We recently connected with Benjamin Rockow and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Benjamin, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I gained my knowledge of my craft from taking as many art courses as possible throughout my schooling. First in high school and then again when I attended college. I could of sped up the process of these skills by perhaps taking additional schooling thereafter but I find that learning something is all up to how much it interest you. If you find the mechanics of a car engine fascinating then I bet you’ll find out how to build one. Same as digital art and software. I learn the best when I challenge myself to understand. The skills I find most essential are understanding what technique I need to execute for each project and believing in myself to accomplish whatever I put my mind to. The only obstacle in my way is time itself. Nothing is impossible if you have time to work at whatever it is that drives you forward.

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

I am an artist and as an artist I want to help create a style or universe that others may have a difficult time creating themselves. Sometimes that comes with guidelines set-forth by my clients and sometimes I have the free-range to do that all for them. Those are the times I can really shine at my craft. I first got into this line of work after collage by being a vocalist and performer for several bands. By connecting with the musicians and other performers I had the opportunity to create logos, flyers, merchandise and other promotional material. This has never stopped and has only bled over into other mediums. I offer my talents to bands, performers, businesses, writers or any others who seek a specific style they can not capture themselves. The creative process comes with its road bumps but nothing is unachievable. I may not hit the mark from time to time on projects but I definitely work with my clients throughout the creative process to make sure that the final product is something they feel is worth their time and money. Re-working of logos, cover art or other medium is just something you have to get use to. I’m most proud to see my clients happy with a final product but even more so when the work is on a tangible medium. Nothing beats seeing your hard work on a stage full of performers! I work hard to make my clients ideas come to life. Art for aspiring artists!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Support artist with artistic skills, hands down. Whether it’s music, writing or digital art. In this day and age many have the ability to create beautiful works of art by simply writing a descriptive paragraph for an A.I. generator and boom! Something of what they were trying to capture. For me, honestly, that’s great and all and I do utilize A.I. generating for certain things but nothing beats collaborating with a client, digging deep into their mind and creating something more accurate to their thoughts. Computers just haven’t reached that kind of accommodations yet. Supporting artists can help bring out the best in us all. That right there helps create a better artistic community in my opinion.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Along the same subject as before with A.I. generation of imagery. I have this client of mine, a writer. I have been working alongside with him for years now, We actually met when we were musical performers and bonded over artistic creativeness both with music and art. Since then went on to being creative in other ways. For the past year though he started utilizing more A.I. in his story telling and needed my help less and less. He would come to me from time to time because the art he was generating had flaws that needed corrected. Like I said before computers do it well but not well enough yet. Recently he has noticed that a lot of his time is spent correcting computer errors with these images. I have been honing in on my skills for many years and even though he didn’t need my artistic abilities as much I never stopped supporting his ideas. Being resilient to me means you never give up on what you do you just adapt to the new techniques. People will see your worth and will always return if you’re good at what you do. That’s blazing your own trail I guess, right!?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.deviantart.com/brutalb330
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designs_by_benjamin/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/designsbybenjamin