We were lucky to catch up with Dom Robinson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dom, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
I’m extremely happy as an artist. It’s been a blessing to have been working in the creative field for the majority of my adult life. I realized long ago that I was blessed with a talent and an eye for design, and god saw fit to have me learn how to turn ideas into digital solutions. I don’t know if I can say “hella” in this interview, so if not, leave this part out, but it’s hella fun and sometimes hella stressful.
Do I wonder about a “normal” job – mmm… not really. I’ve had “normal” jobs in my life. Worked retail and hospitality. I for sure didn’t enjoy any of those the way I’ve enjoyed the creative world. Besides, the only other career path I could have ever imagined myself in is coaching football – which I’ve also already been doing.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
What’s up readers and listeners, i’m Dom. Yes, it’s short for Dominique so let’s keep it simple! Years ago (like college) I was into the nightlife. I’m from Atlanta, so I knew several people around the nightlife scene, and quickly found myself on a promo team hosting parties. It was cool, but I could never see that as my stopping point. I found myself curious about how to make the flyers that we were distributing.
Our team had one of the best DJs in the country, DJ Tay (follow him @DJTay1906), who happened to also know about Photoshop. We’re in his apartment one night and he showed me what Photoshop was and I legit stayed up all night learning the program. That’s where my career started!
I quickly began working for my school, Clayton State University, as the Graphic Designer as I learned more about how to design and the ins and outs of Adobe. Fast forward to now – everyday that I work, i’m fortunate to lead a financial organization as the Creative Director. Atlanticus offers credit solutions to a significantly underserved market, that are typically overlooked by other companies who may have higher qualifying credentials. What’s been dope has been leading the organization in rebranding, aligning the designs and assets so that the customer experience is consistent – yet different, since I lead 6 brands.
Outside of Atlanticus, I help individuals, small businesses, and political figures establish, launch and drive growth for their brands. That can be through making logos, websites, brand and digital consultation or photography.
Now that we’ve passed what’s on my resume, we can talk about that art! About 5 years ago, I made a poster for Atlanta Public Schools. Turns out there was an argument about who in the office would get the last of those posters. From there, the idea of VOICES was born. As an artist, my vision and purpose for VOICES is to preserve the history, the words, the dope-ness of those that have not only influenced my life, but influenced my culture.
Everyone in the collection has to have meant something to my life. Yep, I take requests, but the originals in the collection have all had some sorta impact in my life, whether that’s through their words, lyrics, or accomplishments.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Can I share a story, lol. YEP.
Years ago I was having a conversation with a guy who told me that I wouldn’t make anything of myself. He said that I would be a “starving artist” and I needed to take a different route in life – which was the military.
The reason why his words are what comes to mind now is because I recently lost my grandfather (PawPaw). That was my dude, and one of the few who pushed me to continue my journey as an artist. PawPaw would tell me to not dim my light, and to never compromise on my value!
Truth is, I was at a really vulnerable place in life when I had the doubt spoken over and over again and I could have easily given up on what I felt was my called career path (besides the NFL). I kept PawPaw’s encouragement close – not saying the s#*t’s been super easy, but I could not have imagined the blessing that it’s been, and no way I dreamed of a billion dollar company looking to a guy who spent his life between Southwest Atlanta (SWATS) and College Park to lead their deployment of creative strategies to markets and teams both nationally and internationally.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
Ya know, NFTs are sorta like a rollercoaster. I’m all for tech and the new thing. I feel like the NFT market became very quickly oversaturated and overcomplicated.
I’ll paint the picture. When I was nearing the completion of the VOICES collection, my idea was to release each piece of art as a 1-off NFT. Then arose the challenge of valuing them. That was only complicated by the fluctuation on “gas fees” which was complicated by the transfer for physical currency into crypto. Further complicated by choosing a platform that supported the crypto in which you chose to sell your NFT.
I don’t at all think NFTs are a bad thing – in fact, I think it’s a good way of transferring ownership of something. I do, however, feel that the saturation of the market very quickly caused an unintended effect. We’ve seen some NFT owners losing hundreds of thousands on some pieces. It’s hard to justify something for $300,000 when it’s (by crypto standards) dropped to $20,000, if you get what I’m saying.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.designxdom.com
- Instagram: @dom_voices