Who the hell is Kokie Padilla?

Get to know some of the brilliant minds behind our work. We’re chatting with members of the DixonBaxi studio about what makes them who they are. From the professional to the personal, nothing is off limits here. Introducing: Kokie, our content creator who loves bison and wants to own a racing pig called Mayham.‍

Who are you and what do you do?
Hello, reader. As the title suggests I am in fact Kokie Padilla, and I’m working at DixonBaxi as a content creator.

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What’s your story?
I’m a Mexican-American from the Bay Area in California! Growing up, I wanted to be a lot of things: first I wanted to be an archeologist, then a ninja (having watched many episodes of Samurai Jack). And then I started hanging around my older siblings and their friends who started showing me movies, music and TV that were probably a bit too mature for me at the time. There were these skate videos on a temporary service that MTV rolled out around the early days of YouTube, where you could just watch archived music videos. I spent vast hours of my summers watching them.

Looking back, I think that this exposure from an early age turned me into a sponge and an observer. I still feel like that mindset carries over into how I work now. I'm not a super confrontational person in how I take photos or shoot video. I prefer to capture the candid moments in between.

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Fast forward – that curiosity has allowed me to create something of a career for myself. I started out by designing T-shirts, then I moved into BTS photography, then music video direction. This brings us to the present, to this very sentence you’re reading as part of the content for DixonBaxi.

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What are you working on right now?
DixonBaxi just had its annual company trip to Copenhagen, so I’m working on the trip film. I’m gathering everyone's content into one film that celebrates the brief time that we spent together!

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"There's this gut feeling that I think we all experience from time to time, whether it’s after a good meal, movie, chat, or design sprint. Anything that gives you that tingly feeling inside, that's good design."

Describe your working style in 3 words.
Sensitive, curious, focused.

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Tell us about some of your interests. What are you into?
Big on cooking – I can whip up a mean salad! Exercise to keep the ol’ mental health in check. Playing newly discovered music loudly on the hi-fi. London is the best city for gigs, so I try to go see as many shows as I can. Last but not least, love love catching up on films and TV on the weekends!

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Do you think design can change the world? How?
Of course. Everything we interact with has been designed with the user in mind. It's intrinsic.

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If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
Eating anything involving toasted bagels should be considered healthy.

What’s the last song you listened to?
New Cleo Sol just dropped, so I always have to pay my respects to the queen. <3

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Why do you do what you do? What motivates you?
Hmm, big question. I guess that I recognise that I’m in a fortunate position to be able to make a living doing what I love, and I want to show the other boys and girls that look like me or come from similar backgrounds that they can do it too. You just have to trust yourself and your ideas, because sooner or later someone will see you and validate what you’re doing. Gotta let that inner child live on!

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What’s your definition of good design?
There's this gut feeling that I think we all experience from time to time, whether it’s after a good meal, movie, chat, or design sprint. Anything that gives you that tingly feeling inside, that's good design.