We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Charlie Trujillo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Charlie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I’ve been listening to the Beastie Boys a lot lately. You know that line in ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn,’ ‘my job ain’t a job, it’s a damn good time’? That’s how I feel about my life as a creative 90% of the time. The remaining 10% very much feels like work or a gig, and that ratio fluctuates, varying season to season. Personally, I reflect on the time when I set some of my goals and compare it to where I am now. This helps me keep the stoke up and remember why I started pursuing what I do.

Charlie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Charlie Trujillo and I have been playing with stickers since the 90’s. I am CEO of Lettering Express in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. LE is a family owned business since 1988, my wife Jillian and I have been heading the company since 2015. At Lettering Express we help small businesses stand out in a unique way and bring their brand to life. With a passion for creativity and an unwavering commitment to excellence, we specialize in making lasting impressions for our clients. Our goal is to elevate our clients’ brands to new heights. Back in the day Jill and I started a small art show called Just an OK Art Show. We would host these shows in our vehicle wrap installation bay. As they say, “these were the good ol’ days” and we had a lot of fun hosting local artist, bands and breweries. We maybe did 10ish of these? Maybe more! Our goal was to help out our arty friends and promote our wrap company at the same time. This opened up lots of doors to a number of different avenues for new clients as well as letting us scratch that creative bug! The goal wasn’t necessarily to make money but help create some brand awareness. Long story short we started working with a lot of local creatives that shared our passions and values. As the years went on we grew the business and built brand recognition on a national level. In 2021, I started training with Avery Dennison North America for their certification program. This help position us for a new creative outlet. With all the travels we figured we could create a fun vlog series around the “wrap life”. We have always branded ourselves slightly different than our competitors, one way was going against the grain and doing social media edits that were true to our brand. Very gritty, funny and sometimes a little edgy. The new series is called, Coffee Pizza Vinyl. You can find it on my personal Instagram page @lewrapsokc. This series follows me on my wrap training adventures where I check out all things local, from the pizza house to the coffee house. Sprinkle in the students learning to wrap and you have a fun story.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My creative journey’s mission is always evolving, centered around one core idea: never stop learning or fearing failure. The goal is to improve each day, right? If you keep growing, stay open to feedback, and work on your craft, success will come. Success varies from person to person. As for me, it’s not as simple as just having air in my lungs and a few blank sheets of paper—although the Leo joke does suit the context. Ultimately, everyone just wants to be happy.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I first ventured into sales, I would often take on jobs without knowing how to execute them. While this initially served as a great learning experience and pushed my boundaries creatively, I eventually realized its lack of scalability. If I were to represent my entire year of projects as a pie, it’s inevitable that 1 or 2 pieces would taste a little off. The crux of the matter is that the returns from these projects don’t justify the effort. It’s not always about making a sale; it’s about investing your time and maintaining your happiness. I can almost assure you that those projects weren’t your best work. At the very least, you didn’t find stoke in the process, which contradicts why we pursue this creative endeavor in the first place.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://letteringexpress.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lewrapsokc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LetteringExpress/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@letteringexpress?si=BCsCs9snC003K09Z

Image Credits