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

Hi Ed, thanks for 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?

Luckily yes, we sustain our full living, and no, wasn’t an overnight kind of thing, being preparing myself to be here my whole life (literally) spend most of my childhood evening drawing and creating comic characters, not knowing i was turning into the graphic industry and clearly directed to the marketing aspect. had friends with business and without thinking I started to create logos or handmade signs for their advertising, a huge milestone was when at 14 years old got hired by a magazine to illustrate a comic book made for some elections going down in Mexico City, since the designer crew didn’t have anyone to create cartoon characters one of my cousins who work there, referred me and that was the first time i create digital designs, with the newest technology and techniques i never got to use before… got paid when we complete the book and i was sold, that was what i wanted to do forever.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

after working for different companies in different fields inside the industry, got to earn a lot of experience from everywhere, back in 2012 moved from Mexico City, and started a job in a small sign shop in my local town, where I work for around 5 years, got so involved that I end up running almost in full the shop, learned about machinery, digital devices, substrates and materials I never messed with before,

Never heard about vehicle wrapping before: after getting pretty skilled doing signage, simple banners and finding my recipe for the quick and efficient design flow, a customer asked me for a vehicle wrap, which i had no clue about that, after doing some research I felt like it was time to reinvent my self, to do something different that would allow my design skills to grow.

after 6 Years we are proudly standing 3 wrapping certifications from the major brand in the industry (and going for more) this means we put pride in what we do, always striving for the highest quality in everything we do, like in every industry there’s good better and best… even tho the rates to charge for a wrap are very standard, the installer skills come in play when we are talking about quality, I think is important for the customers to know that searching for the cheapest quote or shop will reflect on why they charge cheaper than standard. we have re-do several wraps and the customer ends up paying for the bad experience (in some cases getting their vehicles damaged) and the paying what initially was offered

some of the benefits of our shop, besides you, won’t find all the time a wrap shop with a good designer, or a designer who wraps… I have 25+ years in the graphic industry and the highest qualifications in Ellis County, also we have branched out, and Start the Graphics offers now Custom apparel, Screen printing, Embroidery, Promo Products, Custom graphic design, we are truly a one-stop-shop!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I don’t know how to quit, more than once have ended up either overbooking or promising jobs done quicker than I should, I have gone day working overnight, with no sleep just to get the projects done, have ended up non making any profit by looking for the best quality for our customers, all that has been nothing but experiences and is what is this about, to get more wise and flow easy with the demand

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

a lot of people don’t put in consideration that the graphic business isn’t too different from another art type, is like writing songs or making music, after so much you might think it gets easy, a lot of people thinks is the computer who designs and it is a simple as clicking keyboards, we also sleep, we also eat, we also have families and personal situations, is really strange when you come across a person who understands this, but at the end that challenge is what it keep us inspired

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: StArt The Graphics
• Facebook: Start the Graphics
• Twitter: @StgWraps
• Other: www.tiktok.com/@startthegraphics