My Story

My Story:

Growing up I always wanted to be an artist when I was older. I remember telling everyone from age 4 that I would become an artist some day.

Sure, it wasn’t as “cool” as saying I was gonna to go to space and walk every inch of the moon…But hey, I wasn’t a cool kid (and i’m not a cool adult either lol). I heard the same lines over and over again when I was growing up about my desired career path – Mainly ‘ole faithful “you can’t make a living at art”.

Believing what I heard others say about the dream of being an artist not being obtainable as a career, I had shelved my art until I was around 16 years old or so. I thought, well it’s kind of a waste of time if i’m not going to do anything with it. But around 2006 or so I took an art class in high school and fell back in love. My art teacher was a game changer in getting me back involved with art. She was always encouraging, she challenged us to grow as artists/students and was incredibly creative herself. As a result of that art class I began drawing almost every day. But on top of traditional “drawing” I also branched into other areas of art that challenged me as well.

To make a long story a bit shorter, my wife (whom I was dating at the time) bought me a copy of Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom digital drawing tablet for my 18th birthday. I immediately fell in love with the digital arts…

During the summer of 2007 I started a tee shirt company, Awaken Clothing. I released a handful of tee shirts that summer and sold them at local concerts. The response was huge (at least to an 18 year old it was). So I kept designing and releasing tees.

It wasn’t long after I started my tee shirt company that people started asking if I could design tee shirts and Myspace Layouts for them. I happily agreed and opened up a new “branch” of my company called “Awaken Design Company“. It wasn’t long after I began doing all of the Awaken Design Company stuff that it took over as my primary artistic passion. (And yes…I said Myspace, remember that place. My top 8 and featured song were top notch!)

With Awaken Design Company going full force for me I began working on more in depth design projects, brands, logos, websites and online stores. I have had the opportunity to work with some truly great people over the years and develop some incredible relationships. I’ve had the chance to work with household brand names. But just as satisfying (if not more) i’ve been able to help launch and grow fellow small businesses with my artistic services.

So, just a quick reminder on where we’re at in the story…All of this was started with a dream of being an artist when I was 4. Giving the dream up later in life. Rediscovering my passion for art again around 16. And dabbling around for fun in Photoshop.

You may be wondering how this all fits in with family life. How my career has looked. Etc. Well since 2007 I have only had one “day-job”, which lasted for around a year (back in 2009). Simply put, it wasn’t for me. I remember the void of feeling like I should be doing something so much more with my time. So, my newlywed-wife and I discussed me taking the leap into business ownership (as an adult this time) and I ended up going for it. The leap back into being full time with Awaken was scary and daunting. We were pregnant with kiddo #1 at the time, had bills and real responsibilities. And I wasn’t guaranteed a single penny past the first month. But I was willing to take the leap of faith, so that I could actually create and build upon something I could be proud of.

As a modern day “creative” I’ve made more things that I can be proud of than I ever imagined while running my own business. I’m constantly reminded that i’m not just living my dream – But i’m able to help make other peoples dreams come true with their brands/companies as well.

Instead of pencils, pens, paper, canvas and brushes – I’m using digital and some organic tools to make my art these days. The 4 year old artist in me still nerds out when I discover something new or begin working in a new art medium. Things are quite a bit different than my 4 year old pencil wielding hand imagined it would be, but I couldn’t be happier with how things have turned out.

Feel encouraged knowing a 4 old dreamer made something of his dreams. You can do it too.