Cole McLester is a videographer and artist based in the Portland, Oregon area.
Throughout his life, he has gravitated towards visual storytelling—after exploring many media, he committed himself to his long love of art. As he has held a variety of internships and jobs in video production, he holds a multifaceted and diverse skillset, but primarily works in videography.
Cole's videography is naturally infused with his deep-rooted artistic sensibilities. No matter the subject matter, he seeks innovative ways to interpret video and other methods of visual storytelling. His work is often atmospheric and reflects Cole's background in graphic design and video editing, as well as his deep knowledge and love of the camera as an artistic tool.
He enjoys the creative freedom and challenges that video provides as well as its ability to adapt to clients' needs, identities, and goals. He believes video has a unique and powerful potential to create unique forms of expression and authentically convey stories.
Much of his work revolves around a wide variety of musical artists and clients. So far, he has worked for X Media to film open mic acts which led the production of a seven-part web series for musician Pedro World Citizen. For the past few years, he has been working with Caravan Redsmith to produce novel videos featuring the creation of bamboo flutes and metalwork, which encompass a beautiful mix of music and craftsmanship and is one of the highlights of Cole's career. Additionally, he has produced music videos for SALT, a band based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has created promotional videos for HX Records, a small record company based in England. Outside of the music space, he has collaborated with One Big Family, an African non-profit that aims to shed prejudices that have been brought over to the United States.
In 2014, Cole attended Portland State University Graphic Arts Program discovering the wonder of video. In 2016 he transferred to Portland Community College to study video production. During this time, he had a school internship for Metro East, a community media outlet, and edited countless commercial videos for the internet. He also volunteered for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) by contributing his videography skills to record people talking about living with their mental illness.