By Anabella Bergero, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Launch Lab
As a new semester begins, Creatives Minding Their Business returns with a new lineup of creative entrepreneurs working in illustration, animation, product development, brand partnerships, and the creator economy. As it enters a new semester, the series continues to expand the conversation around what it means to create, build, and lead within today’s evolving creative economy.
Although their practices span different disciplines and industries, this semester’s speakers share a powerful entrepreneurial drive and an ability to build worlds around creative ideas. Their careers take us from an illustrated universe rooted in emotion and self-discovery, to a physical device that brings animation beyond the screen, to a creator-led company that has turned one creator’s influence into multiple ventures, from brand partnerships and businesses to large-scale festivals.
These conversations matter more than ever. The creator economy is no longer an emerging niche. According to Forbes, the global creator economy reached $205 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $1.35 trillion by 2033. This growth reflects a broader transformation in the media and marketing landscape as creators increasingly move beyond content production to develop intellectual property, products, brands, experiences, and businesses.
Creatives Minding Their Business emerged at the intersection of creativity, entrepreneurship, and storytelling. The speaker series brings founders, artists, cultural leaders, and creators into conversation with the Ringling College community, offering students a firsthand view of what it means to build a creative life today.
Through our guests’ stories, students learn that success in the creative industries rarely follows a straight path. No single roadmap or final moment marks “made it.” What appears consistently, however, is an entrepreneurial spirit: the ability to solve problems, recognize opportunities, take thoughtful leaps of faith, and trust in the distinctive creative value one brings to the table.
This Fall 2026 lineup brings those qualities to life through three different but interconnected creative trajectories.
The series begins with Pepita Sandwich, a New York-based illustrator and visual artist trained at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. Rooted in a consistent Creative DNA, her career began with webcomics and drawings inspired by everyday life, emotions, relationships, and self-discovery. By building an international audience and using social media to share her distinctive visual language, Pepita has expanded her practice across books, exhibitions, products, courses, and brand collaborations. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Vogue, while her illustrated book The Art of Crying demonstrates how one deeply personal creative idea can grow into recognizable intellectual property and an entire world of creative offerings.
From building a world through illustration, the series moves to the intersection of animation, product development, and entrepreneurship with Ringling College alumna Victoria Lopez. An award-winning animator and educator, Lopez has worked on major AAA video games, including God of War, Call of Duty, Madden NFL, and Judas. After nearly a decade in digital production, she began asking a central question: What if animation could live beyond the screen? That question led her to create The Motion Box, a palm-sized analog animation player that brings 48 hand-drawn frames to life through mechanical motion. Selected as a Kickstarter “Project We Love,” the venture demonstrates how professional expertise, curiosity, and an appreciation for traditional craft can come together to create an original product, platform, and business opportunity. Her return to Ringling brings the journey full circle, showing students how classroom skills can evolve into both an international career and a creativity-driven enterprise of their own.
Ana Bolena Ortiz brings these ideas together from the perspective of strategy, infrastructure, and scale. An industrial engineer turned entrepreneur, Ortiz is the CEO and co-founder of Ranga Media, a creator-led holding company serving Latin American and United States Hispanic markets. Together with her brother and co-founder, Armando Ortiz, known as El Mindo and recognized by Forbes Colombia as one of its Top Creators of 2025, she transformed an emerging personal brand into a broader business ecosystem. Under her leadership, Ranga Media has developed more than 200 brand partnerships, collaborated with companies including Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike, and Disney, and expanded across talent management, brand strategy, creator-owned businesses, and proprietary events. Her trajectory shows what must happen behind the scenes for creative influence to become a sustainable enterprise: building the systems, partnerships, teams, and revenue models that carry a creative vision forward.
Mark your calendars
Pepita Sandwich
From Creative DNA to the Business of Art: How to Build a World Around Your Work
https://www.pepitasandwich.com
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
11:30 am–12:30 pm
Room 218
Victoria Lopez
Beyond the Screen: Turning Creative Craft into a Venture
https://www.instagram.com/lopiart
https://launch.themotionbox.art/
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
11:30 am–12:30 pm
Room 218
Ana Bolena Ortiz
From Personal Brand to World Building: The El Mindo Case Study
Tuesday, November 10, 2026
11:30 am–12:30 pm
Room 218
