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

Ryan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I am finally able to make a living from my creative work, but it wasn’t always like that. As a graphic designer and musician, I have had over 30 jobs that I used as stepping stones to get me to the next point in my creative career. One of the toughest parts was having friends/family critique my entrepreneurial way of life. After graduating college, I was still broke with only a couple of clients, sometimes no clients. At the moment, I have taken on too many clients to the point where I found trouble scheduling this interview. It reminds me of a time when I was opening up for a bigger nationally touring band. I was talking to the drummer outside of their tour bus, and he glanced at our band van; roughly the size of the trailer their tour bus was towing. He told me he misses traveling in a van with his friends. The grass is always greener.

Ryan, 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?

I’ve always been fascinated by art and music. I started playing drums and guitar at an early age, and I have a vivid memory of my Mom sketching out these connect-the-dots artworks for me to complete before I even started Kindergarten. I only applied to one college after graduating high school and that was Texas State University. As a Bobcat, I didn’t have a decided major until it was probably too late, in which case I said well I’m pretty good at making art; thus, I studied Communication Design. Upon graduating, I couldn’t find a job with a legit company as a Graphic Designer so I just started freelancing.

I really lucked out having the ability to draw and finding so much enjoyment in it. When I get a new client the first thing I do is sketch out my ideas before even touching Adobe Illustrator or Procreate. Then I show them the ideas and see if they like the direction it’s heading. This allows me to save so much time for both my business and client. Furthermore, I utilize this as a free quote. I love drawing, and if my potential client doesn’t like it I don’t believe they need to pay for it. This process has allowed me to get a lot of repeat business and word of mouth advertising.

What I’m most proud of, is having a design business I can call my own. This allows me to pay my rent, bills, afford vacations with my awesome girlfriend, and buy groceries. To all clients reading this thank you so much for that. In addition, being a freelance designer means I never have the same job. This year I was commissioned to do a 17′ x 9′ mural in the dining area of a home here in Austin, TX. It’s a very nice house and the painting actually consists of two walls that meet in a corner. The difficult part was creating a piece that looked aesthetically pleasing to the eye when viewed from all parts of the room.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Texas State has a strict portfolio review program where the judges are able to reject you even if there is a small pencil mark, left from cutting the presentation board. I know this because that’s why my first submission was declined. It was super painful to get that email after 4 months of preparing for the deadline. However, this taught me to be resilient once I started my own freelancing gig. Oftentimes, I create a new logo design that I feel amazing about, but the business rejects it because it’s not to their personal liking. As a designer, you think about the business branding and how the masses will react to the artwork, color scheme, etc., but ultimately in the end the owner is the gatekeeper. I’ve seen a lot of my best artwork go to recycling because of this, but it’s something you have to overcome as an artist.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I think it’s really amazing how you can affect someone with the art that you create. In music, I’ve had fans come up to me at the end of the show, and tell me how my art helped them through a difficult time, or just brought joy to their day. It feels powerful. I’m super glad to be getting paid for something that I enjoy doing, but at the end of the day, if I can entertain and bring life to the sad world through being creative, that’s something I truly appreciate.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hannaschdesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannaschdesign/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-hannasch-908a97249/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HannaschDesign
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/vBWzScVH7OI

Image Credits
Renee Dominguez