We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sam Wick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sam, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I love being a creative professional. It is hard to imagine doing anything else, and I have tried.
At one point, I took time off from work to explore doing something else. I had an amazing job, but I was questioning what I really wanted to do for the rest of my career.
I’m glad I took the time. It afforded me the ability to travel, to learn new things, and explore other possibilities. I thought a lot about what would make me happy, what would make a good life. In the end, It was hard to imagine not doing something creative. I never even seriously entertained doing anything else.
What I did learn is that, whatever you do for work, burnout is real. This was really about me, not my line of work. I needed to recharge the battery. A career is a marathon, not a sprint. Taking care of physical and mental health isn’t just a nice to have. It’s essential in the long term. I would encourage anyone who finds themselves frustrated, burned out, or just having trouble with work to look in the mirror. Are you taking care of yourself? Our relationship with the world, and this includes work, is a reflection of our relationship with ourselves.
Sam, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a multidisciplinary designer and artist. First, I attended school for fine art and the University of Colorado. Then, I went to California College of the Arts for graphic design.
I have worked as a product designer and creative director for several tech companies while maintaining my own artistic practice. I had the pleasure of working with many amazing people at Adobe, Cameo, VSCO, and others. Here, I built new products and brands that reached people around the world. I have also partnered with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, DeYoung Museum, the Museum of Photographic arts, and others, creating interactive works of art.
Currently, I am the Head of Design at ApolloMax, an AI cybersecurity startup and partnering with the Santa Clara University Art museum.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
There was a time in my career when recognition was very important to me: awards, attention, career advancement. I wanted validation for all my hard work. I wanted to be accepted and respected for what I do. However, most of the time when I achieved a goal, it wasn’t as satisfying as I thought it would be.
Today, my perspective has shifted. I still have goals, I still have aspirations. I still push myself. What is different is that I am much more focused on being in the moment. To me, the process of getting there is just as important as the destination. I strive to get up every day, feel good, enjoy the work I’m doing, and enjoy the people I work with.
Life is a lot of little moments. Most of them are rather mundane. Those big accomplishments are the exception not the norm. Getting the norm right, day in day out, matters a lot to my overall well being.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
I love the problem NFTs are trying to solve.
For most of history scarcity contributed to the value of artwork. Rembrandt is said to have made around 300 paintings. Obviously, there will never be any more painted by him, as he is deceased. Part of those paintings’ value is simple supply and demand. Many people would like to own a Rembrandt, but there are only 300.
Scarcity is not an issue in the same way for digital art, though. I’ve pondered how use digital tools to make art, but retain what makes handmade art collectable. NFTs try to solve this problem. It attempts to provide proof of ownership and authenticity, while manufacturing scarcity.
Unfortunately, I don’t think NFTs do this very well. Ultimately these are .jpgs that can exist in multiple places at the same time. Therefore, they are not really scarce. NFT markets have fraud. They have fakes. They have market manipulation. People get NFTs stolen or accidentally purchase knock offs. That all makes me question the proof of ownership and authenticity as well.
Maybe they will evolve. I hope so.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://samwick.com
- Instagram: @iam_samwick
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-wick/
