My name is Blake McLeod (they/them), I am the Creative Director and founder of CINIC Studio. To me, the act of making is medicine. It helps me process and understand my ongoing healing journey, while also sharing with others through expressive means. After working with other organizations and agencies and being burned one too many times, I needed somewhere that felt safe and limitless for me as a creator, and CINIC Studio was born. What was once a small operation has since grown into a larger production effort, other team members are brought on for projects when the budget allows.

I work in a variety of mediums in my own practice and with clients and collaborators. Connecting visuals, words, and concepts through drawing, writing and illustrating. Digital design of publications, creative texts, and promotional branding materials. Capturing expression, experience, light and composition through photography and videography. Producing images, words, and colours for clients and my own reflections with screen printing, zines, and prose. Storytelling is the centre of it all - sharing the experience and reaching a hand out to say “you’re not alone, I promise.”

With CINIC Studio, I weave together techniques, experiences, and learning to share with others. I value working with collaborators and clients that demonstrate a confident sense of ethics while being open to conversation and learning. I wish to demystify this professional creative realm as I make my way through it, in the hopes that it can create a safer path for those near and behind me. I ask questions in hopes of better understanding, I want to create a feeling of “you belong” because it wasn’t something I ever felt. I wish to gift the knowledge I wasn’t given in hopes of others feeling more confidence to create.