Akisia Grigsby is the founder and CEO of Atomic Designs Inc., a creative consulting firm founded to deliver creative concepts and design services to companies in the fashion, entertainment and business/non-profit and political campaigns. Ms. Grigsby has a proven 15 year tract record, serving as creative director of Sean John clothing and Bad Boy Entertainment, amongst others. Answering directly to the companies' founder, Sean "Diddy" Combs, she not only oversaw the brand imaging and advertising of the Sean John clothing line, she was also responsible for the public personas of all Bad Boy musical artists, which included everything from connecting the artists with the best stylists and beauty artists to spearheading the ad campaigns and designing the music packaging.
Grigsby is a self-starter that showed artistic promise when she began painting at the age of 3 and learned about responsibility not long after, having been made manager of one of her mother's three beauty salons and its 10 employees while still in high school. A professional model from ages 14-17, the ambitious Grigsby also worked in retail shops and as a hostess at major clubs in New York City. Grigsby left the glamorous world of modeling to follow her true passion in the arts and entered the Parsons School of Design full-time, taking only night classes so that she could work in the graphic design field during the day. After achieving a BFA in Communications Design, Grigsby was singled out from her program and invited to attend a marketing class at the prestigious Columbia University Business school, where her team of marketing students and product designer won a competition to create, market and advertise a product for Hermes. Not only did her team win the competition, Hermes Board of Directors flew in to the U.S to negotiate the purchase of the product.
Before landing at Sean John and Bad Boy, Ms. Grigsby held the title of Senior Art Director at Island Def Jam Music Group, where she developed the images of such superstars as Kanye West, Musiq Soulchild, DMX and The Diplomats. Prior to Def Jam, Grigsby was an art director/ graphic designer at such diverse companies as Columbia House, Phatfarm / Babyphat, Motown Records and Weinstein CSI, where her clients included Women's Wear Daily (WWD), Vanity Fair, Capistrano, L.S. Grand Traditions Diamonds and The Fashion Center. Gifted with an unending supply of talent, ideas and energy, Grigsby even found time to launch and act as both President and Creative Director of Atomic Designs Inc., a creative consulting firm whose clients include Translation Consulting and Brand Imaging, Akademiks, various NFL and NBA players, Roc-A-Fella Records, Def Jam University, Geffen Records, Interscope Records, Varnier Champagne, Cash Money Records and Caribbean Spice, among others.
With an impressive and eclectic background leading the creative direction of industry leading brands like Sean John clothing, Bad Boy Entertainment and Island Def Jam Music Group, Akisia Grigsby is uniquely suited to lead the creative vision of Atomic Designs Inc. The company currently is working on the brand imaging and advertising for LA Stars, Athelia Gibson Foundation and Senator Barack Obama Presidential Campaign, while simultaneously, in the process of launching an environmentally friendly product line; t-shirts being the first product. However, it does not stop here for Ms. Grigsby. She is co-writing a book, The Travel Hairdo Survival Handbook. Atomic Designs Inc.'s portfolio ranges from music album packaging, logo and brand development, advertising, clothing design, direct mail, editorial design, websites, retouching, art direction of photoshoots and product packaging.
Grigsby, who sat on the board of directors of the Upliftment Charity Foundation, still considers being a role model to independent and struggling Latinas a duty she embraces. The native New Yorker and an active environmentalist, who believes in preservation, resides in a surrounding city with her son.
