Meet Alicia von der Lieth

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia von der Lieth.

Hi Alicia, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I was born & raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was always a lover of music, especially classic rock (which I was lucky to be raised on) and modern rock n roll/alternative. My mother would take my sister and me on trips to the coast, Big Sur, the city, the small towns, and all around when we were young. This I think started my love of location scouting, exploring your own backyard, and being enamored with finding really cool places to take pictures.

I became interested in photography at age 15 when my mom gave me her old Canon Ae-1 camera and took film photography classes at my high school. The next year I was determined to become a concert photographer, so I dove deep into that world and photographed concerts from age 16-22. When I was 15/16 I started to research communities online of concert photographers and read blogs on how they started, etc. That gave me the reassurance I could do it too and I just started asking every concert, small or big, if I could have a photo pass. It worked, haha.

I asked my high school photo teacher if I could borrow his Canon Rebel to start photographing concerts, and thankfully he was okay with it! (I would still bring my film camera though and sometimes shoot with it too!) Honestly, there weren’t many students in the class that were serious about photos like I was and I used to take lunch to develop film, was a total photo nerd. I still keep in contact with my photo teacher to this day.

There was a music magazine I loved to read that was holding a photo contest. I entered and won! My prize was to be published, paid, and on their roster of photographers for local concerts. Thus began my next 7 years of photographing concerts and conducting interviews with musicians. I was the only girl photographer in almost every photo pit I was in. Everyone else was 15+ years my senior. When I was 18 I went on tour with a band and documented them. That was such a cool experience to fully be immersed in their world. I’d do it again tomorrow in a heartbeat!

Once I got to college, the Academy of Art in San Francisco, that concert photographer dream was broken. (Although I still photographed concerts for 3 years while still in college despite them telling me to find a better way to make money). My teachers and I knew I’d never make a living doing that, so I started my focus on fashion and advertising photography. I took a few fashion styling courses and 5 years of art history to help educate myself about what I wanted to do next.

I was shooting 3-4 editorial style shoots a week, styling them, finding models & hair and & MUAs, location scouting, and editing the photos, all while having a job, other classes & an internship. I hustled through college & sat in traffic for probably half of my life for the next 5 years straight and got my BFA in Advertising Photography. I’d do that again in a heartbeat (except for the traffic, nothing is worse than CA traffic haha).

After college, I worked retail & restaurant jobs because I couldn’t find a creative job to save my life. I had one that ended up being extremely toxic and abusive and from there I decided I’ll make my own job. I got my business license in 2014. I then convinced the restaurant I was at to hire me to do food photos and social media for them while I still hosted & waited tables for them – they took some convincing and finally agreed. Not long after that I found a job working remotely for a digital marketing agency based in LA. A lot of their clients were restaurants so for the next 2 years I was deep into food photography and styling, as well as running the restaurant’s social media accounts.

During all that time, from age 15 on, I was GLUED to my computer and photoshop making graphics, layouts, designing message forums, banners, avatars, business cards, and anything I could think of… I even tried to start my own magazine. It got to the point where I was teaching myself HTML coding all hours of the night in high school and would get in trouble for being on the computer so much.

I was so into graphic design I loved it but at the time, that wasn’t a major in college so I didn’t pursue it and went to photography instead. I’d been doing branding for so many years before I actually knew it was called branding. I didn’t really pursue ‘branding’ and graphic design seriously until the last 3 or so years ago.

I stayed there for 2 years and then took the leap to work 100% for myself. That was July 2019. My high school dreams of moving to Nashville finally came true in July 2020. Today my business Whiskey South Design Co. specializes in Branding, Web Design, Merch Design, and Product & Food Photography.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not at all. I wouldn’t call them “struggles” per se but to put it bluntly, I worked my ass off every year straight and still do. Since the age of 15, I have never stopped working, networking, educating, or evolving myself. I am a constant piece of work that is always ever-changing and growing. I think a lot of artists & creative people are that way. If I had to pinpoint one struggle, that would be finding a job. I tried for YEARS to even get a call back for a 9-5 job either being a photo editor or on-staff photographer or ANYTHING, even a receptionist’s position they wanted 5-7 years experience. That was when I realized I need to do this myself, I can’t just keep looking for the easy way out and getting a 9-5 and working my way up the ladder. All my life I was told that’s what you need to do (much like so many other people my age).

I think just even wrapping your head around the fact that this is going to be a really hard road and you need to make your own job, your own business, your own rules and to teach yourself all of that without help. How to figure out taxes, payroll, permits, invoicing, contracts, marketing, advertising, networking, etc. It’s a lot. I don’t recommend anyone to start a business unless you are 10000% committed to yourself, and your business and you won’t ever stop.

You have to want it more than anything else and it’s gotta set your soul on fire. If it doesn’t, you will fail.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As someone who has been doing photography consistently for the last 17 years, I have bounced around from concerts to fashion to travel to food and now to product photography. I specialize in food, product, and concert photography. I love to play with color, and texture. motion and creating moments that both entice your eye but also are aesthetically pleasing to look at. Kind of like a mixture of fine art (with all the color and editing techniques I do) and advertising (good even exposures, technical lighting, clean subjects of focus).

Most people when they see my work they are drawn to the colors and the mix of prop styling with whatever the subject is. It’s fun and funky.

With the branding and web design, because it was something I did in conjunction with my photography, it just feels so natural to offer all 3 to clients. It all goes hand in hand and is equally vital to every single business. If one piece is missing – your story is missing.

I’d say what sets me apart from others is that I truly, truly, truly live and breathe what I do and have been doing since I was 15 until now. For 17 years I haven’t stopped and won’t stop. I put myself in my client’s shoes. I treat them how I want to be treated. I have many clients praise me for how fast I turn their projects around and for how I gave them extra goodies. I don’t waste any time in my days. I am always doing something for the business or myself that will help the business later. I genuinely and completely love what I do.

Along those same lines, that is what I am most proud of. I don’t want it to come across as being egocentric, but honestly running a business is a lot of work. It’s a daily thing. It ends and begins with you. I’m proud that I didn’t give up. That I didn’t just take a 9-5 or stay with another company. I’m proud that when I was 15 years old sitting in my room reading music magazines, I said to myself out loud “I can do that. I’m gonna do that.” and I did. I believe you can literally do whatever the hell you want to do, you just have to be brave enough to give it everything you have.

I’m proud of 15-year-old Alicia for trying her hardest, working super late nights, hustling her ass off, networking every chance she got, and taking that first chance.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up I was always very shy and loved doing anything crafty.

I loved clipping things from magazines, drawing, painting, and anything artsy. I was a tomboy who was into dinosaurs instead of dolls. I was bullied in elementary and middle school which really was a hard time for me. I tried SO hard to fit in but now with my art and business I try everything I can to stand out and not fit in or be like anyone else.

Contact Info:

• Website: whiskeysouthdesignco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whiskeysouthdesignco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whiskeysouthdesignco
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@aliciavonderlieth