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

Derricko, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Everyone has a different definition of what success is, but I believe that in order to be successful you have to first believe in yourself and know that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. Not to mention, experience is the best teacher and I’ve found that anytime I was successful in anything, it first started with the vision and then putting in the work to make it become a reality.

I truly believe (and as cliche’ as it sounds) you have to see it before you can achieve it. Success is yours but ONLY if you want it!

Derricko, 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?

My name is Derricko Swink and I am the Creative Director for The Swink Agency (a luxury marketing agency based in Atlanta Georgia). I specialize in corporate branding as well as digital marketing. Basically, if your business needs a facelift or a creative way to attract attention via social media… I’m your guy!

One of the things that I am most proud about when it comes to our family business is the fact that we’ve successfully helped over 500+ small business owners. At first, it seemed as if we had every reason not to take the leap, but we saw the potential early in the game and knew we could make a positive impact. And that we did!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe that what helped me build a solid reputation as a creative is due to me always being able to go against the grain and create something epic of out nothing. There was a time when I was just a self-trained designer and didn’t necessarily go the traditional route like everyone else I know did. I really took a chance and put myself out there, and people took to my style very early on. Since then, it’s just been about staying consistent while continuing to deliver high-quality visuals.

Also, while working in Corporate America from a creative standpoint, you always have to say a lot while doing very little when it comes to design. This can be difficult to accomplish, but is necessary to cut through the everyday traffic of making people look up at your product and say to themselves “I want that”. And for me to understand that early and hone in on it at the right opportunities is the reason I was able to create this demand for myself that pays off greatly for both my family and I.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being creative is just having the freedom to express myself however I want to. It’s to the point that when I take on a new project, sometimes it may take me a few days to get started because I have so many ways I can tackle it from. If I want to do a design, I may open up Photoshop or Indesign. If the project calls for illustrations, I’ll use Illustrator and so forth.

No two projects are alike for a creative.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theswinkagency.com
• Instagram: @theswinkagency
• Facebook: @theswinkagency
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daswink/
• Twitter: @theswinkagency
• Youtube: @theswinkagency