We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Abraham Mast. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Abraham below.

Abraham, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

Short answer: no.

Long answer is I try.

I always understand the need for them, but I often take them too late. I enjoy what I do, which I am very thankful for. Animation is my bread and butter and I enjoy creating art for my job. Too much of a good thing (like bread and butter) can be a bad thing. I often go for long stints of hard work and then realize too late I need a vacation.

I don’t need much to recharge. I can spend an afternoon with friends and feel pumped up for the rest of the week, or I can find a new coffee shop and feel inspired for the next 48 hours.

With that being said, my all-time guilty pleasure is traveling to a new place and working from coffee shops. Last year I spent 2 weeks in Madrid, Spain, and spent a large amount of that time working from the same cute coffee shop. I find it rather relaxing. I have no room for distractions; Why waste time on social media when there are so many interesting things happening around? A new environment also helps me focus and find creative energy. I also like to find and work in new coffee shops in my own town, Nashville.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I run my own animation company Pylon Animations. https://pylonanimations.com/

I am self-taught in animation and went to school for graphic design with business administration. I mostly work in the music space, providing artists with animated music videos, lyric videos, branding, marketing material, etc.

Character animation is my favorite and I always pitch using characters to clients. I actually think in the next 10 years we are going to see more animated mascots. Style, fashion, design, and everything under the sun comes in cycles. For some reason over the past 20 years, we killed off mascots. But it’s about time to bring them back. Japan loves their mascots and I’m sure that culture will be popular again in the States.

My favorite projects are those I get to flex my creative ideas while still drawing within the client lines. I have the utmost respect for my clients. I am serving them after all. But when a client gives me some slack with creative vision, I thrive.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Word of mouth! I am so busy with clients that I don’t have time to make pitch decks and spec work. I do want to put more emphasis on finding new clients, however. This year I have been focusing on marketing and finding more leads that are outside my circles.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love seeing the work do its job. After a long week (or two or three) of working on a client’s visuals, seeing it play at a concert (for example) is always so rewarding. It is a fun feeling when no one even knows the creator behind the stage visuals, but everyone there is enjoying it. I want my work to have the spotlight, not myself. (I like taking zoom calls in my pajamas, waist down)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://abrahammast.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abrahammast
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrahammast/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/abrahammast
• Other: Business websites: https://pylonanimations.com https://animationmage.com https://motifdistrict.com

Image Credits
Portrait B&W: Jami-lyn Fehr Other portraits: Cody Parnell Images of work: Abraham Mast