Owen Essen

Entrepreneur

Designer

Storyteller

Owen Essen

Entrepreneur

Designer

Storyteller

About

My name’s Owen Essen and I like creating things. All kind of things. Websites, books, movies, art. To me the medium is secondary. The medium serves the vision. You learn the tools you need to serve the vision, but it has to start with what you want to create, with the new fragment you set out to add to the world.

The process of being creative, as well as being sufficiently organized and disciplined to carry that initial seed through to it’s best possible fruition, holds true regardless of medium. Working on art and working on websites are more similar than many people realize. (Websites can be art.) Similarly, many principles of storytelling hold true whether presented on the screen or in the written word.

I explore different mediums because I believe what I learn from one makes me better at the other. I’m a better web developer because of what I’ve learned about art and creativity and I’m a better artist because of what I’ve learned in the tech world.

I grew up living off the grid in the mountains of rural Colorado as well as in the Southern college town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The two were very different, but I loved them both. People in rural Colorado are very independent. They build their own houses, produce their own electricity, and lead lives according to their own values. Life happens at a different pace. It is an easy place to be spiritual.

Chapel Hill, together with Durham and Raleigh forms The Triangle, North Carolina’s mecca for academia and culture. There you find yourself surrounded by brilliant people of different disciplines.

I studied Film and Television at The Savannah College of Art and Design and later did a web development program at UNC Chapel Hill. To learn about what I’m up to now check out the rest of my site.

 

 

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