We were lucky to catch up with Will Lunsford recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Will, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
Art has always has been the one constant in my life. The outlets of expression may change but the desire to create has been with me since the first after-school art classes I took in the first grade.
However, the first moment I realized that art was a viable career path was my senior year of college when my high-school art teacher gave us a semester long assignment to research an occupation in a creative field. I was given graphic design, which I had never heard of, and the main part of the assignment was to job shadow a related business. One problem. In our small town this was not an industry that had a lot of representation. There was the advertising department at the newspaper and a newly formed design firm that consisted of two employees and an intern from a local college. I chose the design firm.
I had always thought that the only way to an artistic career was through comic / book illustration or the more traditional route of painting, sculpture, etc. My first day showed me that this was not the case. I was thrown into a room where, to my left, the art director was working on a festival poster design where he used watercolor to create the background image and on my right the intern was building a website for one of his favorite musicians.
The idea intrigued me.
Graphic design could be a way for me to create art that would be represented through limitless applications. How could I ever get bored in a career where one week I could possibly be working on a brand identity for a coffee company and the next a flyer for a concert venue. So I left high school entering college determined that graphic design was the artistic path I was destined to take. And it has been…kind of.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I was in an artistic frenzy throughout college spending almost every waking hour saturating myself in history, taking any type of medium I could fit on the schedule and spending almost every waking hour camped out in the art building slinging paint and making an absolute mess. Then I found it. The class that would add one more tool to my artistic belt alongside graphic design.
Screen Printing.
I’m a huge music collector and have accumulated a burdensome number of band shirts throughout my life. Screen printing seemed to be a practical way for me to create eye-catching designs for local bands around town. So after college, an art buddy of mine was moving out West and needed to unload his 4-color carousel. I was on it. We drove an hour away, dug the pieces out of a dusty barn and I went to work setting up my business Wide Awake Studio. While working my day job, I started screen printing for friends, bands and eventually businesses during my off time. It was a blast and became the catalyst that allowed me to meet all types of people from different walks of life.
Down the line, a friend of mine, that I had started printing shirts for his tattoo shop, asked me if I wanted to collaborate on a large outdoor mural with him and a few other artists. I hadn’t really painted much since college but I’m not one to say no to an artistic opportunity. I’m thinking I’ll grab a handful of brushes, some paint cans and be ready to go. Not the case. After looking at this nearly 2,000 square foot wall, I realize it will likely take weeks for me to finish just my section. That’s when my friend informs me that my best option is to use spray paint. I had never touched a spray can but he was right. With a box full of rusto cans, three days later I had finished my first large scale mural project adding one more tool to the belt.
Mural Painting
I still keep all these tools close by. Throughout the week I work to build brands, both large and small, through graphic design and save my afternoons and weekends for screen printing and murals. I rarely ever get bored. Working in a variety of mediums keeps me constantly inspired and stay driven to find new and creative ways to bring each client’s vision to life in a unique and meaningful way.
Over the years I have worked on building up a resistance to saying no out of fear. If I’m asked to work on a project or with a medium I’ve never encountered the answer is usually “When can we start.” It’s what makes working in a creative industry so much fun. The experimentation.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The constant variety and the satisfaction of conquering uncertainty is the most rewarding aspect of working as a creative. Each day I wake up with different projects that come with very different challenges. At times there is a pool of ideas to choose from and at others the answer may be submerged in a murky swamp of trial and error. But I find that I learn the most during those times when I go into a project with no idea of what the result will be or how it can be done.
Recently, I was asked to paint a sidewalk mural at a local elementary school over spring break. Now, spray painting on the ground comes with its own challenges but at the last minute I was asked if I could paint a second mural with the school mascot in it. A cardinal. Me not apt to say no, I took it on. Only one problem. I have never painted a cardinal and there is definitely not enough time to work on a bunch of practice sketches. Typically, I prefer to lay out a composition beforehand making sure I’m completely satisfied with it before even touching a paint can. The day I was set to start, I found myself standing over a blank sidewalk with no idea how this was going to come together. I knew that I just had to start. A week later the mural was finished and I successfully painted my first cardinal.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Honestly, my audience on social media isn’t a large number worth bragging about but it has been an extremely supportive one. I am constantly inspired by the immense talent that can be found through social media and am humbled when anyone chooses to add Wide Awake Studio to their list of likes and follows.
When I started my Facebook page years ago with zero follower I gave myself a single challenge. Post one sketch everyday for one year. Now I had built up a substantial library of sketchbooks throughout the years so I thought this would be easy. And for the first few months it wasn’t bad. Flip through a book, find a sketch, scan it and post it. Eventually, the decent sketches in the book were running thin and I knew I had to start drawing more to make sure I had enough. I was determined to keep going so I tried to make a game out of it. Some weeks I would think of something I wasn’t good at drawing (like horses) and draw some form of it for seven days. Then as my followers slowly grew I would ask them what they wanted me to draw and they came up with some of the best ideas. When we took a trip to New Orleans, I drew the street performers we ran into.
The process was an absolute blast and really kept me engaged and inspired the entire year. As the number of social media platforms grow, I periodically still try and recreate that feeling in different ways to kick start my creativity and stay connected with the people around me. For example, last October on Instagram I decided to draw a skull everyday for a month. I used just about every type of media I had lying around to make it happen and some of the final results even surprised myself.
What I would say to anyone starting a creative social media account is “Just have fun with it.” Do want’s entertaining for you and what will keep your interest. The people who find it will see your passion and stick around to see how your story plays out.
Contact Info:
- Website: wideawakestudio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ideasneversleep/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideasneversleep/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ideasneversleep
- Other: Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@ideasneversleep
Image Credits
All images are owned by Will Lunsford / Wide Awake Studio.