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

Hi Julia, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

So I actually haven’t talked about this yet, but back in June of 2023, I left the corporate design world to focus on myself and my art. It’s a move I had been contemplating for years, but there was always something holding me back. Whether it was comfort in a certain schedule, health insurance/a steady paycheck, or feeling like it might be a letdown to someone on my team for leaving, I just kept making excuses.

As I got more serious with my exit strategy so to speak, I was reading a lot of blog posts and articles about freelancing, and researching artists and designers who ran their own online shops with various offerings. There was an episode of the podcast, “SOS with Sonja Rasula”, where a conversation sparked about someone working full time and doing their passion on the side, stating, “Am I going to bet on myself, or am I going to stick with the safe option and always have this thing on the side?” That resonated so deeply with me and I knew I needed to make the change.

The past few months have been a time of rebirth and discovery of who I am on my own as an artist and entrepreneur. I’ve been playing around and making new collage work, I revamped my website and added nearly 100 art prints to it, I launched DIY Vintage Paper Collage Packs, I’ve expanded my wholesale offerings having recently debuted on Faire, and I’ll be getting back into in-person markets starting this holiday season.

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 Julia Walck and I’m a collage artist and designer based out of Los Angeles, California.

The intersection of analog and digital is my happy place. Most of my work is created by using a hybrid of curated vintage ephemera, hand drawn typography, and then edited in digital programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

I’ve worked in the design industry for over 11 years. I have licensed artwork to brands like Urban Outfitters, created editorial illustrations for the likes of Women’s Wear Daily, as well as worked with and led in-house marketing design teams for various companies as a Design Director.

I established my online shop, juliawalck.com, in 2017. There you’ll find a wide selection of art prints and original collage work, novelty barware, and a lot of disco themed goods. I recently launched DIY Vintage Paper Collage Packs in my shop, too. They’re basically a workshop in a bag! I hope these packs serve as a jumping off point for inspiration for others to create their very own collages with curated found ephemera.

A couple of recent collages I made include a digitally created yin-yang disco ball and daisy disco ball, as well as a couple of hand-cut and pasted pieces. I shared the full process of a vintage camera collage on my Instagram, and I just finished my largest collage to date which is a 30” x 20” rainbow gradient consisting of over 140 hand cut and pasted images from vintage magazines.

I’m available for: editorial illustrations, graphic design projects, collage work, textile and print collaborations, album covers, art licensing, stationery design, wholesale, IRL workshops/events, and more! If you’d like to work together, shoot me an email at hello@juliawalck.com 💌

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

As I mentioned, I worked in the corporate design world for a long time. One of the same uphill battles I encountered over and over again was advocating for adequate design timelines. For whatever reason, a lot of people seem to think that all graphic design projects only take 5 minutes and are simply done with the click of a button. When in fact, there is so much more work that goes on behind the scenes.

Design projects are not one-size-fits-all. For example, an email design will take a different level of effort than a fully fledged logo redesign or brand campaign.
It’s important to remember that whether you’ve hired a freelance designer, or you’re working with an in-house team to create something, you’re in it as partners. This goes both ways – it requires connection, understanding and empathy towards the hard work and time that we all put into whatever our specialities are.

This is more of me as a Graphic Designer and Design Director speaking when I talk about these things, but this level of thought is always with me. Empathy always comes first. Design is a form of art, and art is a form of design. To me, they are one in the same.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Yes! I’ll list a few helpful resources here.

The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines is a book I always keep handy to look into industry standards. It includes contract examples, salary comparisons, and is chock-full of good to know information.

Jessica Hische has a very comprehensive PDF called The Dark Art of Pricing that covers the basics and beyond for charging what you’re worth. There are loads of other great resources in her shop and on her website as well.

I compiled a post about art theft and what to do if it happens to you, linked here: juliawalck.com/blog/what-to-do-if-your-artwork-gets-stolen. I wish I had known these things the first time my art was stolen, and I hope it can be handy for you if you ever end up needing help in that department.

Contact Info:

• Website: juliawalck.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliawalck/
• Other: Wholesale: faire.com/direct/juliawalck