We recently connected with Nohemi Arvizu and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nohemi, thanks for 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.

The drawing part started at a young age like most artists, I just started doing it and didn’t stop. I went through various eras in terms of subject matter in my drawings but it all adds up in terms of practice. Designing and mixing both came later after college when I got a job at a print shop. That was my school I guess because everything I learned there I use now in my freelance career, not only in the technical side but also in customer service, how to look for manufacturers, and things that don’t have anything to do with the creative aspect.

An essential skill I think it’s important to have for any creative endeavour is consistently showing up for yourself and tolerance to frustration because most of the time you won’t see huge clients or pay in the first years of your career, but if one stays focused on developing your style and producing artwork regularly to keep your creative muscle active then eventually you get to a level where your work speaks starts getting noticed and recognized.

Nohemi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Nohemí and I’m a freelance merch designer and illustrator from Mexico. I started a project called Pink Fang in 2018 where I make merchandise with my illustrations as well as personalized designs for clients. My work is quite niche because I love mixing dark themes with bright colors, hyper-feminine aesthetics, the horror genre, etc.

Curently I am focused in desiging for the music industry and I’m pushing the agenda of including more of this bright colored aesthetic into merch tables around the world, unironically. One can only have so many black band tshirts, I’m afraid. So that’s where I come in and what I offer it’s simply a slightly different perspective into what a band tee or piece of merch can look like.

I am a massive fan of music in general, so I believe my identity as a fan first comes in handy when designing because I am in touch with what fans like to see or wear on their merch.

I’m quite proud of the body of work I’ve been able to produce the past few years, and the clients that have approached me without having to compromise my style and instead seek me out because it’s something that matches what they do or want as well. Whether big or small, when a client puts their trust in you for their own projects it’s a big honor, and when they know exactly what you are about it makes the process to create for someone else a lot easier and enjoyable.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Oh man, I think that anyone who is a freelancer and constantly pitching designs has a very good sense of self and worth in their work because you absolutely need to not be scared of rejection in the slightest to survive in the pool of active creatives.

Rejection is a huge part of the job, but being exposed to it makes you more resilient to it. Personally though, I think some of it is developed before by being very confident in what you bring to the table and loving and standing behind your work 100%. So when someone says no it stings like a motherfucker, especially if it’s a client you really wanted to land, but it’s not gonna deter your journey at all. One keeps going until you hear that yes.

In my experience, and it will sound conceited, I’ve never really been scared of showing my work or people not liking it because *I* am in love with it. Young people call it being delusional and I agree, you have to believe it to make other people believe it and that for me is the best armor. I have been rejected by dream clients and it’s awful but one simply gets the fuck over it. I take a few days to mope and then get back to it because there’s work to do.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

FUCK ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE. Stop using it to create the ugliest garbage imaginable and hire a proper creative. Applied to ALL creative ambits by the way, not just visual arts.
Share your favourite artist’s work any chance you have. Sharing a post, an image, a song, anything, goes a LONG way, and it’s free.

I think society and people in general could benefit from engaging in art not only from an espectator perspective but also as an active participant in whatever artistic discipline calls them the loudest.
I believe art is a fundamental part of being human and anyone is capable of being a creator or artist and sometimes our own perfeccionism and idea of what an artist is holds us back from enjoying that part of our humanity without judgement and without wanting to be the best at it on the first try. If people had this in their lives more often, it’d be easier to see the proper value that artists and creatives bring to society.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pinkfang.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piinkfang/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/piinkfang-1055160774654791/