjh and Roc Marciano, among others.

One of the defining moments was the JAY-Z “30” rollout, a campaign marking three decades of the company founder’s catalog. Getting to help shape a moment of that scale and cultural weight, for JAY-Z himself, was a rare kind of trust, and a reminder of what this work can be at its highest level.

I also created and led The Interns, Roc Nation’s first-ever original YouTube series. Building it from an idea into real, running programming, the company’s first, is some of the work I’m proudest of. It’s the part of the job I love most: taking something that doesn’t exist yet and getting it off the ground.

My eye for fashion runs through it too. With Classic Football Shirts, a brand built on vintage and archive pieces and the culture of collecting, I helped facilitate and activate brand partnerships around the World Cup and the kits and products of Adidas and Nike, including a historic 30-day collaboration with the Empire State Building that doubled as a museum, curating game-worn shirts from past World Cups. A lot happens off-screen as well, directing large-scale content and experiential activations at Art Basel, Winter Music Conference, and Lollapalooza. Ten years deep in New York’s subcultures has given me a network that actually gets things made. For me, access is execution.

Underneath all of it is a simple belief: what actually holds a project together is human connection. The best brands aren’t just seen, they’re felt, and they’re built by people who care about every detail and every person in the room. That’s how I work. I make room for other voices, keep the work honest, and build things meant to last.