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

Nicklaus, appreciate you joining us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I will be remembered for my artwork, regardless of the form it took. There’s so many steps in-between where you want to be and where you are that you’ve gotta relish it all. A production company focused on Black and POC entertainment is still my main goal. Before i’m gone, i’m sure that will be realized.

I hope they say I was kind. As I get older, I also hope they said I showed up when it mattered. Being an adult is kind of this trap of not having enough time to do things while also not having enough time NOT to. Making it count is a sacrifice that I make for people I care about so I hope that shows. They’ll definitely say I was in my creative duffle on Earth though, without question haha.

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?

So, i’m Nicklaus Gray. I’m a freelance illustrator/animator/photographer/video editor during the day and a producer/vocalist/MC/esports caster at night. I’ve been drawing since I was a kid and that opened the floodgates of trying anything creative I could get my hands on.

The most recent pickup though is casting. I already enjoy watching video games, so talk about said game while watching it is kinda second nature. Though i’m more on the FGC side of things right now, I wanna broaden my horizons in the near future.

As a freelancer, my goal is to see a need and fill a need. A lot of my first clients were people I knew personally and I’m forever grateful for that. This could be anything from uniform designs, sound engineering, score composition, executive producing and all types of stuff. I have the ability to think objectively about design and sound from a studied standpoint. Some value that and here I am.

I’m really proud of my ability to risk it for the biscuit, so to speak. I’m not afraid of failing at this point in life, so the opportunities that come from the lack thereof have scaled the quality of resources that have opened up to me.

My brand is myself, for better or worse. Separating who I am from what I do is something a younger Nick did that I refuse to. And myself is a 30-something nerd with an expansive lexicon, tons of creative ideas and the will to execute them all.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

They’re a small aspect of a bigger problem when it comes to web3. This idea that creativity is suddenly more open because of the blockchain and AI and blah blah blah.

Tech bros need to pick up a pencil and shut up.

NFTs are trash and if the 95% empty market cap is any tell, hopefully they’ll be expunged from the internet sooner than later.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Making things in my head appear on a piece of paper, word document or screen. Like, wtf?? THAT’S CRAZY.

Plus, the creation of a lot of my work is a time capsule to a certain period of time. All the work that I put into developing a concept, marketing on socials and the like is timeless. And those chunks of my life I can go back to and reminisce on where and who I was then.

It’s awesome. Which is why i’m so excited to drop A4E on October 10th. It’s really just an expression of myself that I was able to manifest into something tangible.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nicklausgray.art
• Instagram: instagram.com/nicklausgray
• Twitter: twitter.com/nicklausgray
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nicklausgray

Image Credits
Photo 2 by @yostayfun on Twitter!