We recently connected with Hassan Ahmad and have shared our conversation below.

Hassan, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I have been very grateful to turn this into a full-time living, but it hasn’t always been this way! A major step that I took throughout these 11+ years was staying as consistent as possible with my graphics. I never really took any breaks when it came to posting until recent years. A lot of my graphics back then were quantity over quality, while now it is the other way around. A big thing that could’ve sped up the process by a lot for sure would’ve been to invest in beneficial software sooner rather than later, such as Adobe Photoshop, as I didn’t get into it until three years after starting. Another one that I mentioned earlier would be to focus on quality over quantity at a much earlier stage of my career. I was so focused on my personal brand and gaining followers that it took away my attention from the actual artwork I was creating.

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?

My name is Hassan Ahmad, and I am a graphic designer based in Richmond Hill, Ontario. I make graphics within sports, and I have been able to freelance for clients within the NBA, NFL, NCAA and MLB. Currently, I work at Yahoo! Sports as a Senior Designer, and I also run my own page, which is my personal brand, DesignedByHassan.

I got into this industry by coincidence. I started out when I was 12 years old, just doing very basic photo edits of my favorite sports players on an iPad. I didn’t realize that this was something that could be turned into a career, even with such a niche market in sports.

I provide lots of different products and services, some of which include: commitment graphics, brand design/creative direction, social media posters, editorial graphics, and motion graphics, which I recently picked up on!

The biggest thing that I am proud of is the accomplishments I’ve been able to achieve throughout the years in my graphic design career. Being able to see my long hours of hard work get recognized by such big teams and athletes makes all of this worth it.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I feel like the journey alone is something that non-creatives may struggle to understand about me, especially with the modern technology we have. I can post a video of a design breakdown or a photo of a graphic I made on TikTok, and I have started to see a big trend of people saying that “AI is better” or that “AI will take my job in 5 years”. I find things like this very interesting because, although AI is constantly evolving, it will never have that human touch, and it is going to be very hard for it to mimic a unique style like the one I have (and many other designers!)

Another thing that non-creatives may struggle to understand about my journey is that it took a lot of time to get to the stage where I’m at. I’ve been doing this since 2014, but it wasn’t until at least mid 2023 when I really found my own style and started to perfect my craft. I’m still getting better day by day, and I think a lot of people underestimate the long nights and days that we designers spend

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Any free creative market website. Being able to find the right assets and resources goes such a long way, and I didn’t know about this until recent years. Free stock websites such as Unsplash and Pexels have changed my life because once you have the right backgrounds, textures, or fonts, you are set, and you save so much time in your workflow.

I have backgrounds and resources from 2017 that I still use in my graphics on a daily basis! Make sure to collect as many resources as you can – the earlier the better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://designedbyhassan.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designedbyhassan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/designedbyhassan/
• Twitter: https://x.com/designsbyhassan