BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — If you walk into any Target store, you might come across a Brooklyn Park resident's artwork in the tech section.
Ameen Taahir said his journey to become an artist started at a young age.
"My mom would tell you about 3 years old I was already picking up a pencil and drawing," Taahir said.
Taahir, who is not only an artist but also works for the communications department at the City of Brooklyn Park, said he kept that creative streak into his adulthood not out of obligation, but as a way of storytelling.
"I like using art to just express myself and express certain emotions," Taahir said. "And kind of work through that and also to be able to just tell a story, figure out how to tell my story."
Taahir's story struck a chord about a year ago with a local retail giant.
"Target — they reached out. They found a lot of my stuff on social media and my portfolio site," Taahir explained.
From there, the multimedia artist was given creative control to design for Target's "Heyday" line, a tech house brand. The story he told there was personal, with his designs featuring an emerald butterfly (his birthstone is the emerald), and the kind of visuals that uplift.
"I just thought about creating a piece where you know a younger me, a younger version of me, if they were to talk into any store, any Target, they could see themselves reflected," Taahir said. "Being a person that is super big on representation and sharing my story, and historically speaking there's been a lot of times where we don't see people who look like me in certain art spaces."
While Taahir has this national platform, he shared that he wanted to amplify a certain message.
"To be able to share your story, to be able to make those connections it helps us not feel so alone in whatever experience that we're going through," Taahir said. "So I want to continue to do that and I want other artists to continue to fully be themselves and step into their authenticity as much as they can."
You can find Ameen's work portfolio here.
You can find Ameen's Target collaboration here.
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