We were lucky to catch up with Dan Handler recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dan , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

There are a number of things going on work-wise: a F/T job as a graphic designer, plus i maintain existing clients from the design and logo days. Also commissions if they occur, and now (code name) BOX and a series of retail items are being looked at and potentially produced.

At least for the BOX project, necessity is driving that one; a couple of musician who don’t want to make neighbors angry with our sonic expressions (Hey, we’re practicing to get better!). Long Beach locals who don’t have a great place to practice. So we’re hoping to build two sizes of practice rooms with lots of soundproofing, plus the usual amenities. But the really fun part is, if we get the space we actually want, to open up the interior portion for community events, car shows, art & craft fairs, video shoots… Hoping to have a biggish space with fairly high ceilings. Old grocery stores, warehouse spaces, churches and manufacturing sites, all can be recycled… or even business park properties, the trick will be noise diffusion and access. Big space lined with practice rooms, center and big back door open up to host events. We need pretty much everything, so much learning ahead for both of us.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a lifelong artist, i fell into Graphic Design out of college and went about a perfectly circuitous path through fine and commercial art. Not sure I’m done by any means, but currently working as a graphic designer for a Cabinet manufacturer. My studio edict is Happy Clients, Jobs On Time; Yes and yes. Clients are all different, some feel they want to see ALL the ideation as well and 9-12 proofs, some need me to cull that down to 3. After a time with certain clients, I get an idea of what and how they want it; much more efficient.

After I became Production Manager at an Annual Report shop, I did all of the following: Set Designer for theater, Merchandise Art (Cloisonné pins & t-shirts), Gallery Owner in Oklahoma, Painter & Watercolorist, Muralist, Package & Label Design, Video game art (characters and background), Children’s books, Pop up books (production, background art), Production Artist, Graphic Designer, Environmental and Signage design, Art Director, Creative Director, Retoucher, Illustrator, Animator, Front End web design and (finally) characters and backgrounds for an interactive game.

Most of that I chalk up to the Curse of the Freelancer. You never really take vacations and you don’t turn down work. In the end though, I’m happy to have some experience with different aspects of both the commercial and fine art machines.

And then there’s the art track. I make a series of artwork out of a rock-like compounds, Rocks, boulders, Monitor stands, coffee tables. And skulls, there’s always skulls. Plus all the usual suspects: paintings, drawings, watercolor, sculpting and carving, murals, commissions. Wood carving! If I ever figure out a system for the wood dust, I have a trove of hardwoods that want to be hearts and skulls and weird bowls.

I am currently open to gigs and projects and commissions. All the inset photos on the grid examples have stories attached, are legit jobs or examples in thier respective category, and yet there are SO many more (not pictured here).

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

My resilience is pretty much demonstrated by that list of jobs.

Much like an actor, if he can dance, good. Sing, better. Different accents? Ride a horse? Sword fight? Each one of those means he or she might work another gig, where they would get exposed to more people & potential clients. All my art-genre hopping serves a similar end.

At first, i thought it a fault that I didn’t specialize early on. I was on a heavy retouching and imaging track for a while, but in the end, anything sort-of creative was fair game for getting a gig, and now i appreciate the breadth of work. I can also re-visit most or all of what I previously created and are aware of production pitfalls.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I’d have to say the primal joy of creation. Having an idea and having the power, prowess, materials, etc. able to make it real. Being an artist is somewhat singular. Not everyone can get their point across when the power goes off. An artist can make a presentation with a stick in the sand if he needed or wanted to, and with style; so the basic ability to draw, and to be a great colorist, can’t be overstated. The years spent perfecting the ability to see, draw and style something isn’t to me comparable to the hours spent learning a new software. The hours of drawing and looking might appear to be finally paying off, and then also realizing you are never really done.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.handlerstudios.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiredanhandler/
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits
All photography done by Dan Handler for Handler Studios, Handler Gallery or Muertoware.