About Me

Hi I’m Nolan - Nolan Schweitzer. I began my creative journey around the age of 14 when my buddy and I discovered the power of compiling snowboarding video clips together in iMovie. Story telling has always been a creative outlet of mine. Whether that had been through drawing, writing, origami, Legos, you name it, I loved it. Although my parents always though I would become an engineer with my outside-the-box thinking, 14 year old me had something else in mind with this newfound passion that would last a lifetime.

Since that very first day of picking that camera up, I knew this was what I wanted to do forever. Beginning with a GoPro, I quickly began to understand the endless possibilities of this career path. From slow motion video, to burst mode, to different lens-types, etc. the rabbit hole of fascination sucked me right in. As I grew, so did the gear and connections.

I soon found myself in High School filming Football and Basketball Games for our broadcasting program, placing in short-film competitions, and recapping events such as our annual Spirit Week. As my knowledge grew, so did my love for story telling through imagery.

I attended Temple University beginning in the Film program. My passion for photography became more prominent through street and architecture work in Center City. Being able to capture little moments in time, and beautiful designs of buildings from way back in history was something my heart began to gravitate towards. I would take little trips to the city by myself just to shoot anything and everything that would catch my attention. I consistently posted on Instagram, where I noticed a community of friendly photographers in a similar boat as me.

After creating a few short films at Temple and a documentary that would go on to be nominated in a few nationwide competitions, the abrupt disruption of COVID sparked a career pivot for me. Being locked indoors and all projects being virtual, the learning possibilities within the film space were quite limited and I needed to capitalize on a new opportunity. This is where I discovered the creative outlet of advertising.

Learning about consumer mindsets and design, all while growing my skillset of photography outside the classroom, truly went hand in hand. My knowledge about the industry grew rapidly, and I soon found myself reaching out to a hospitality company down in New Jersey for a summer internship. I could finally put it all together!

Working in restaurants and hotels for the summer completely flipped my perspective towards the possibilities of photography. Working on sets with video production teams, taking images of food, spaces, people, etc., alongside scheduling, copywriting, collaborating with team members on projects was an overwhelmingly exciting space that began to feel like home. This led to my post-graduation decision to rejoin the company as a full-time social media manager/content creator.

Throughout my time with ICONA (the hospitality company), my skillset and knowledge continues to expand every single day. Whether that be through designing ads for Magazines/Newspapers, giving feedback on agencies’ decisions, working with actors, scheduling shoots, acquiring and learning new equipment, shooting both photo and video in one session, etc. But the true beauty of the commercial space falls into the fact that photographing and filming content is more than just clicking a button. It is the encapsulation of a full story that will be felt by a viewer. Photos and videos portray emotion, freeze time, and allow for any idea to be brought to life.

As this creative journey persists, I hope to collaborate with new brands as I grew to help tell their story. How can I provide others with assets that will encapsulate their internal vision. That is where the tagline “Bringing the ordinary to life” originated. To some, a brand is just a logo and the product or service that comes along with it. But to me, a brand is the feelings beneath that surface. What colors, lighting, focal length, locations, would they traditionally use? But most of all STORY are they trying to portray to the consumer?

This just brushes the surface of who I am, because the most important thing to me is who YOU are? What story are YOU trying to tell? Lucky for you that “Contact” button is all you need to open the doors of endless possibilities.