We were lucky to catch up with Steve Zwillinger recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Steve, thanks for joining us today. Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

This, for now, was not meant to be my full-time living. It’s a side hustle for now and doing better than I had imagined. Social media is key. I post 2 or 3 types of different posts every week. Some simple, some with complicated animation (usually set to music) showcasing the many different Zwilly Print artwork that is for sale. I run the full gamut of social media outlets, Instagram, Facebook, Alignable, LinkedIn, and now THREADS. Please follow me on all social media! Search for Zwilly Prints. As far as speeding up the process knowing what I know now…being more of an expert on Social media strategy and audience targeting. At this point I am fairly new at it and tend to do a lot of educated guessing. I know I could understand better and do better at this!

Steve, 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 an advertising Creative Director who used my creative energy towards commercial campaigns for Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies.

When you are a creative within an ad agency or within an in-house creative department, your work is never really your own. You have creative bosses, client bosses, brand limitations and dictates. All with countless rounds of revisions and deadlines.

So your work never fully feels like your own personal creation but one huge compromise, a “let’s just get this done and over with” experience.

During the pandemic, when all work stopped and people were able to take a breathe and take in the world around them, I went for a long morning walk every single day in my beautiful home city of San Francisco. Without daily 9-5 work responsibilities, I quickly started seeing the world in a much slower way, a much more intentionally creative way. By taking the time to NOTICE things. Things that sparked me, things that interested me. Things that stood out to me.

Photos I captured. Tons of photos. Countless photos. All on my iPhone.

And with my Photoshop skills, re-imagined them. Re-imagined them as I saw them in my head.

I started posting the photos on Instagram with a header “My Daily Walk” to enthusiastic responses.

And more and more I posted. And more and more, the responses would encourage me to create more.

After a few years, many people wanted to buy some of the posted images and some suggestions came forward to set up a dedicated site showcasing my artwork and offering them for sale.

And Zwilly Prints was born.

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

The new focus of Zwilly Prints is to target the hospitality Industry, more specifically, hotels. You can get an idea of the “selling” focus at www.zwillyprints.com/hotels.

There was a new hotel being developed in nearby Santa Cruz. A huge, whole square block of excavated dirt that would in about a year, become a 200-room ultra deluxe boutique hotel and spa resort just steps to the beach.

I researched the developers for the hotel and the owners and started writing emails introducing Zwilly Prints and showing samples of what I could do. The pitch: to create an exclusive custom Santa Cruz/waterfront area digital print wall art collection in my own Zwilly Prints unique style. These images would be exclusively theirs to use, and depict the personality and unique features of the area around the hotel and the broader Santa Cruz environment.

So I wrote countless emails introducing myself, and asking for steerage to the interior decor decision maker(s) for the in-development hotel.

And not one person responded.

I tried calling and leaving messages.

And not one person called me back.

After a few months I decided to take the bull by the horns, went to Santa Cruz, took lots of creative photos, and made an artfully crafted Zwilly Prints collection for the hotel.

With this produced and ready-to-go collection I contacted more people. Finally someone answered an email with the person’s name and contact info who is in charge of interior decisions for the new hotel.

I of course emailed this person in charge of interior decisions immediately with no response. I waited weeks and emailed again. Nada.

Summoning upon my inner gumption, I decided to do something bold to get noticed and even better, get a response. I printed and framed one of the Zwilly prints I was proposing for this new hotel and FED EXed it directly to him. It was of $250 for the framed print and $45 to send. 

I am happy to say that I have a phone call with him in a few minutes! He loved the artwork, (he thought it was FUN) and I am hopeful I can forge a relationship with him, and with his national design firm which specializes in hospitality design. My goal would be that Zwilly prints would be their source anytime a new hotel’s interior is one of their projects.

Wish me luck!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

To embrace your inner creative self in every waking moment, and to approach and see everything that comes before you in an artful, creative way. There is beauty and wonder in every turn if your eyes are open to it. When you see things through your creative lens.

Then you truly lead a sparked, artful life.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.zwillyprints.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zwilly_prints/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zwillyprints
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zwilly-prints/