We were lucky to catch up with Christopher DeLorenzo recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Christopher thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you 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?
I’ve been a full-time graphic artist for the past 6 years making most of my income through commissioned illustrations for brands and companies as well selling my own work and doing collaborations that are more artistic in nature. It took a while for me to get to a place where I could work for myself. Besides the self doubt and fear that comes with trying to make a living by being an artist I was also happy being employed and getting to be around people and solve creative problems together at an agency and company. After college I started at a big ad agency and soon realized that wasn’t for me because I wanted to design and create more, I didn’t want to slave over designs to have them never see the light of day. I moved to a small clothing brand where I was part of a small team where we were the agency and the client all in one so whatever I wanted to make we did. This gave me the room and the commitment I needed to hone my craft and find my voice in illustration. I don’t think there is anything that could have sped my process up because it is all part of what makes me the artist I am today, the experience I’ve gained from working in advertising made me better at commanding a room and selling ideas. The time at a small company has shown me how to create a brand and work that is coveted and special to a person. And all the nights and hours in between that I took on outside jobs and helped out friends with projects to try something new and diversify how I apply my creativity.
Christopher, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m a graphic artist based in Massachusetts. I’m mostly known for my simple and witty line illustrations. I use black and white and simple shapes to convey richer narratives and commentary on the world around me. I’m constantly exploring new ideas and approaches to my work, stumbling upon a motif and making many iterations or simplifying a complex landscape or combining memories into graphic compositions. I love working in this way because it has allowed my work to be used for a whole range of projects and clients.. I’ve always wanted my work to be appreciated by a wide range of audiences and not just for one industry or one demographic. I’ve created pieces for Tiffany & Co. Google, Warby Parker, Twitter, New Balance and more. You can find my work on coffee cups in Australia, subway ads in London, and even a carwash in Belgium.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
I think the market and community evolving around NFTs is really exciting and brimming with creative uses and potential. I love seeing how artists interpret the space and make their own NFTs, creating scarcity and collectibility and community at the same time, they create demand for their physical works and as well create opportunities for those in the digital space to collect and come with its own set of perks. It feels as though we are only at the beginning of this burgeoning new space and as the tech and accessibility becomes even more advanced and commonplace you will start to see this as an essential tool for artists in the future. Artist didn’t think they would have to document their day to day and upload BTS videos and promos of themselves before instagram but now it’s part of the business. And the great thing about NFTs is that it’s an umbrella for a whole new level of community building and I’m excited to see it applied in the future and be part of it myself.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I never had a style that blew up on social media or associated me with one thing and therefore garnering followers who come for that daily dose of the reliable. I see many artists like that on instagram and I usually don’t want to follow them because I already know what I’m going to get every other day. I like artists who are searching for something, developing and experimenting, not following where the audience wants them go by doing more versions of their most liked image. I’ve built a slow and steady fanbase of people who follow me for that journey. I gave in once or twice to that algorithm and trying to appeal to the masses but it wasn’t for me. If you look at most artists with over 50k followers the average percentage of likes on a photo is about 1 to 3 % of their follower count. That’s not a very large number of people actively engaging with your posts. It can be misleading for some artists to think they have to have a large following to have a healthy and lucrative career but if you have 300 really connected followers you can do just as well.
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Image Credits
Mikhail Glabets took the photos of the artist.