David DaCosta – Palomita

David DaCosta

David is a Brand Accelerator, Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. He helps brands come to life through visual storytelling. David is a loving and cool (although he begs to differ) dad of two kids, Olive and Leo, and husband to wife Kelly. You can find all of the awesome things that he's up to here: therealdacosta.com including his book Jokey Jokes: A Collection of Illustrated Dad Jokes.

Q: How has becoming a dad impacted your creativity? 
A: Becoming a dad has forced be to be a bit more efficient with my creative time…things get so busy with the family, so I have to pick and chose times to work on projects…and have to be a bit more efficient with the discovery phase of projects. 

I’ve been really inspired by my kids and what it means to be a parent. I only post pictures of them on my IG because I’m fascinated by the idea of capturing these fleeting moments as they grow up. 
Additionally, in my actual design work, I’ve come to the realization that I’m not cool and I really just enjoy making cute funny stuff that resonates with my kids. It didn’t make sense to me before I was a parent but it feels right now. My daughter inspired me to make a book of illustrated Dad Jokes…which I wouldn’t have thought to do before I became a dad.
 
Q: What is your first memory as a kid?
A: I remember getting in trouble for fooling around in church. Everything Is super funny when you’re supposed to be serious and quiet…so me, my sister, and cousins would often get pinched or glared at when we were supposed to be quiet and listening.
I also remember drawing all the time. My mom would bring home stationery from her job to use for drawing paper. All my drawings of basketball and baseball stars would have a watermark of The New York Department of Labor
 
Q: Is your parenting style similar to how you were raised, drastically different, or somewhere in between? 
 A: My parenting style is sort of a mix of different and the same.
I grew up in a very family oriented, loving home. My family are all really affectionate and joyful. I love seeing that in my kids. My wife and I try to continue that spirit in our home.
On the flip side, my family was also very fearful. It might be the immigrant mentality or also the fact that my father passed away when I was very young. There has always been this idea of protecting each other from injury or even the unknown. I’m trying to make sure myself and my kids have a less fearful mentality so that we don’t shy away from the unknown or new experiences.

 Q: What’s an ideal day with your kiddos? 
 A: The ideal day would hopefully start after 6:45 am. Olive and Leo would eat all of their breakfast and then we’d listen to some music and either have a crazy dance party or work on some sort of creative project. We love going to a drive-on beach on the Oregon Coast. I love seeing the kids run and be free….additionally the lighting on the Oregon coast is magic, so I’d get some great pictures of them running and playing or sitting in the tall grass.

Q: Something you wish you heard more of as a kid?
A: I wish I heard that it was okay to fail. Growing up failure was made to seem embarrassing, but now people are realizing that there are great lessons in failure. The most important thing is to grow from a failure and continue your progress no matter how quickly or slowly. Just keep going.

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