We were lucky to catch up with George Moss recently and have shared our conversation below.

George, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

In 2005, I had a conversation with one of my coworkers. He asked me, “What do you want to do in life?” I said, “I want to make an animated movie.” He said, “What are you doing in the fashion industry?” After this conversation, I thought to myself, I enjoy my job and my role helping to design cut and sewn clothing, but I also really like creating cartoon characters and stories. Not too long after this conversation, my friend invited me to San Diego Comic Con to see her launch her comic book. I had shown her my cartoon characters and she said, “You need to go to Comic Con!” I took a week off from my job and went to Comic Con to see my friend’s comic book launch. During my visit to San Diego, I took the trolley as transportation. I had the opportunity to see the city, meet people of different cultures, and share my work along the way. Comic Con blew my mind! I felt at home with the culture. I shared my work with stars, film directors, and fellow creators. They liked my work and wanted to see more. I met one of the creators for the cartoon TV series Static Shock. He reviewed my portfolio of cartoon characters with my clothing designs and he liked my work. After he finished looking at my portfolio, he said, “Where is your business plan?” Sadly I said, “I don’t have one.” He passed my portfolio back to me and said, “Call me when you have your business plan.” I learned so much from those few minutes with him and thought, man I missed my opportunity. I enjoyed the remainder of the Comic Con and was very happy for my friend’s comic book launch.

When I came back home from the show, I went back to work at the job and all I thought about was my personal work – cartoons/clothing designs. After much prayer to God (Christ Jesus), writing down plans, and seeking advice, I decided to leave my job.

I took a risk to leave my secure corporate job with consistent income to start my own design and illustration company, Gmoss Designs, Llc.

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 background and context?

I am a creator who Illustrates, creates fashion designs, various products, and writes books. I grew up watching cartoons like GI JOE, Thundercats, He-Man, and others. I like listening to positive hip hop, Jazz, R&B, and gospel music. While honing my skills in visual art, fashion designs, and writing, I was very fortunate to have caring mentors and great encouragement from my parents and true friends.

I started working in the fashion industry as technical Illustrator, then a product developer, an assistant technical designer, and lastly a creative apparel/technical designer.

Through our company, Gmoss Designs, Llc, I serve our clients creating original 2d/realistic art for music album/book covers, fashion technical packages, and graphic designs. We sell my original Gmoss artwork which includes jazz history illustrations, anime influenced character art, cut and sewn apparel, accessories, novels, and comic books based on my Miami, Sci-fi, Hip Hop, Anime influenced story, THE CHRONICLES OF ANN & LO.

Our company also teaches my panel and workshop, FASHION TO COMICS, which shows how a creator can turn their idea from sketch on paper into an actual product-fashion design, accessory, or a comic book for small or mass production.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to encourage others use their gifts and talents to help their community.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

After I graduated from college, I was a graphic designer and it was very tough to find a job because everyone wanted someone with experience. I started freelancing creating tshirt designs, logos, and business cards.

While freelancing, I took a part time job doing clerical work for a tax company. It was one of the toughest jobs I have had to date because of the tough customers. I would constantly tell them, “We only do appointments and file papers at the front desk. We don’t do your taxes”. It was crazy. People would scream at us and threaten us because they wanted their money. On my lunch break, it was like a ritual for me. I ate my Chinese food, drew in my sketch book, and read my Bible while asking God to guide me in the right direction/provide a good job. I was frustrated during this season of my life because I had graduated with good grades from college and I hadn’t landed a full-time graphic design job yet. My brother, my parents, and my true friends encouraged me. I kept sending out my resume and after many interviews and disappointments, I had an interview for a black and white Illustrator job. I thought it was to create tshirt designs which I knew how to create, but it was not. During the interview, I was told it is a technical illustration position. This job required the Illustrator to draw clothing and accessories to scale for clothing manufacturers. I had never done that before and had no knowledge of clothing design at that time. I had to make a choice during the interview to walk away from this technical Illustrator job or continue looking for a graphic designer job. I chose to pivot my career. I am so happy that I did, because of this pivot, I have acquired many different skills in my creative journey. I may have not acquired these different skills if I had not pivoted from graphic design to fashion.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gmossdesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gmossdesign/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/gmossdesign
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gmossdesigns
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/gmossdesign