We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ty Davis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ty below.

Ty, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?

I think design gets overlooked as a genuine art form because its created with a more direct purpose and goal in mind. Though there are elements and themes that can go into fine art pieces just the same as design does. Being able to convey emotions or ideas is the core of most visual communication, fine art taps into a more emotional connection compared to designs informative purpose. I wonder if most designers were to start out as fine artist, how the landscape would change from my current perception of design.

Since most design is usually made in the vain of someone else’s idea, having the designer be the front runner of execution and ideating should be celebrated more versus the person being told what to do. It’s their execution at the end of the day that gets the final work produced.

Ty, 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?

My name is Ty Davis, I was born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida. From an early age I was on the art path, starting photography at 11 years old. I got my arts foundation at Miami Arts Charter, and during my time I won a Merit Award from the YoungArts Foundation at 17 for my photo based work. When highschool wrapped up, I attended the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) from 2016 to 2020. During this time I had faced some unfortunate adversity from a very racist, sexist and classist photo professor, while I was the only black student in that class. His comments and attitude made me realize I should be going to college to experience new skills and knowledge versus doubling down on the same thing that got me there. Printmaking was a practice I fell in love with during my time, and deeply inspires my style, techniques and projects.

I ended up totally becoming a graphic designer by accident. Nearly 5 years later I haven’t looked back.

During my time pre and post graduation I used my design skills to create flyers for parties and events, which allowed me to explore my skills and styles in a very open format. Brining that skill back to Miami has found me deep into the music scene, creating the identities for various DJ’s, Live shows and events. At a local level I’m very proud to be able to work with groups like ClubSpace and even the likes of Pharell Williams, creating stylized architectural renderings that were even shown on CNN.

I create my work under the alias “Duality”, as a quick nod being mixed race and to show that most of the things we see and experience has sides to them. I like to have a good balance of design work and personal pieces to show a range, and currently I’m on a pursuit of Naturally Dyeing my own paper for printmaking purposes and fine art.
Overall as a designer I create: Logos, fonts, books, typography, photos, merch items and design assets you can use in your own practice. The goal is to be a generalist and a Creative Director to fully shape any vision I may have.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being an artist the biggest take away I have the perspective of the viewer.

I personally thing Empathy and Apathy are 2 of the most raw emotions before anything else, they are present before any initial impression. Either this grabs your attention or it doesn’t, plain and simple.

All I can do is present a viewpoint or philosophy to someone else, and hearing their thoughts and perspective informs and updates my feelings of how I was when I had produced those pieces. It was allows me to share and see my growth as a person before being an artist. Those experiences to me are more valuable to those who can take the time to see what naturally resonates with their spirit and life.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

NFT’s are really some future shit, as it its forward thinking but shit right now.

It’s ironic cause I do have one listed currently – but I don’t claim to be educated in the spaces or how any of it works.Personally to me their over the top receipts, I’d rather use it as proof of sale and use the money to help produce the true 1/1 piece to whoever has bought it. The way their done is more quantity – selling hundreds or thousands at a tiny scale to ultimate add up. Not to mention its always generative art, not anything that was created with intent or more than going beyond presets or character creation.

Like how I had mentioned before, It’s the first time Digital & Design work can be considered in a fine arts perspective, but has been reduced to glorified profile pictures and incredibly poor quality control. Not to mention the environmental impacts are REALLY unregulated and bad. There’s alot of work that needs to be streamlined because its in a “wild west” era right now, nothing is set.

Contact Info:

• Website: Tydavis.studio
• Instagram: @duali.ty // @dy.tavis
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ty-davis-a565a4176/
• Twitter: @__duality
• Other: Linktr.ee/dy.tavis (all relevant links)

Image Credits
Ty Davis