Background Research and Interview Questions
Where did you grow up?
I was born in San Diego and I grew up in Orange County. I went to school in northern California.
What was your family life like? Did your family support you? Did your siblings/friends affect your career choice, creativity, inspiration, motivation, etc.?
I was always an art student, I never set out to have a design type of career. My parents were always very supportive of me and as an artist.
I had a younger brother, I do have friends... People were always respectful or admired the art I was doing, so it was always encouraging when people are always telling you you're doing something good. That's always motivational.
Did you have any educational experiences (high school, etc.) that drove you towards your career or interests?
Yeah, definitely. I had a lot of scholarship classes growing up, with art... My senior year of high school, I had three periods of independent study of AP art, so that was a lot of kind of self-directed time there, and like I said, I had the scholarship class of Otis Parsons Art Institute in Laguna Beach. [I had] classes in grade school or grammar school where I would win awards and stuff like that and some good art teachers growing up so that definitely helped push me along that path.
[Did any of your art teachers stand out to you? Like on you particularly remember or inspired you?]
Not really, until college. I mean, I always had good art teachers I liked, but the only one who really stood out was... [I had] a college/glass art professor who was a pretty kick ass guy.
When you were in high school, where did you see yourself headed? Did you ever expect that you would be working at Skinit or in graphic design? If you didn't want to be a designer at first, what did you want to be?
I don't think anyone even knew that skins would be something people would buy at that point--cell phones didn't exist at that point. So I think things move pretty fast, and now I had no idea I would be doing this. I really thought I would be doing something more along the fine arts side of things, or maybe like a college art teacher--something like that.
[So you wanted to be an artist, not a graphic designer?]
Exactly.
What were your previous jobs? [Did you have any previous jobs, before Skinit?]
I've had probably like, 20 jobs... I've had other design jobs, I've worked freelance, I was a moving man for a while, I've worked at a glass-blowing studio, I've done construction, I've done driving jobs, I've worked in a media arts lab... yeah, a lot of different jobs.
[Did any of them stand out to you, or help you in your job right now?]
All the ones that are design related, for sure. I think you generally learn something from every job, even if it's "I never want to do this again".
Where did you go to college, and how long [I know you said you didn't have a bachelor's degree in your email]? What did you study? How hard was it to earn the degree you needed to work in your field of choice? Was graphic design your first choice?
I went to Chico State, I was in the BFA program [Bachelor's Fine Art]... I switched to a BA, which made me two classes shy of my degree. I still have to take Life Long Health & Fitness and Cultural Geography to get my degree. I've realized, in my particular field... I guess it's like anywhere else, a degree is kind of a nice thing to show people, but it's not necessarily going to help you get a job depending on where you're going. Some people look for it more than others. Chico was... I was doing glass art and steel sculpture, so it's really not super... I wasn't doing a whole lot of digital art in college. I did do a little bit, but it was more through a job I had at the Instructional Media Center, which was on campus and really well funded part where they had really good computers at that time, so I got to use the top-of-the-line printers, top-of-the-line scanners, and when they first came out with LCD Apple screens, you know we had those. So I got to use good equipment at that job.
[So you studied glass sculpting in college? Was that job [glass and steel sculpting] fun?]
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I like working with my hands and doing that kind of work. I think it is definitely helpful as a designer. I think a lot of people I saw that just studied design, you know, their work was pretty stale. I don't think it necessarily has to be, but I think if you're not exposing yourself to a wide range of what's out there, you're going to be kind of weak as a designer. I think a big part of being a designer is just problem-solving, it's how creatively you can approach it and how good you can make something look. In design there's a lot of compromise, and that was one of the things I liked about art--there was very little compromise.
[Do you still do glass sculpture?]
Nope, in order to do glass blowing, you have to get the glass up to 220 degrees Fahrenheit, and I don't have the facilities to do that.
[So that's not your hobby? What are your hobbies? Do you draw at all?]
Hobbies are... hanging out with friends, running, yoga, surfing, traveling, reading, watching movies... I do not draw at all. Very very little.
[How hard was it to earn the college the degree of your choice?]
I guess it was pretty challenging because I didn't do it. As I said I was two classes shy, they don't give you an almost degree certificate. ... Well I guess I would have a Associate's Degree or whatever it is.
How did you get to where you are today [at Skinit]? (Education, experience/internships/jobs, strive and motivation, etc.)
Answered a Craigslist ad.
[So were you around when it was founded?]
Yeah and I think it was just... I think I had a strong portfolio, and I'm good at what I do.
What do you do around the office [you're the creative director... do you just do designing, dailies]?
It ranges a lot, trying to manage the team and getting the best work out of the ten-person art department, at the same time it's basically going back to compromising. You're getting requests from people in sales and marketing, who often have bad ideas, or ideas that I don't think are necessarily good ones. As a designer you always have a client, there's always someone paying, and so it's basically trying to get the best possible design, given often very difficult constraints. But basically what I do here, it ranges from... we're working on project for the web, we're working on projects for print, we have a busy production environment, we're doing stuff for retail, we're building a community website, we've got white label websites, all sorts of marketing initiatives... so there's a lot going on. ... There's been four years of it.
[This is kind of off topic, but when was Skinit founded? You said it was a new company a while back...]
Skinit has been around for five years or so, it started in Colorado, and the San Diego company was called Cellfan, and they merged with Skinit about four years ago, roughly.
Is there a reward for what you do [that's not money... is it satisfying]?
Yeah, there are times when you feel a certain satisfaction, when you design something well. Basically, you're just taking pride in your work.
[So like when people buy your design?]
I get it... it's more for me, a personal thing, where if I design something well, I'm generally happy. The flip side of that coin is when you don't have time to put into something that I feel is deserved, or a lot of time we're rushing and you don't get to do the best possible job, and I like to do quality work. And so that's kind of the flip side. When I get to do quality work, I enjoy that, and if for whatever reason if there's not time for that, that could be demotivating.
[So it's worth it to do all this work, to do all the project managing, listening to clients...?]
There are elements I like, and there are elements that drive me insane.
[So which element is your favorite? Which part is the least favorite?]
When I actually get to spend time designing, or when I get to work with the designers in the room on a project that comes out well or I think is successful.
Just kind of the day-in day-out grind, and dealing with people that either don't know what they're talking about, don't know what they're doing... Just people who are either incompetent or bad ideas and you have to execute on them anyway.
[So your motivation to work is to be able to design, or...?]
It's to be able to pay my rent.
Design is not super high payed. I probably make more than your school teacher and less than your principal.
Are you/do you feel successful, and what is your idea of success/being successful?
I feel alright. I definitely... I guess when I was your age, I thought I would probably be more successful.
[What is your idea of success then?] Being more in-control of your own destiny. I assumed I would have something that was more mine and less part of a team like this.
What advice do you have for a beginner? What would you advise aspiring graphic designers to do?
I think you have to put in way more, for anyone who wants to be a designer, you have to put in way more work than you probably think you do. There are so many people who think they're designers, but they're not--they either lack the drive, the intelligence, or the motivation to be really successful with it--there's a lot of mediocre and bad designers out there. The other thing is that there are a lot of good designers out there, so there's a lot of competition, and if you don't offer something really special, it's one of those things you're something like a [dime a dozen]. Design is also like everything else right now, where it's a very global marketplace, you know you're competing with people in China and India and Europe and Brazil, all over--and so, to be like a design star, where you get to pick your clients, like Nike or Apple or whoever is coming to you and going like "we want you to do the work", now that's like a handful of people. It's kind of like, to be a star in design is something like being a star in professional sports, where it's like, you're going to have to put a lot of effort in and on top of that you have to have the talent to back it up. So I would say my advice to anyone who's wanting to pursue a career in design is just like, you need to really be working really hard and always looking at what else is out there, and you know, don't compare yourself against other students. Compare yourself against the best work you can find in the world, because that's what you're up against, not the other kids in your class. When I was in high school I was always like, "Oh I'm the best drawer in my class," and it's like, "alright well, that's 30 kids, so what?". It's more like, it's not whether you're better than the 30 random kids in your class, or are you better than the 500 thousand people you're competing against? There's a lot of people going into design, so I'd say, it's basically, kind of find something that's original about you--part of design is having a unique perspective, especially if you're getting more into illustration--and basically working really hard, not being satisfied with where you're at.
[So not being satisfied is a good thing as being part of a designer?]
I think not being satisfied is a good thing as a person, because if you want to grow and keep pushing yourself--if you don't push yourself--I mean it's fine if you want to be a zen monk who's like "hey it's cool" and I'm just like happy with how things are... but if you want to grow professionally, basically if you want to be something "artist" or any type of creative profession, if you find yourself satisfied, then I'd be curious if you find anyone else that's satisfied in the work you're doing. ...What I found in art school, [someone that] thought their work was really good and were very satisfied, you look around and no one else thought their work was any good. They thought it was, but not [anyone else]... but the people whose work I liked, were the ones who were... they were more unsure, and they were challenging themselves and always trying to one-up themselves.
Where do you see yourself in a few years? Is there someplace better you want to be (promotion, better-paying job, etc.), or are you satisfied with working at Skinit?
I really don't know. I have no idea. I would imagine, it depends on what sort of time frame, but I'd either be here, maybe... I worked freelance for a while, so kind of having my own design studio, I mean I did that for 4 years prior to Skinit, I was a freelance designer, so I was my own studio. So maybe going back to that, maybe working for another firm, or maybe doing something totally different--maybe getting into teaching, perhaps.
[Maybe [High Tech High] Media Arts?]
Maybe I'll be a bartender, I don't know. People need drinks.
[So winging it from what you said... If you could do something over again, like go back and get your college degree or something, would you do it?]
I really... a college degree, it's like, I don't personally care about it so much, and I've never in my career... it's never been an issue. I would say... it's an interesting question, I might have pursued glass art a little bit further. I might have studied 3D a little bit more. I've never taken a single 3D class. When I was in college it was a transitional time when people didn't know how to teach Photoshop. I took a Photoshop class and I got an A+, and I was like "how do you get an A+?", and the teacher didn't really know how to teach it, he'd always come over and be like "oh how did you do that?". So I think maybe if I had gone into an art school, I had an opportunity to go to Art Center, I probably go back and gone on and gotten a Masters from Art Center or something.
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