We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jason Heglund. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jason below.

Jason, 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?

This is something that crosses my mind on a weekly basis and has been doing so for many years now. I’m not sure it’ll ever go away but it has slowed down over the past couple of years.

When I take a step back and look at what I get to do, I’m very happy and fulfilled. I can’t say the same thing about the work that I did when I was employed. It was satisfying in a different way. When I was employed I worked hard to get projects done on time and I always wanted to make sure I was making “good” design. It was always satisfying to finish a project and send it off to print or to different departments. But at the end of the day, it was just another task that I chewed through using the tools and assets at my disposal.

Now, as someone who spends most of his time coming up with creative ideas and bringing them to life, I still work really hard and am always trying to make “good” art, but it’s not just another task. It was an original idea that I had and took the time and effort to bring it to life. It’s especially rewarding when I’m selling my art at events and I get to see how it makes people smile. It’s a very rewarding feeling and that feeling motivates me to continue doing what I’m doing.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, hello there! My name is Jason and I’m an illustration artist living in the Pacific Northwest. I was born in Portland and never left because this place is beautiful! The beach is a short drive west, Mt. Hood and the forests are a short drive east and sandwiched in between is the Portland area full of beautiful landscapes, cityscapes and TONS of art! Portland really is a great place for creative people.

I started drawing when I was a kid and stuck with it until high school when I discovered graphic design through music packaging. From there, I went to college and got a degree in graphic design. While going to school full time, I also worked full time at a print shop for something like 7 or 8 years. It was a great way to learn about production and how to bring your designs to life. I always loved packaging so working in the print shop allowed me to really experiment with a lot of school projects and figure out how to build and print things.

I think I always wanted to work for myself because of all the bands and design studios that inspired me. It took a while, but eventually, after working as an in house brand designer, I was able to make that jump to freelance design and illustration. That jump also allowed me to use my free time (which was mostly late nights) to develop my own art brand where I got to bring my own artistic ideas to life. That eventually led to me creating the Hi, Hello There brand where I create art-based products and put those out into the world so that everyone can have art that makes them smile.

Right now, I split my time between the art brand and freelance projects. It’s a challenging balance, but it allows me to grow the art brand. My favorite types of freelance projects are ones where I get to use my drawing skills to bring things to life in a fun and light hearted way. I love it when you can look at something and it makes you smile. We all can use more of that kind of thing in this day and age.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Hi, Hello There is actually the fourth iteration of me trying to make a brand. The first one was just using my name and it was really unfocused and random, even though it was still based on art. At a certain point, I took a step back and decided I needed to be specific and create something with intention. After 2 other attempts, I landed on Hi, Hello There and just stuck with it. The funny thing is, there are designs that I currently use that were part of the previous attempts that I thought sucked. These designs are actually quite popular. So, I think the lesson there is that it’s important to stick with something and not give up too quickly. Some things just take time and effort. Growing a brand is a sort of work-in-progress. You can try your best to anticipate how things will go ahead of time, but you will always run in to surprises once you get going.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I assumed you had to have most things figured out before starting a business. Your branding needed to be dialed, your product ideas need to be refined, your art needed to be figured out and that you needed to know your direction. I don’t think that’s true now. It’s helpful to have a lot of that stuff figured out, but you can’t know it before you start. And once you start, you quickly learn how things need to change and evolve. So, embrace the idea that things don’t need to be 100% figured out and dialed right out of the gate. Know that running a business (and creating art) is a journey and an ever-evolving process.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hihellothere.art/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hihellothereart/

Image Credits

All images by Jason Heglund