Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Adrian Meadows. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Adrian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I aspire to build a legacy of kindness and inspiration.

I hope by helping and encouraging others, following my passions and chasing my dreams without compromising who I am will inspire others to do the same.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Definitely. I’m Adrian, a lettering artist and art director currently based in Spartanburg, SC. From a young age I’ve always had a passion for helping others, problem solving and art, so once I discovered graphic design it felt like a natural path to having an expressive and fulfilling career.

My introduction to the industry was a design role for an automotive agency in Greenville, SC. The work wasn’t the most creative, but career wise I learned a lot of the skills you aren’t taught in college. Admin things like file management & efficiency, navigating corporate politics and creating/pitching complete ideas outside of design critiques.

My intro to design itself was through video games actually! Back when forums were a thing, I’d look for tips & tricks online as a kid and would notice all of these posts with different graphics in their signatures. This led me down a rabbit hole of finding out what photoshop, pixels and drop shadows (💀) were. I try not to use the latter as much anymore, haha. But shout out to video games though! That passion led me to another one in design, which led me to discovering even more passions with lettering, painting murals and art direction.

Now, by day I’m an art director at EP+Co, an advertising agency in Greenville SC, where I’m always looking to create memorable ideas and visual approaches to help our clients stand out in a unique way without compromising their brand voice in the process. While all of my concepts aren’t design-centered, sometimes the stars align and I get to infuse my other passions for a perfect solution. One example of this is the custom hand-drawn typeface I created for one of John Deere’s campaigns. With them focusing on the owners and their land, it made sense to add a hand-crafted element to make the storytelling a bit more authentic and lived-in.

By night and weekends, I’m a lettering artist and muralist. Lettering has been a really fun way for me to express myself outside of design and has led to painting murals, creating merch, art prints and even collaborating with clients to bring their vision to life, too, whether for a logo or a bespoke lettering piece. I really try to keep my lettering as expressive and authentic to me as possible, even when I’m learning new styles and processes. I don’t ever want learning or creating art to feel lifeless or like a burden — like something I *have* to do… it should always feel like something I *get* to do. I feel like this is one of the reasons I’ve been as successful as I have been so far in my career. Passion is a contagious thing! No one wants to work with someone who’s just “blah” about their work. I believe this mindset plays a big part in me continuing to enjoy it, attracting new opportunities and helping me stand out among so many other talented artists.

As far as work, the thing I’m most proud of is designing and launching two Juneteenth shirt releases last year. I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of great clients but it doesn’t compare to seeing your own idea come to life. From concept to horrible sketch to less horrible sketch to sourcing shirts and print shops, even to creating the promo to actually sell them, being hands on from start to finish at every stage was so refreshing and exciting. Having your idea/vision go from a “what if” to actually holding it and sending it to people is a top tier feeling.

I still have a couple available so if you want to buy one in advance for this year, I got you. [shameless plug, haha]

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my audience at the same time I was learning hand-lettering. After discovering what hand-lettering was I dove in head-first, challenging myself to a “Project 365” where I would create a lettering piece every single day for a year. I had no idea where it would take me. I honestly didn’t have any end-goals at the time other than I just wanted to learn how to do it. I think showing up and posting every day gave me the momentum and exposure to build a following. Which was wild to see because people were following me to see more of the one thing I was learning how to do in real-time.

If you’re just starting out building a social media audience, I’d suggest just showing up and staying true to yourself. I know there are a lot of “best practices” you should probably look up when it comes to reels, TikToks, etc., but I think the main things are consistency and authenticity. Staying top of mind and in front of people naturally leads to more interactions, shares and ultimately followers; and it’s a lot easier to stay consistent when you’re creating/sharing art or content based on the things that actually interest you.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

This is one lesson that I’m still in the process of unlearning.

“You don’t have to know everything before you start.”

I’m working to shed this belief I picked up as a kid that I had to have every single thing mapped out before I pursued something. Growing older, I now see that wasn’t healthy and rarely beneficial for me. Don’t get me wrong, having some kind of plan is definitely a smart thing to do… but at a certain point, you just gotta start. Don’t spend so much time planning how to win a race that you never end up running in the first place, you know? You’ll figure it out as you go!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.adrianmeadows.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/iiaspire
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/adrianmeadows
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/iiaspire
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/iiaspire

Image Credits
Rony Rivera Alex Orellana Till Janz, Vera Wang EP+Co Brittney Meadows