I started off drawing Pokemon, copying the cards. There were some really complex ones that I wasn't skilled enough to draw back then, but I was pretty good at Pikachu and Charmander. You know, the easy ones. As I progressed through school, I started drawing stuff like The Scream and those kind of popular artworks. I never thought I'd do it as a career though, it was just sports for me back then, I played football and that was all I cared about. I did Art because it was something I was good at, it was just an easy ‘A’, I wasn’t artsy. There was no style, or anything like that. I was just the kind of guy who’d rock up in tracksuits and astros. Play sports, chat in class, play Xbox. That was life. Simple.

Going to America changed all of that. I wouldn't be here now if I didn't go there then. I was 16 when I moved to Chicago, the age where you are absorbing everything, it was a different world. I didn't get the stuff they were wearing! Clunky basketball shoes on shorts. I was like: you’d get roasted for wearing that back home. But I adapted, I bought into it. And then, after a while, I started to develop my own style. I didn't want to be like everyone else, I wanted to do my own thing, I started getting into my own interests. 

If I could talk to myself as a teenager, I’d tell them to get a head start. To start going to more galleries, to start reading about the foundations and components of design, to start consuming that stuff earlier.  It wasn’t until I got to college that I discovered the extent of what graphic design was. Before that, it was just me drawing. That's how it started, I just wanted to make album covers and draw graphic tees. That's what I thought graphic design was back then. And then a family friend - he was incredible, he could draw really well - was kind of critical of my work. He said, There’s more to it than just this. You can either become some run of the mill graphic designer, or you can actually get a formal education in it.

At the time I was young and hard headed, so I was like, Nah, he's just hating. But he had a point. I know now what he was trying to do, he was trying to push me. Looking back, it was a massive, altering moment. After that I took a very short course in college, an intro to graphic design, and got a little taste of it. That's when I decided to get my formal education at Central Saint Martins, the same University he went to coincidentally.

Now I'm a designer at Flying Object. I work on everything from identity design to brand campaigns, web design and conceptual design. Bringing something to life is the exciting part. Solving problems. Seeing it from the beginning of the process, through the journey to the end. Universal Quantum was a good example of that. It was a journey! I am really proud of that project. We managed to land on a brand identity that communicated our original idea and then build it out across the whole design system and website. It was super cool to do.

If something piques my interest, I’ll dig really deep into it, fall into a rabbit hole. You see something and then watch a video and then you're up until two in the morning reading an article about Mayan temples. It happened the other day, I saw a poster and thought it was great, so reverse searched it. It was by a guy called Emory Douglas, a graphic designer in the Black Panthers. I got really into why his visual language looked the way it did, and then from there I was just going back in history, looking at more black graphic designers and artists, back to this guy from the Harlem Renaissance called Aaron Douglas. I saved a tonne of visual references, I’m a digital hoarder. I've got so many references in the bank, they always come in handy.

Looking to the future, I'm excited about developing my practice, doing projects that align with my values and that play to my interests and strengths. Sports and music are the main cultural pillars that I have a rich knowledge of. They are a big part of my life, a big part of who I am. I think there's certain stories that are really significant, that most people don't see the significance of. In music for instance, a niche thing might happen in the background, that somehow influences a more commercial area. Those are the stories that I would like to bring to life, they’re just so rich and real. 

My biggest motivation is to refine my work, my craft. That’s the main drive I have, to put good stuff out there, things that I'm proud of.  Obviously, it's a bonus if other people like it, if the people that you admire, admire your work. I should reach out to the family friend, drop him my website. Knowing him, I guess he'd still be hating. Probably like, Oh, this is alright, but could do more, he's that kind of dude. But I'm sure he would be proud. I should dig out my Pokemon cards too. I had a bunch of them back in the day, they must be worth something now.