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

Andy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later?

I wish I had started my business a few years sooner than I did. When I was in design school I thought it would be a dream to use my skills to do my own thing. Build my own business. Then as I went through my career, it felt unrealistic, irresponsible, and just a pipe dream. So, I tried working my way up in agencies and even taught at a design school for a few years.

I freelanced on the side all through my career and took it a bit more seriously while I was teaching. I even entered some freelance work in awards shows and won some recognition on a national level. I think that gave me a bit of confidence that maybe I could do this on my own.

Then the pandemic hit and we all know how that went for education. At the time, I had an almost two-year-old and another on the way. With the chaos of virtual teaching starting to feel like a 24/7 deal, uncertainty, and wanting more time with my family… taking my side gig full-time didn’t feel like a risk or pipe dream anymore. It felt like a life raft.

The jump to go on my own ultimately resulted in a higher salary and more freedom than I’ve ever had from a job, in year one.

I think all the career experiences prior to working for myself formed me and I would have flopped without that background.

But, I do think that I was equipped to do it several years earlier than I did and could have reaped the benefits a little sooner. I just needed the shove of a bunch of circumstances lining up.

Andy, 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 got into the industry pretty typically, I think. I was a kid who loved to draw. Then when I was in high school and starting to think about college and my career, my high school had a graphic design program. So, I learned I could make a living with my drawing skills, but blending them with all the tech and communication skills.

Throughout my career, I was always a generalist. Print, web, branding, large format, illustration, concepting, writing, etc. I would get compliments on my versatility. I always thought that’s just how you had to be as a designer. But, it was exhausting trying to keep an edge in all those areas.

I had an early love for building brand identities and would always get excited when those projects came around. I was also dragged kicking and screaming into web design and ended up doing well at it and enjoying it and eventually teaching it.

So, these days I run a little brand design company and that usually includes websites and various other forms of advertising design. I call those early years of trying to do it all, “boot camp” as they were formative to the services I offer now.

I think that is what makes me stand out. That versatility that came from years of beating myself up more than I had to. But, I am able to see projects from a lot of angles.

With my business, I focus on small to medium businesses. They are clients who value a strong brand and good design, but they may not have the budget to hire a larger traditional agency. I am able to bring my agency experience and “boot camp” background to help smaller businesses build a level of brand they probably didn’t think they could afford or attain.

Through the past 13 years of my career, I’ve worked with clients on local and national levels ranging from healthcare and B2B to rock bands and amusement parks, and most industries in between… including working on concepting, brand, and design for a top voted, candy themed mini-golf attraction.

I really love working with clients in the restaurant and food and beverage world. But, enjoy helping a wide variety of industries. Really, if a company is passionate about what they do, and wants to stand out, I want to talk to them, regardless of how “sexy” the client may seem. If they are ambitious, excited, and brave enough to stand out, they are “sexy” to me.

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

Offering creative services as a livelihood is weird for a lot of reasons… Any creative discipline takes years of hard work, passion, trial and error, soaking in inspiration, etc. So, subjectivity is a major struggle as it is something many people think they “know” just as well as you.

Things are not as “subjective” as they may seem. A non-creative may be thinking “I don’t like that color, make that bigger, etc.” A creative is looking at it from a more objective place. Creatives are thinking about how does this fit the strategy and appeal to the audience? They are considering years of best practices, awareness of trends, and tried and true design principles.

I always tell clients “I don’t have a favorite color” because I view colors as having different uses and personalities for different occasions.

Another aspect of the creative journey that a non-creative might not understand is… we can’t turn it off. I think many jobs you can truly check out for the day. I’ve literally come up with concepts in my dreams. We can get obsessed with projects and go above and beyond spending more time than the budget allows for on them. So, if you’ve hired a passionate creative, be mindful to let them be the expert in what they do. They have probably obsessed over your company and challenges more than you know and are just trying to see you succeed. Don’t get in the way of your success.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

My side hustle turned into my career. For years, I casually freelanced on the side while working for ad agencies and teaching at a design college. I got my start on the side simply by people being aware of what I did and occasionally asking if they could hire me for projects. So, very low-key to start.

In 2018, I took on my first full rebrand for a local brewery and handled refreshing the identity, collateral, website, and photography. It was the year I got my LLC and realized I could make a living as a freelancer. That work went on to win American Advertising Federation awards even at the national level. The LLC, scale of the project, and awards gave me the confidence to start doing more.

I had gotten to where my side income was nearly half of my full-time salary for two years in a row. I felt confident that if I put all my energy into it, I could make a salary. That coincided with having kids and working as an educator in the pandemic.

So, with the padding saved up, I took the leap in hopes of simply just making nearly the same income as my salary, but having more time for my family.

Over the past few years, I have consistently made more than I had ever been able to make as a traditional employee in the design industry with a lot more freedom.

I started as a typical “freelancer” taking on any and all design projects from all disciplines.

These days, I’ve been able to narrow my focus and work with clients refreshing/building their brand, then their website, and supporting them ongoing. I haven’t hired anyone full-time yet. I still like the idea of keeping things simple. But, I do have a network I call a “tag team” that I can bring in for other skills I don’t offer.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sharpecreative.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharpe.creative/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-sharpe-branding-and-design-with-flavor-for-restaurants-079aa537/