We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Grace Hartrick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Grace below.
Grace, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I have a few & both are symbolic to me for the same reason. I got an opportunity to make promo assets & a lyric video for Chelsea Cutler’s album When I Close My Eyes. I had been and still am a fan of not only her music, but also her visual brand as an artist for years. That project was one of the first to really kickstart my full time freelance career.
The other is the lyric video & promo assets I made for Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season”. He was one of the artists I photographed through my concert press company to get a free ticket. One of my last concerts before the pandemic. Then flash forward to getting to work FOR him & his team on a song that skyrocketed his career. It just kind of was a full circle moment for me.
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.
I am a freelance digital artist & creative director specializing in the social marketing space for music. Myspace really sums up how I got into it all. I loved designing my layout & also it is how I found out music that wasn’t on the radio and fell in love with the pop punk scene. I started a youtube channel & concert press site dedicated to combining art and music where I would create lyric videos & photograph/interview bands all for fun/pro-bono. I had always done it on the side of my day job, but it wasn’t until I moved to Nashville from Raleigh, NC that I was able to make music content full time.
I creative direct and create the visual world for music releases. That includes lyric videos, music videos, photography, album covers, other graphic design needs and of course tik toks.
My client list ranges from Shania Twain, Noah Kahan, Hailee Steinfeld, Keith Urban, Judah & The Lion, Jeremy Zucker and more
I want my work that I produce to give that heartfelt feeling nostalgia provides. I like incorporating a lot of handmade moments into my work through paper textures, gritty scribbles, film, soft dream-like glows, and vibrant color.
You can view my work & contact me here:
https://www.gracehartrick.com/
Did your side hustle turn into your main/full time business or career? If so, please tell us the story of how you got started with this side-hustle and how it scaled up to where it is today? What were some of the key milestones?
I had been creating art to music for fun since high school. I would make stop motion lyric videos on YouTube & knew I one day wanted to work on the visual side of music. I worked a corporate job at a fortune 500 tech company for 7 years as an art director for social media. I did concert press photography on the side in hopes to network. Constantly applied to music labels and most of the time never heard back. So after 2020 and having lots of time to think, I moved to Nashville with my remote role to get closer to achieving my dream job.
Something was in the air when I moved and I started to gain connections I had only dreamt of achieving. It came to a point where I was going to have to deny freelance work to actually do my day job and I knew I would regret it if I denied those projects. After all, it’s why I moved to here.
The last project I did on the side, before I quit my day job to freelance full time, was for Stephen Sanchez. At the time he was a small Nashville artist & he was coming out with his now 3x platinum song “Until I Found You”. I made animated promo assets for it. The song blew up online. It was so exciting to watch the song get the recognition it deserved. It helped validate me that I made the right choice by quitting my job to do my passion full time.
Another milestone was last year I got to creative direct the social roll out for Jake Scott’s album, Lavender. I directed and edited all the marketing assets from the ground up. Including teasers, music videos, lyric videos and even a billboard for Time Square.
Last year I made a goal to design an album cover. I was able to make 3 of them, and one of them being for country legend Keith Urban.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
Something I will never take for granted as a freelancer is knowing a client thought of me when hiring someone for a project. It’s important to me that my clients know how appreciative I am of that.
When my clients hire me I hope they do so in knowing that I am reliable, fast without jeopardizing quality and also am able to have a good rapport. Communication is key when it comes to such a subjective field & being able to have a camaraderie with my clients only strengthens that communication & trust. Relationships are important to me and I feel a vital part to produce great work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gracehartrick.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grhartrick/
Image Credits
I took & made all images provided.