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Instagram-Worthy Spots near Paddington Arts By: Lauren Avila

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The Notting Hill Carnival, which is the largest street festival in Europe, will take place in August. With it, plenty of visitors from around the world will flood the area from near our location at Paddington Arts through Notting Hill. The festival is a boisterous event filled with music and local talent. However, throughout the area there is plenty to see. Whether you are coming for the festival or just visiting London, here are some wonderful places to visit to capture the pleasant aesthetics and adorable locals that will impress your social media followers.

Beginning with nearby Paddington Station, a railway and tube station. For Paddington Bear lovers, this is the very location where the fictional character first arrives in London. As such, there are a few tributes that you can take pictures of (and with), including a few statues, a bench, and a store. Paddington Bear can also be found in several other locations throughout London, including other statues and a mural. There are also locations nearby that were used for the  Paddington films such as Alice’s shop that stands in for Gruber’s Antiques. 

While on the subject of movies that we love, there is also nearby Notting Hill. There are photo spots for the Blue Door and The Travel Bookshop from the movie. Additionally, there are the Colorful Houses of Notting Hill that will sure to be your new favorite profile picture. They sit just off of Portobello Road which hosts a huge market that provides many photo opportunities. Though be sure to avoid taking pictures of merchandise. Vendor hosts often prefer that you do not photograph their supply. Still, with wall art throughout the market, the hustle and bustle of the people, and the general atmosphere, it’s a photographer’s paradise. 

Looking for some place calmer than a train station or a market? Look no further than Paddington Recreation Ground. It is a 27 acre park space that has a gym, running track, pitches for multiple sports, tennis courts, and a cafe. Located inside the park is a playground featuring miniature houses that are meant to replicate colorful houses in the area. This serves as a perfect cheat to capture the look within a scale that is easy to frame. 

Take a walk down to Little Venice which as the name implies has a similar ambience to Venice, Italy with its canal and little boats (as seen above). This area is a junction between Grand Union Canal and Regents Canal, with a nearby bridge close to Paddington Arts. It is a beautiful hidden gem that is a moving postcard to behold. Fun Fact: this area was also used for a scene in Paddington 2. 

Finally, there’s Paddington Arts itself. It is a beautiful building easily accessible by tube or bus, and offers opportunities for the community to engage in art forms. It is a colorful, three-level building that offers a welcoming environment. It is also a stone’s throw away from the real Windsor Gardens (not seen in the films) that Paddington Bear lives at with the Brown Family. 

Be sure to come visit the Paddington and Notting Hill area soon!

 

Staying Grounded in a Digital World: An Interview with Freelance Social Media Manager Karina Saniuk

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By George Clyde

Since the introduction of social media in the early 2000s, we all have had to learn how to balance two separate worlds, the one on our phone screens and the one we exist in physically. It isn’t possible today to be a member of society and ignore one or the other. Every person, every company, every city exists here on earth but also in an online reality where a flawless self-image must be presented and maintained for the world to see. That’s where Karina Saniuk comes in, a freelance social media manager who works here at Paddington Arts. Her role is to help people achieve online perfection, perfection that can only exist in the glittering realm of social media. 

Karina didn’t have a degree in marketing, communications, or photography. In fact she had little to no experience with any of those things. She was taking a gap year before college and working as a waitress, when she got an opportunity to help a company out with social media. She loved the creativity involved in the work, and slowly but surely that job turned into more and more opportunities. “If I saw a company that needed help with their social media, I would reach out to them. If they ignored me, they ignored me. If they didn’t, they didn’t,” Karina said of her early days in this line of work. 

Initially she looked to other social media pages in hopes of emulating their formula, but what she soon realized as she got behind the scenes is that everybody is still figuring out how social media works. “I thought that successful marketers and social media managers had a way of doing it, and because they do it that way, they’re successful,” she said. “But I’ve soon come to realize that no one knows what they’re doing.”

In just a few years she’s learned how to edit, film, photograph, and work with companies to craft something that represents their values while also broadening their audience. 

Karina taking videos of a concert for social media

This kind of persistent, try-everything attitude is what’s gotten Karina this far. But what you wouldn’t know from her social media posts is that she does deal with a lot of anxiety and feelings of inadequacy. Even for Karina, who’s career is built around social media, it sometimes can become too much.  “I think, to be, like, on a real and be vulnerable, I have been struggling with my mental health in terms of social media recently. And, it’s, especially when you have pressure to do a certain job on a certain project, and then you look online and you see people doing really well, and, it does, it’s, I’m not going to swear. It basically messes you up.” 

“I shouldn’t be in this room right now,” she remembered thinking early on. “I’m not qualified enough.” What Karina’s learned to do though is embrace that anxiety. “When I don’t feel like that, that’s when I’m not growing,” she told me. “So sometimes the anxiety, in a healthy dose, it’s an indication that this is way out of my comfort zone and I just need to keep pushing.” 

In between her work, Karina looks for ways to ground herself back to the real world. Whether that be taking nature walks, which she does routinely, or just simply turning off her phone and reminding herself that “You don’t work for the UN. The world is not going to die if you dont post or something doesn’t go out.” 

As well as keeping her own mental health under control, Karina has also had to learn how to guide other people through their anxieties about putting themselves and their work out in front of so many strangers on social media. She describes herself as often having to play the roles of “coach” and “cheerleader” for people who are nervous about presenting themselves online. 

“I can give you an example, Paddington Arts, the team was really shy. They didn’t want to be in posts at the very, very start. Wasn’t that right Steve?,” Karina asked playfully, turning to Steve Shaw, the team’s director. “And now I’ve got Steve on an interview. It’s a combination of gaining trust from the company as well.”

Karina talking to co-workers at Paddington Arts

At the end of the day all of the anxiety and eventual satisfaction that Karina deals with in the real world is what you don’t see when the final glimmering product goes up on social media, but it’s the part that makes it all worth it. “One of the most rewarding things is working for a more personal company like Paddington Arts and actually seeing your work do well,” said Karina when I asked her what gives her the most satisfaction. “Even like little moments when I talk to the kids about how to be safe online, that’s quite rewarding. And also seeing that my work for a charity has made an impact that always makes a difference.”

A Digital Career in the Digital Age: Q&A with Karina Saniuk

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Thumbnail Credit: Karina Saniuk

By Carissa Leong, intern

As the world became increasingly digital through the 2020s, as did its careers. An example lay in the music industry; the shift from physical formats to streaming led to a scramble to figure out how artists would be compensated for their work with people no longer paying for specific music but rather a subscription-based service that encompassed all music. The gatekeeping by record labels to nurture a brand and market became less vital, as it became easy and accessible to market independent artists through viral platforms like TikTok.

In addition to the music industry, this change resonated with many other sectors. Advertising became easier and more accessible–you could do it as long as you had a screen and wifi connection–but the pool of competitors drastically increased. This form of marketing became so necessary for companies to stay afloat that new, media-oriented job positions emerged. With the influx in hybrid and remote working environments post-COVID pandemic and the accessibility of the Internet from almost anywhere, the social media manager is among some of the most flexible to date, though still quite challenging to sustain oneself on.

Paddington Arts’ own Karina Saniuk, freelance social media manager, most recently kept up with her work from abroad during a three-month trip through Central America. Well-seasoned in the industry, Paddington Arts was only one of the clients that she worked with, all spanning various different sectors. I had the opportunity to communicate with her through email to shed some light on the realistic details of the job and the accessibility of it as a marketing career path for youths in-tune with social media.

Carissa Leong (CL): How do you stay on top of the rapidly shifting digital landscape?

Karina Saniuk (KS): I read many articles and follow industry experts.  Some of my favourite are Later, Hubspot, Social Media Today. Also since I manage between 4-10 accounts at a time I’m able to sense shifts naturally throughout all accounts, whether it’s dependent on niche or just an overall change. However, to understand the digital landscape is to understand the psychology of the mind and today’s society too as the rapidly changing world we live in today shapes how we interact with certain topics and social media.

CL: Do you have a favorite sector to work with and why?

KS: I’m particularly drawn to both the charity and food sectors. The charity sector offers a sense of fulfillment, knowing that I’m contributing to something impactful. On the other hand, the food sector allows me to unleash my creativity and experiment, especially when I can showcase more editing techniques with videos.

CL: What was your career trajectory?

KS: I opted out of studying History at The University of Nottingham to explore different paths. With a background in hospitality since the age of 16, I juggled work alongside various courses while nurturing a desire to travel. Shortly after leaving sixth form, I stumbled upon an opportunity to manage a social media account which later evolved into a paid position.

Amidst the pandemic, I launched my own Instagram account, leveraging it to showcase my services to small businesses, particularly supporting women entrepreneurs without charge to hone my skills.

Slowly, people started reaching out to me about my services and I only improved from there. Adaptability has been key; as social media continuously evolves, so must my skills. For example, when I first started working in social media, photos were still very much in, reels did not exist, neither did Tiktok.

Credit: Karina Saniuk

CL: What’s the most difficult and most rewarding aspect of freelancing?

KS: The inconsistency that can come with it is the most difficult. Specifically when you lose one of your biggest clients, it is especially a financial stress but it has helped me to become resilient and cultivate a positive mentality. It also has helped me to work with what I have and roll with it.

The most rewarding thing is seeing your work do well knowing full well that you were the one who did that. Also working in small teams is so fun and you get to meet so many people from different walks of life. Being a young woman in her early twenties, it’s nice connecting with different people and seeing the possibilities that are out there.

CL: What campaign are you the most proud of?

KS: In terms of metrics, one of my TikTok campaigns reached an impressive 1.5 million viewers with just a single video. This campaign, featuring myself, was organised for a startup company last summer. While I find satisfaction in various projects, I take particular pride in endeavours benefiting Paddington Arts. The ability to inspire positivity within a community is far more gratifying than merely encouraging users to buy something they don’t need.

Credit: Karina Saniuk

CL: What would be the most helpful tip that you would give someone who might also be interested in this area?

KS: The most valuable advice I can offer to anyone interested in this field is to proactively create opportunities for yourself. During times when I didn’t have clients, I invested my energy into crafting content for fictional accounts and actively engaged in conversations about social media. I lived and breathed social media for the first few years. 

Start by establishing your own presence on social media, focusing on topics you’re passionate about, and don’t be deterred by others’ opinions. Taking initiative is key; don’t hesitate to reach out to companies and offer your services. Remember, even if they decline, it’s simply a redirection that can serve as motivation to improve.