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David Senior’s illustrations have been featured in Rolling Stone Italy magazine!
Connect with David Senior
facebook.com/david-senior-illustration
From a young age David knew he wanted to be an artist. He got support from family growing up. In high school his girlfriend who later became his wife and teachers from high school, pushed him along his eventual career path. David would copy tapes and CDs from friends and he would redraw the covers by hand. One of the album covers that he redrew was Green Day’s “Dookie”.
David Senior decided to goto Tyler School of Art, which wasn’t easy for him because he had to work his way through college. Once David got out of school he aggressively searched for a job. He fought through some major road blocks in his career path, but it eventually led him to pursuing illustration on his own.
David Senior has some great advice for anyone going through lay offs, being an artist, and or creating and using a network. He also talks about not keeping a big secret from your family, like being laid off.
Episode 27
Transcription
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this is the dreamers podcast where
dreamers shared their stories to inspire
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you
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now join host Joe Pardo as he interviews
a dreamer who’s living their dreams
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yeah
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woman you’re knocking on your hotel
apartments today I’m interviewing AC
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living history career in design and
illustration
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welcome to the show date thanks Joe glad
to be here
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glad to have you here in the studio with
me tonight let’s get started by giving
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the audience some background about
yourself
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alright i’m a 35 years old live in south
jersey a wife and three wonderful kids
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wasn’t always from South Jersey I grew
up a little bit on the west coast and
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down south memorial over here teenager
spend my life on the east coast long
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beach island area and made my way
towards Philadelphia when I went to
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college at our school of art so what
would you say inspires you Dave a lot of
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different things family life the usual
suspects there but i think the biggest
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thing that inspires me would be other
work that I come across other designers
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that I respect other illustrators that I
respect just to see the work that they
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produce under similar circumstances or
maybe something I’ve never touched
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before
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just gets really inspiring you see a lot
with these design manuals that we have
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in the industry that just shows the
highlights the best work throughout the
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year they do different subsets of work
and it’s just great to look through
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those and just see what other people are
doing so how did you dream of becoming
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an artist in general come about it
started early on when i was in high
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school I knew that the Avenue no one to
take and even I didn’t quite know
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exactly what that was how it would turn
out i started to make plans to get there
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by choosing the school I went to just
having conversations with my art teacher
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at that age and family members so they
didn’t really know what it was either
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and I just sort of had this idea of what
it was and one of my earliest memories
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is when I would record tapes or cds from
friends I would actually redraw the
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entire cover and as i did that i was
sort of like us so this is like
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something people do and I know that that
in itself wasn’t designed but i do like
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someone put thought into this some
thought into where this image would be
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the type would be and it really opened
my eyes to the possibility of that being
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something that I
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one day do what were some of the covers
that you drew a lot of old punk bands
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many that i can’t remember the names to
one that really comes to mind is this
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band seven seconds really short songs
really fun band something listen to when
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I was a teenager
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not that I was into anymore but a lot of
fun green day’s dookie that really crazy
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cover album lots of illustration going
on their labor of love but I was a
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teenager and I loved it and it was a lot
of fun
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Nirvana just whatever was sort of big at
the time and that I was getting my hands
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on how was your dream received by your
family that they were supportive my
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grandparents for sure always commented
on just the different path i was taking
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and they’re a big part of my life
throughout those formative years and
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really helped push me along as far as my
artistic endeavors and where I was going
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with that my wife who actually met way
back in high school was also very
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supportive she’s always been supportive
to this day of the the work that I do
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through that time in high school was
really great to just see that support
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and just have her push me along you know
when when you’re in the creative field
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there is that opportunity and
possibility for doubts to creep in but
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throughout those moments she was there
to just push me along and let me know
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that I had it in me and I could do it
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that was just a huge help and huge
support also some teachers in high
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school early on really pushed me along
just offering a lot of advice and
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support and all that combined I mean
really helped shaped who i became and
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and how I pursued my my dream in my
vision so let’s get into what steps you
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took to get started as an artist and
then let’s go into what steps you took
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to make it a career
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the first step was going to art school I
want to tyler school of art primarily
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because my high school art teacher came
from there and spoke really highly other
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but aside from that I did a lot of
research to before making my decision
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look at all the local schools and really
knew that that was a place that I i
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wanted to pursue and lucky enough to get
accepted there and did a lot to work my
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way through college wasn’t easy but it
was something that
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I was passionate about and was very
rewarding and worthwhile
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so that’s early on where I got my start
as I knew that that’s right needed to go
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and I just knew throughout the whole
time that to get where I want to be
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post-college I needed to get the
education at that time to be able to
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follow that dream from there I just
right out of school was really
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aggressive and looking for work and
looking to follow that career path and
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and was lucky enough to have a some
breaks along the way with the networking
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or just being at the right place right
time so we’re there any roblox so you
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hit along the way to definitely name a
few
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the two that come to mind are when I got
laid off their a turning point in my
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life
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the first job that check out of school
the fun job really opened my eyes to the
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real world of how to work in the
creative field whose exclusively in the
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design world should say but it didn’t
didn’t last that long
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within six months there was a big
layoffs in the company i was one of them
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when i was getting married soon so it
was a scary moment but things work out
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and the next job I went to was
Philadelphia Magazine and I was ended up
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being there for five years and that led
to a lot of different things but some my
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most rewarding experiences there were
keen on photo shoots directing them
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working with photographers just being
on-site or directing them remotely and
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also working with illustrators that was
the highlight of every month was finding
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which illustrators I can work with
commissioning the illustrations are
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directing them working back and forth
just that whole collaboration process
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was so rewarding just so much fun
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from my perspective and actually led me
into wanting to pursue illustration on
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my own as well how did you overcome
being laid off
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well that’s a good question
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I I was definitely scared did it the
wrong way the first time did mention I
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was laid off twice but the first time I
got laid off
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I didn’t tell anyone and I don’t
recommend that we were getting married
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like i said and more often i thought the
best idea would be to keep it a secret
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and that was nerve-racking but it for me
it worked out because my next job
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I’m pretty quick and was a much better
job and worked out but still I was like
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that learning experience for sure
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never do that again so another roadblock
it was a after a number of years at the
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magazine magazine industry took a hit
and there’s a lot of layoffs there as
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well and I got laid off there and that
was just after we had our first child so
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again it was a turning point in our life
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my wife had just resigned and now we’re
facing zero income so it was again a
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scary moment but one that I knew I can
get through and I immediately contacted
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my network that’s one of the biggest
things I’ve been able to overcome the
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fear of is using a network of people
always felt I had to do it alone
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I always felt like that was sort of an
incorrect way to go about it but it’s
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exactly the opposite your network of
friends and people that you know
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business partners is is just it’s
amazing it’s what helps everything work
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out and that landed me another job after
a few freelance moments so that was a
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just a huge benefit as well and that
time we did it right we were keeping
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anything secret
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it was great because the family was
supportive and that was just really
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reassuring that the extended family
doors understanding and supportive and
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there wasn’t any shame in that
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yeah it’s gonna be rough to be laid off
especially facing zero income the mental
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aspect of that is it’s probably a
hundred times more difficult to deal
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with than the monetary aspect
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yeah for sure was i agree just a lot of
things to have to work through once all
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that support from the family was there
it was pretty easy to overcome and just
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to push forward and do it quickly
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you know sometimes those things work out
it didn’t work out into a much better
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job which then that job led into a much
better job and as you grow and as you
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get in your career those things just
start to unfold and unravel before you
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so there’s been a part of your dream
that haven’t quite worked out yet
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yeah I would love to just work for
myself that’s just always been a dream
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of mine to have my own clients have my
own schedule innocence and be able to
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work on the things that really inspire
me be able to be selective on the work
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that they do thats it’s just a dream
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it’s something that
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helps motivate me as i’m doing the work
I’m doing now I know that it’s a goal
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that I can one day reach and it’s you
know it’s an exciting time because I in
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my day job that I have I’m doing a some
good work but outside of that i’m doing
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work for those things that inspired me
i’m picking up clients i’m working for
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family and friends and it’s good to see
that start to gain momentum and start to
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build up some kind of recognition before
the show we were looking at some of your
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art on your website you told me that
you’ve done work for rolling stone italy
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and as well as some others could you go
over some of that
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yeah for sure there’s sort of two
avenues in my life one of them is just
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strictly graphic design work and one is
illustration work and like I said with
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the magazine I started realizing that
illustration was something i wanted to
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pursue and got into that first I was
doing that solo but within a few years i
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don’t remember exactly when I think it’s
probably been six years now its
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contacted by a illustration rep and it
paid off for me it’s just the situation
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I was in
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it was great to have someone be able to
handle all the contract end of things
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and and start finding work for me beyond
the scope of what i was getting and that
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landed me jobs like Rolling Stone italy
and fortune magazine a lot of really big
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magazines boston globe as well
newspapers and stuff and that’s been
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great it’s been jobs that i love the
they’re highly conceptual get to read
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through the articles read the stories
work with the art directors on that in a
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bit now foot that roll a little bit and
now I’m the illustrator working with the
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creative directors and the art directors
and that process to me is just it’s a
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ton of fun just coming up with the idea
than seeing it come to life and then
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seemed in print your own on the web so
that’s a different Avenue of my life but
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the two really cross over a lot there’s
a lot of the same kind of conceptual
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thinking the same approach that I give
to both my design work in illustration
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work well i mean i-i love your work i
think it’s great you did work for for
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adventure tutorial which I really
appreciate both the t-shirts and the
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album touching up the artwork that
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Matt Lewis put together for it and I
can’t thank you enough for the head with
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course so if you were stranded on a
deserted on with your family what three
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things would you want to have with you
think your guitar would have to be one
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family loves music
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I can play some guitar my girls can play
some guitar their little young but
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they’re learning a knife you just
arrived think that would be a good one
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and sketchbook to keep the memories that
wasn’t very good less i think ya are
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practical part keepsakes
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so what are your dreams for the future
look like okay i want to touch on a
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little earlier i’d love to be able to
start to transition my career and two
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more of a hybrid of my illustration of
my design coming together under one roof
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where I’m sort of my own boss and taking
some jobs that I’m really passionate
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about and doing is the best work that I
can do
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yeah it’s really tough especially in the
art market it’s so competitive and
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there’s so many people i mean schools
like the artist toots of wherever you’re
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from are just cranking out students that
they’re bringing in it’s got its got
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muddy the water for you
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yes and no there’s a handful of people i
believe that really pursue that same
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kind of dream that i do where you’re
working for yourself but there’s a lot
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of agencies there’s a lot of Design
Studios out there that are soaking those
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young town stop those those kids that
are fresh into the industry and there’s
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a lot of good work that’s a being
pursued in those environments as well
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and that’s like environment that I men
currently and while i do enjoy it it’s
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not my end passion
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let’s help me get there and there’s some
people who love to make a career that I
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think there’s definitely enough of it to
go around it is competitive though
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that’s not to say that it’s not
competitive it’s a highly competitive
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field but it’s also a very encouraging
one
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I believe a lot of the industry the
creative industry really likes to share
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a lot of knowledge websites like dribble
really reinforce that where people are
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just showing the work they do and
getting feedback on it and really just
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inspiring and encouraging others to to
do as good of work as as they can and
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i’m really not to settle for doing some
partner work and that’s I think what’s
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great about the creative field as
there’s just a lot of camaraderie there
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well do you have any last thoughts to
share you have my last thoughts would be
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some advice to do not be afraid of
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[00:14:00],680 –> [00:14:04],939
following that dream to not be fearful
and let that dictate where you go I
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learned early on about myself i should
say i went later on that early on about
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[00:14:10],460 –> [00:14:16],10
myself i was very fearful and I was
afraid of making mistakes are afraid of
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[00:14:16],10 –> [00:14:20],630
doing something wrong and then the
creative field that’s that’s going to
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limit you and so if you’re someone
that’s pursuing that or you know
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anything i would say that this would
hold true fours is don’t let that fear
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stop you from what you’re doing and and
know that it’s totally fine to make
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mistakes you fall flat on your face it’s
completely fine you just get back up and
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[00:14:38],240 –> [00:14:42],410
and you do it again and really there’s
no harm is going to come of that once I
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sort of learned that through experience
and learning it really the hard way but
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[00:14:47],360 –> [00:14:52],130
I feel like I’ve started to gain a lot
more momentum a lot quicker because it’s
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been helpful to just know that this is
this process is enjoyable and that’s how
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[00:14:57],80 –> [00:15:00],920
I view it’s just something I enjoy to do
and it makes it that much more fun
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so before we go is there any websites or
Facebook pages twitter handles you’d
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like to share
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[00:15:06],650 –> [00:15:12],860
yes certainly my work can be seen at
David be senior com also have an
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illustration specific website had David
senior illustration . com and then my
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[00:15:17],720 –> [00:15:22],670
twitter which I don’t use a whole lot
but I’m there is David senior to
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twitter.com back slash david senior and
I’m on facebook to somewhere
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Thunder David senior illustration if you
just do a search for it on Facebook it
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will come up we’ll put those in the show
notes no great thanks
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well thank you so much for coming on the
show David I
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really appreciate it it’s been great
thanks for having hopefully i can have
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you again and six months to a year and
will follow
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everything’s going on take care thank
you for joining us for this episode of
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the dreamers podcast follow us on
twitter and dreamers podcast
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[00:15:54],970 –> [00:16:00],9
join us on facebook at facebook.com
slash dreamers podcast
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[00:16:00],910 –> [00:16:05],140
if you or someone you know would like to
be a guest on the dreamers podcast
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please send an email to j and j parr .
co this podcast is copyright 2014 by j
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parr . cone
