Learn about our Armour alumni Noah Trevino in our first alumni spotlight! Follow along as Noah talks about his favorite Armour editorial, how Armour has impacted his life, and what he is up to now.
What was your favorite Armour editorial?
Season 23’s Visual Biographies featuring the tattoo artist Justine Cho.
Why was it your favorite?
Getting to work on an editorial around tattooing was so exciting to me. My previous Armour editorials had both been studio shoots (Men in Makeup from Season 22 and You Probably Hate Us, and Here’s Why from Season 21). Being out in the field doing some documentary photography is where I feel most at home as an artist, I think. Capturing the fleeting everyday excites me. However, I was also working to showcase another artist’s work and process which felt like a fun creative negotiation.
What was your role in this editorial and how was that process for you?
For this editorial I served as both director and photographer, with Kennedy Morganfield as the writer/interviewer during the shoot. This was by far my favorite for one huge reason: tattooing. If you’ve seen me, you know I’m no stranger to a tattoo gun. I had always wanted to take photos of a tattoo artist at work and when Mikki and Rachel reached out asking if I would direct a shoot around tattooing and find a local artist, we could feature I knew just the person I wanted to reach out to. It was a lot of work to plan and coordinate but it yielded some of the best documentary photographs I had taken in college, and it allowed us to feature a local female artist. It was a blast getting to work with Kennedy as well. Her words really helped pull the photographs together and tell such a great story.
What’s been your trajectory since graduating WashU?
After graduating in 2020 (RIP) I moved down to Texas to start working as a Visual Designer for IBM. It was a quick move, I graduated in May, moved down at the end of June, and started working mid-July. I was honestly just glad to have a job given the circumstances of the year.
What’s been your favorite part of job/what’s your job now?
I’m still at IBM and doing visual design. I started out on a product team but now I am working on a mostly internal-facing team doing a lot of support for some of our design executives and some of our larger initiatives. It’s a fun role and I’ve been learning a ton.
What projects/work are you most excited about right now?
For a while during Covid I stopped picking up my camera. Over the last year I have been making great strides to actually shoot again. I’ve found myself gravitating more towards film for some reason, I can’t quite explain why. At the end of the day it just feels good to have a camera in my hands again. I beat myself up about it for a while but I have realized that as an artist sometimes you need to step away and breathe/focus on other things. I was definitely feeling burnt out and uninspired for a minute there.
How has Armour influenced your job trajectory and your life today?
Honestly, Armour was a great place to learn how to work on a creative team. There were so many talented people I got to work with, and we all had our ideas and thoughts about direction, styling, etc. any time we would come together. Collaborating with my friends and making new ones along the way was always a lot of fun. It gave me a lot of confidence as a creative too.
What was the most valuable lesson that you learned while working at Armour?
I feel like I touched on that a bit above, learning how to collaborate and deliver quality content as a creative team was such a valuable skill, I didn’t even consider I was building at the time. It really showed me a glimpse at what the rest of my professional life would be like in some ways. I’m not saying it was 1:1 with my professional life by any means but there are parallels and similarities.
Any advice for current Armourites?
God this is so trite, but I’d have to say have fun. Armour is a great outlet for creativity outside of academics and can connect you with some very cool people on campus you might not have met otherwise. On top of that, there are so many resources I had at WashU and with Armour that I don’t have access to now (without dishing out some coin of course). I couldn’t tell you the last time I had access to a full-blown photography studio or a database of models, stylists, MUAs, and wardrobes. Even if it isn’t for an editorial keep collaborating and creating with those people alongside you and don’t take it for granted.
Featuring Noah Trevino
Armour Magazine Season 29 — F/S 2023
