We recently connected with Erik Gilbertson and have shared our conversation below.

Erik, 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 absolutely love being able to do what I do. Owning my own business and having the freedom to do what I want and when I want is, to be completely honest, pretty fantastic. The caveat of course is you have to bring in the business and get the work done. It’s still a lot of hard work, don’t get me wrong, but when you love what you do day in and day out, even the boring and difficult parts of running a business is better than working for someone else. Working for yourself definitely isn’t for everyone. but it is for me and I’m glad I finally was able to recognize that when I left my day job and took my business full-time. I still have stressful days, deadlines to meet and all the things that come with the territory. Having a regular job is something that’s just not for me though. After I graduated college I worked in the same industry for 15 years. When I decided to leave that world, the timing was right. My mask painting business was really gaining some traction. I was getting busier and busier with new jobs coming in more frequently. It got to a point where my day job was interfering with the side hustle. So I left the corporate world behind and started a new chapter of self employment. It’s been 3 years now since I took that plunge and I haven’t looked back.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Erik Gilbertson and I’m the owner and lead artist of Gilby Designs, my small business that creates custom designed and painted hockey goalie masks for goalies of all ages. I’ll also paint the occasional motorcycle, racing or other miscellaneous helmets, but 99% of the work I do is on goalie masks. The story of how I got into this business starts way back in the early 1990s when I got my first goalie mask. The modern goalie masks had just started to become available to the general public. Prior to that we typically wore the same style helmet that a forward or defenseman would wear. I received this particular mask for Christmas when I was in 8th grade and of course, it was the coolest thing ever. The following summer I got it painted and that’s where my passion for the painted goalie mask began. I bought another mask 2 or 3 years later, after I had outgrown the first. Of course this one couldn’t just be the stock white paint, I needed to get this painted as well, There were many sketches and doodles that littered the margins of my school notebooks of all the ideas I had for a new design.,

Fast forward to college in 2000 and I’m majoring in art and playing hockey at Minnesota State University, Mankato. My teammate asked me if I can paint his goalie mask. Having no idea how to do this properly, of course I agree to the project. Considering it was the first mask I ever painted, I’d say it turned out just ok. But the seed has been planted and the next year I paint my own. Once again, the end result is just ok.

After graduation, I didn’t play much hockey at all for about 8 or 9 years. I had moved out east, worked at ESPN for a couple of years doing graphics for SportsCenter, and many other live shows. My wife and I moved back to Minnesota in 2006 after getting married and I continued to work in television.

In 2012, I was looking to start a side hustle and felt like it needed to be hockey-related. I thought about painting helmets but didn’t think I knew enough about them to just start a business. So I decided to make vinyl decal designs for masks and Gilby Designs was born. I would do a few of those here and there but it’s just not as in-demand as having a painted helmet. I started to get more inquiries about painted masks and would take on a few of those jobs. Before long, I was getting more and more paint job requests. I eventually stopped offering the decals and decided to only do paint. As word of mouth spread, business kept getting busier and busier. My waitlist kept growing and it finally got to a point where my day job was getting in the way of my side hustle. So in October of 2019, I quit my job and took the business full-time!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of creating art and being able to make a living off it would have to be when people come to pick up their finished mask and I get to see their expressions and how happy they are to finally have their mask all painted up and looking sharp. Getting one’s mask painted is totally a novelty and I get that. I’m blessed that I work in a field where when people come to see me, it’s a big deal to them and it’s a positive experience. It’s not only the kids either. Goalies of all ages light up when they see their finished paint job for the first time, I love it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal with each mask I paint is to create exactly what each goalie is looking for with their design, then take it a step further and exceed those expectations. One of the best compliments I always love hearing is “it looks even better than I expected”. During the design process I put a mockup together of their design, so it’s kind of a rough sketch of what the final product will look like. But when it gets painted and I add little design elements or some painting tricks to make something pop or stand out more, for me that’s going the extra mile to give them more than what they’re expecting.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://gilbydesigns.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gilbydesigns/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/GilbyDesigns
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GilbyDesigns