Scott Na‘auao, of Kāneʻohe, is the next guest speaker for CreativeMornings, a free monthly series that brings people together to talk about a common theme over a light breakfast. The topic of the upcoming event? Revival.
It is a theme that CreativeMornings attendees across the world will be talking about this month. The Honolulu chapter will start its event at 8 a.m. on Friday, May 30 at Salt at Our Kakaʻako.
The event is free. Na‘auao is a partner and creative director for Welcome Stranger, a Hawaiʻi-based branding and graphic design firm with three designers, which started in 2018. Welcome Stranger has worked with Moku Kitchen, Monkeypod Kitchen, Merriman’s, Kaimana Beach Hotel, Foodland, Sensei Farms, G70, Native Books, Kamehameha Schools and more, according to its website. At work, Naʻauao handles a lot of company rebrands, which are a form of revival, he said, but he plans to explore the theme in other ways too.
“I don't want this to be a talk about case studies of our work,” he told Aloha State Daily. “But I kind of want to talk a bit more about revival in other aspects, like for myself, personally, I see this re-emergence of Native Hawaiian culture. When I was a kid growing up, it wasn't very cool to be really into Hawaiian things. … I had a great childhood, but it was a very Western childhood. It wasn't really grounded in Native Hawaiian culture growing up.”
Naʻauao, who identifies with his Asian American, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian heritage, wants to change that for his son, Emmet, who is eight years old. He is taking ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi classes. Every week, he also goes to the neighborhood loʻi, or irrigated taro patch. Naʻauao and his wife, Liane, started taking their son there when he was four years old.
He is also taking on projects, such as the Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025: Aloha Nō, which just wrapped up.
“I'm really proud of the branding we did for it and the meaning and depth behind it,” he said. “But a lot of that came from where I was in my stage of life and getting re-immersed in the culture. That's a big part of what I want to talk about is just the revival of culture, in general.”
His revival started during the lockdowns.
“A lot of this started with Covid,” he said. “I will talk about this during the CreativeMornings talk but it was during the height of the lockdowns. ... We were just looking for an outdoor activity to do and going to the loʻi was our solution.”
It allowed their son to play in nature and get dirty, he said.
“I don't want him to just be cooped up in the house on a tablet,” Naʻauo said. “We started doing that, and we just kept going.”
A board and stone followed. So did lauhala weaving and learning to do canoe lashing, he said.
Naʻauo started his journey to graphic design in high school when he worked on creative projects, such as designing CD covers and screen printing t-shirts, as a hobby. At the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, he was a photography major who studied art and graphic design. He completed the graphic design program and was named its top student in 2006.
This month, chapters across the world from Cairo, Egypt to Omaha, Nebraska will be discussing revival. There are events in 249 cities and 70 countries, according to the CreativeMornings’ website.
“I think it's history,” he said. “It's keeping in mind — those before us and everything they've accomplished — and what we celebrate and how do we celebrate it, and what stories do you want to take into the future? It’s keeping in mind how we're passing along history.”
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
