It’s really fun to hear and share the many different stories how fellow creatives got where they are; how they might have stumbled into their career, or got there on purpose.   I recently had the pleasure of an interview with illustrator Cory Thoman, founder of myStockVectors.com. Cory has an amazing knack for creating some of the coolest cartoons and cliparts, which are being used all over the web and in many other commercial applications.  His artwork covers a wide range of subjects and topics, and all of them are available for royalty-free licensing in vector format.

Hi Cory, tell us a little about yourself.
Yay! My favorite topic, me. Well, I’m an illustrator and designer living in Austin, Texas. I have a Bachelor’s of Fine Art from the Ringling College of Art and Design. Don’t let the fine art part fool you though. I mostly spend my time drawing silly cartoons, but there was an emphasis on figure drawing and painting when I went to school. So, I guess I’m classically trained, but most of my work happens on the computer now.

As far as career, I’ve worked a few graphic design jobs. My favorite was a toy company called Jazwares. I was there for about five years and learned a lot. In 2005, I decided to leave the 9 to 5 world to pursue a freelance career. That’s where I am today.

What kind of images do you produce?
Right now, it is pretty much all digital cartoon style vector illustrations. Most of my illustrations are character based. I draw a lot of animals, kids and people. I love goofy expressions, so I try to make most of their facial expressions as humorous as possible. Other than that, I try to keep everything pretty simple in my work. No complex ideas or hidden messages, just fun colorful cartoons.

I start with pencil sketches, but everything is finished in the computer. I guess I’m a nerd because I’m always on the computer. I’m often jealous of the photographers like yourself that get to go out and photograph people and the world. Meanwhile, I’m stuck in my office/cave making sketches and digital drawings. Illustrators could be the hermits of the art world.
(haha don’t be fooled, Cory – I’m probably at my desk just as much as you are.  Maybe 1 or 2 hours for a photoshoot once every few weeks, but it’s never enough away time from my desk)

Tell us a little about your website myStockVectors.com?
Excellent, the shameless promotion part! I decided last year to open my own store, myStockVectors.com. After several years of selling stock, it felt like the right time to open my own site. I thought I had a pretty good grasp of what the customers that bought my files wanted. I didn’t feel most of the major agencies were catering to that. I think I’ve created some unique features at the site that you can’t get anywhere else.

I’ve organized images into a Series and Collections category. The category allows visitors to view all images of a particular character in various poses or costumes. I find that many customers like to buy multiple images from a series, so this allows them to do that easier. I’ve also introduced a category called Design Files. These include several images from the series in one file. It also contains a font and other elements like word bubbles and backgrounds. The idea is that it contains all the elements you need for your design project in one file. The best part is that it is cheaper than buying all the files individually.

Those are some of the things I’m working on with the site. I think the great thing about having my own store is that I can really cater to what the customer wants. So far, I’m excited by the results. It’s one thing to build it, but another for people to show up and purchase images. Hopefully, it will continue and I can learn some SEO tricks.

Do you just sell stock or do you work on other things?
I’m also a full time freelancer. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some great clients. I did a few projects with the Cartoon Network which was a lot of fun. Freelancing gigs can occasionally be spread out though, so that leaves a lot of time in between to create stock. Plus, the two are sort of intertwined. Stock brings in new freelance projects and clients. My stock library is like having a giant portfolio that is organized and searchable.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting a skilled freelance designer out of the UK on twitter named Pritesh (everyone calls him Pritz for short).  Here is a brief interview I had with him recently.

How did you get into the creative field?

When I was at school, I wasn’t interested in anything other than Art and Design, so that’s all I’ve ever done. As I got older I got more involved with digital arts and that’s how it all started.

Would you recommend education for those that are just starting out, or thinking about getting into the design business?

Education is always important. A good set of qualifications goes a long way, but you also have to make the right choices in courses and institutions. I went with what I thought would be best for me, so I would say go with what you feel seems right, and something you enjoy doing. I’ve learnt that education brushes up on the things you already know. I think my choices in education have helped me improve in my work, and gained my interest in areas I would never think about going in to.

What is one of the most important things you think freelance graphic designers will need to do in order to stay successful?

Staying motivated and inspired. This is why I blog things that I’ve looked at nearly everyday, that’s what keeps me going. I would also recommend printing things off and keeping things you like for example in a sketchbook. You just have to keep at it and work hard, then opportunities will be knocking on your door when you least expect it.
Are there any specific people that inspire you?

There are lot’s of people that inspire me, all excellent at what they do too. Some names that inspire me include Jacob Cass, David Carson – whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at my college, Photography inspires me a lot too, I love the composition of colours and beautifully taken photographs. You don’t always have to look at specific people in the field that your in to be inspired, I think your interests are your best sources of inspiration.

Where else do you find your creative inspiration?

Nearly all my work is screen based, so I find myself sitting in front of the computer a lot. This is my biggest source of information. You can find anything and everything on the internet. But like everyone, I have my collection of design books too, along with my sketchbook of things I like, or photos to flick through when I’m looking for ideas. Mostly I just like to see everyone’s work all the time. This way I can encourage myself to do something great too.

To contact Pritz you can follow him on twitter or check out his blog

Yup, this is pretty much what you have to deal with if you’re a graphic designer.  Everyone fights over you and your time, the deadlines, and everyone is an expert… except for you, of course.  The individual with the actual design degree.  Despite the crappy acting, this video is worth a couple of chuckles.

And yeah… if you use Comic Sans or Papyrus fonts, you need a serious reality check.

Being a photo enthusiast since a very early age, Carlos took a course in professional photography between 1994 and 1997. Today, he works as a freelance graphic designer and photographer and is a contributor of stock imagery to several online image banks. The royalty free stock photos that he creates can be bought and downloaded by designers that use them in various marketing and advertising products, books, blogs, or editorial pieces.

Carlos Caetano is a “Pentaxian” and actually uses a Pentax K10D DSLR, several Pentax and Sigma lenses and Manfrotto tripods. When not outdoors shooting landscapes, he is at home, busy with tabletop shoots of objects in his improvised studio: the dining-room table next to a big, luminous window, and a piece of white paper or styrofoam to bounce light into the shadows. This is all he needs as studio gear, allied with his Photoshop skills.  His images can be found for sale on stock photography sites such as Shutterstock.com,  istockphoto.com,  dreamstime.com,  fotolia.com,  bigstockphoto.com,  and several others. He is available for photographic assignments, photo post-processing and manipulation.

To contact Carlos or to view more of his work, check out:

ccaetano.com

picsweep.blogspot.com

facebook.com/ccaetano

Would you like your work to be featured on the Arena Creative blog?  Whether you are a photographer or a graphic designer, if you have something creative to share we would love to feature your work!  Contact us if you are interested.

David Carson was one of the main designers my college professors raved about back when I was in college from 2000-2004.  They really were right to do so.  He’s got a lot of really visually amazing books out, if you haven’t heard of him.  One is called “The End of Print” the other is “Trek”.  His work with typography is very inspirational.  Look him up online, and be inspired by a true master of design.  This guy has done so much when it comes to the surfing and surf magazine world, as well.  Here is his website / blog at http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/ If you could ever attend an event where he is giving a lecture or seminar, I would jump at the opportunity.

First off, I love design. I can sit in photoshop, illustrator, inDesign for hours and create and layout stuff for just about anything. When I was a little kid I loved to draw, then it turned into a love for photoshop. So, I went to college to get an education that would ensure a more secure financial future. I got my BA in Graphic Design in 04,and have a really cool internship designing direct mail postcards for my college internship (paid well too). Then a few months later I landed a job working for a publisher of custom magazines. There I designed everything from soup to nuts that a small business needs, besides the advertisements and magazine covers/layouts. I learned so much on thisjob! I learned how to deal with clients in proofing, how to work along with the sales department. I was pretty bogged down with work, all 40hrs of every week. No breaks, no days where you can just play around onthe internet. Those are nice sometimes, other times they’re misery. But nonstop work isn’t good either, especially when you’re working for someone else. It just burns you out!

Next I decided to move along to something better (well, I thought). I got a job with a large national chain store as their head graphic designer in charge of the marketing for all 75 mall stores. There I designed signage, window posters, huge wall banners, billboard size stuff. Also a lot of postcards, handouts and doo dads. That job was the most stressful. They are insane in retail. Everything has to be done before they even ask you to do it. Maybe it was just the company I was in. I thought the first company was stressful, this place made that one look like heaven.

So then the economy gets real bad. The company is now in Chapter 11 and they went from 75 stores to 21. Now I’m out of a job, and what do I do?Well, thankfully I had a side business of selling stock graphics and vectors that I did on nights and weekends. I’m now doing that full time for a living, since May of last year. I work from my home office and enjoy every minute of it, spending time with my my wife when she’s not working, and my two dogs. I have no health insurance yet, and no benefits, but hey – we’re getting by. It’s a scary thing for losing your job, but if you guys can learn one thing from my story it’s this: have a backup plan. Don’t rely just on the unemployment checks you’llget for 6 months or so if you lose your job. Have another skill or trade, or even a freelancing strategy. It’s scary when you have a family that you have to support, rent or mortgage to pay, and no hope in sight.

Anyways, that’s why I’m no longer a “traditional” designer. I still design stuff all the time, but with stock it’s a heck of a lot more generic. I have to keep things simple, too, otherwise if it’s too specific it just won’t sell.  Do I miss working with picky clients, working with a boss over my shoulder? Definitely not. I really don’t have any desire to ever work in a corporate setting again, either. It’s just too hectic, and too stressful compared to working on your own. I think I’d rather have less stress, even if it means making less money. Others might disagree.  I turn away people approaching me all the time, because every business has a need for some type of design work.  I just enjoy designing the generic way, through stock images.  It gives me a relative amount of creative freedom (obviously you need to shoot or design concepts that people are going to be able to actually want) and the only time I have to deal with another human being is when I am doing a photoshoot or some kind of payment or account issue arises on one of my agencies.  It’s really great!  You can’t beat a microstock career.

Anyone else have a story similar to mine? I’m reaching out to see if I’m the only weird one…