We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matthew Bradley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Matthew, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

When I was in school one of the classes we had to take was design, were we got given laptops and the teacher taught us how to use the adobe products like Photoshop and Illustrator. Prior to these classes I had a little interest in digital creating and I was really appealed to cool wallpaper and digital art, and thought maybe one day I could learn to create those things myself. After the class I was immediately hooked into using the adobe products and sparked the interest of getting better at Photoshop. Every moment I had in my spare time during my child and teen hood I would practice and devote time into getting better at photoshop. It still felt like a great hobby and I never knew that I could be building a career of it.

The most important skills I learnt was staying committed and consistent with my skill development. I knew if i wanted to get better I would have to be patient and keep practicing my craft. I can still recall times where I would look at other peoples work and get angry at myself for not being able to produce content as good as them. But I had to be mentally strong and disciplined to keep trying and keeping practicing to get as good at my craft as I could be.

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

I am a sports graphic designer based in Melbourne, Australia working for the NBL (National Basketball League). Using the Adobe products started out as a hobby for me, something for me to have fun with in my spare time. I have been a basketball fan all of my life so I started my basketball edits and graphics of my favourite players. I was first introduced to Photoshop and the Adobe products when I was in year 7, so I was around 13 years old. My school made us do a design class where we made logos and other products. I was instantly hooked into that class, I am not good at maths and I found subjects like English and Science boring. I did take art but I was really intrigued on making art digitally. After a few design classes where they taught us the basics, I took it upon myself to learn more about the tools and different techniques that my teachers weren’t teaching us. It was my goal to be the best at Photoshop in my year level. I would spend almost every day trying to create something, whether it was good or bad I still had fun doing it.

After showing a few of my friends the work I was making they showed me full support and recommended to share it online to reach more people. Growing my Instagram page took a long time, but I knew that I had to be patient and that growth would happen eventually as long as I stayed committed. After posting my creative pieces for years I now recently have done work for some big names and big brands for the past year. I am really lucky and fortunate to turn my once hobby into the start of my career as a designer.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Once I had finished school it was time to start university, to take the next step into education and work towards reaching my dream job. Once I completed my first year of university we had our summer break, and during that time my parents were really pushing me to get a job. I was already working in hospitality but my parents kept edging me to get some work in the design industry. I had several months off from Uni and they didn’t want me to waste that time, and I fully agreed with them. For the first few weeks of my break I was applying to multiple companies looking for jobs, part time work, commissions and even internship roles. I did a few small jobs for people but I was getting rejected from all of the places I applied to. During this time I was really dreading my other job in hospitality and I really considered quitting and starting again. But luckily through one of my relationships through my Instagram someone was able to get me in contact with the people at the NBL, I was set up with an interview and eventually got offered a full time role. When this was happening my next year of University was about to start again. So I had to make the decision to continue with my course and get a degree, or drop out and take a position having barley any qualification. It was a big change in my life but I am very glad with the decision I made.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Keep going, growth doesn’t happen instantly. It’s a slow process that takes a while to happen. Through my experience I found that slow and consistent growth leads to longer success. My Instagram page didn’t start getting much attention for about 2 years, but I never let the slow growth get to my head of annoy me. I was having fun with what I was doing and I notice the gradual little increase in the number as the time went on. There are many other factors you can look into to maximise your growth like looking into the data and analytics, or understanding trends and algorithms, but at the core of it all if you like the slow process of building something you put time and effort into, and you stay committed to it because you enjoy what you do, eventually success and results will come your way.    

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acidicshow/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@acidicshow5258
• Other: https://www.behance.net/matthew_bradley

Image Credits
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp1VuSyL4_o/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CpznMilLiWn/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CtfYQIyhXTm/