We recently connected with Karl Hebert and have shared our conversation below.

Karl, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think the two primary things that have allowed me to be successful are self awareness, and self discipline.

In regards to self awareness – The chief objective, regardless of subject matter, is always for the work to appeal to other humans. I feel that the deeper we understand our own motivations and drivers, the better we can empathize with others’ experience, and create work that resonates in compelling ways. Being self aware is also key when it comes to wrangling ones emotions. Designers are notoriously fickle, melodramatic beings (myself included). The more emotionally aware one is, and the better one can navigate the ups and downs of being a creative professional, the more one can focus on making smart/unique creative decisions.

Secondly, being a successful creative requires an enormous amount of self discipline. Never settling. Always chasing and refining. Constant progress. The relentless pursuit of always outdoing yourself. On days where the energy is low, and the the idea bucket is dry, it’s most important to simply show up. Trusting the process and staying in perpetual motion is the only way one can overcome creative blocks. SOMETHING will happen is you show up and make space for it to happen.

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 back background and context?

Simply put, I’m a graphic designer. I first heard that term at the age of 12. That’s when I knew what I would do for a living. Over the past 17 years as a professional I’ve definitely done my fair share of graphic design work, but I’ve certainly broadened my capabilities to be a more holistic creative; a rock painter, a collector, an artist, a writer.

I’ve worked at a multitude of advertising and creative shops (6 agencies total, one agency twice), as well at 4 separate attempts at self employment. From traditional advertising firms of 160 people, to tiny operations of 4, and 3 times as a Design Director. I’ve tried it all; CPG, art direction, branding, digital, long-form, environmental, illustration. All of it. This wide ranging experience has allowed me to be a part of so many different assignments, and work alongside so many incredibly talented creators from other disciplines. My career-soup has helped me discover what gets me most excited to sit at a computer all day.

I’ve been operating under the moniker ‘Gold Lunchbox’ since 2008 (yes, I have and did use a gold spray-painted lunchbox for my actual lunch). For most of my career I held down a full time job during the day, and tried to find my way as an independent designer at night, working on freelance assignments and self initiated projects. At one point my wife and I lived in an apartment with our 6 month old daughter where I would come home from my agency gig, and work all evening in a cramped walk-in closet. I was hungry. I had grit.

I finally made an all-in bet on myself in 2019 to once and for all leave the scrum of the agency life, and make a run at my own roster of clients. I haven’t looked back. And so far, I’ve never been happier, healthier and more creatively fulfilled.

I think if I had to name one thing that I’m most proud of, it’s that I have the capability of working in many different styles and techniques. My wide range of experience has allowed me to refine a number of skills that I can tap into depending on the desired approach. “No house style” I’ll often say in new business meetings. I try to work in such a way that each new assignment leads me to what needs to happen, versus trying to strong-arm the assignment to fit into my personal style.

At the end of the day I’d like to be known for being a well rounded creative human who happens to specialize in graphic design. A visual problem solver. A designer who can pivot into a writer, or a strategist, or an illustrator when it’s needed.

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

I think there are times when people working in non-creative industries fail to understand how much of themselves creatives put into their work. Their output is part of them. It’s a reflection of how they see the world. It’s easy to point at a creative and say “what an emotionally sensitive/fussy being”, but never take a minute to think about the creatives’ experience. Creatives don’t speak the language of spreadsheets and budgets. Creatives speak in colors and feelings – balance and composition. It’s a world of abstract to say the least.

What designers do is possibly one of the most subjective fields around. There is never a correct answer. Design isn’t math. Design isn’t a checklist or a calendar to be organized. It’s an art. It’s fluid and never done. Design is one person coming up with a solution and saying “here’s the best way that I know how to visually solve this”, and then 5 other people pointing at everything ‘wrong’ or ‘could be better’.

Though I’m better at it now, I used to take feedback hard. At times it felt like a personal attack – a rejection of me and how I’ve chosen to solve the problem. As a young designer this was the most challenging part of the job.

Now that I’m older with more experience, I’ve learned the art of compartmentalization – extracting the feelings wrapped up in the work, and approaching assignments at arms length. I’ve learned how to inject my spirit into the work, but never find my personal identity in it, because that’s a recipe for getting bruised and beaten up.

What I’d like others to understand is that being a professional creative is emotionally taxing. Yes it’s a job, but it’s so much more than that.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

From 2016 to 2018 I worked at a CPG (consumer packaged goods) design agency in San Francisco. My wife, daughter and I moved there from Austin for a change of scenery, and to chase a few life-goals.

Within the first couple of weeks at the studio I got my first brief, along with the first-assignment-jitters that typically show up at a new shop. Regardless of my nerves I was excited to be working in a design mecca like SF. I jumped into the mix and began cranking out design solutions that I felt would resinate with my Creative Director and fellow designers. They didn’t. I was flopping on my first assignment.

Every design review and checkin was brutal. Everything I laid out on the table was received like a dry Cheerio, and nothing was hitting. As the days ticked off the calendar I grew nervous that maybe I wasn’t cut out for the San Francisco design culture. About 2 and a half weeks of this went by. I was super spooked and floundering. One morning, beat down and emotionally zapped from all the toiling and getting nowhere, I came into the studio and decided that I’d try something different. I told myself “fuck the brief” and ‘fuck what a San Francisco designer would do”. I gave myself a personal challenge to spend the day doing what moved only me. To design this product in a way that got ME excited and no on else.

The next internal review was the following morning. I put what I had down on the table fully expecting to be passed over once again, and chalk the whole thing up to nerves. But that didn’t happen. For the first time there was actually excitement and attention being given to my work. The team dug it. I refined the direction, it was included in the client presentation, and about a month later the client was in production with what I had produced in the final hour. I bet on myself, and it worked.

What I realized in this experience was that being true to who you are, and what you offer to the world is worthwhile. Each of us has an energetic fingerprint that’s unique, and can be echoed back through the work if we just lean into it.

What I had been doing on my first assignment in San Francisco was trying to design like someone else. Trying to design like I was one of those slick minimalist modern designers from the Bay Area. I’m not. I’m a somewhat crass maximalist from the south. I have a wild mash-up of cultural influences and funky sensibilities. I like to chop up type, make things uncomfortable and melt faces with dissonant color palettes. Sure, there are others out there that can design better than me, but no one out there that can design LIKE me. Or you. Or LAND. Or Jessica Hische. Or Draplin. Every creative is an amalgamation of their own life experiences and inputs. And those experiences are like a fingerprint that no one else can reproduce. And if you just stay true to that thing that only you have, it will reverberate out of the work and others will feel it.

This is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned so far in my career.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.goldlunchbox.com
• Instagram: @goldlunchbox
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/karlhebert
• Other: www.goldlunchbox.bigcartel.com