In This Together

Julian Gilliam was born in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Chicago in search of greater opportunities for himself and his community. After playing Division I basketball, he graduated from Columbia College with a degree in animation, film and video.

Working in the advertising industry, Julian created an intra-agency platform at Leo Burnett called Naomi to bring a more authentic voice to discussion of “culture” in the advertising space. He was scouted to join Google as a creative director and was an early adopter of NFTs and web3 technology. His tech background and unique voice earned him a robust following on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces; he uses the platforms to onboard members of his community, especially Black and brown creatives who have been excluded from traditional creative power structures.

His “The Plug” NFT sold out all 888 units within the first two hours of its public mint, and solidified his status as a web3 creator. His focus now is on educating others so that the gatekeeping of web2 no longer hinders success in the web3 space. As part of extending education to under-served demographics, he co-founded and supports a non-profit online Japanese language school called Chiba Center for the global Black and brown community of creatives to open access to the world’s third-largest economy.

One edition has been reserved by the artist.