We recently connected with Will Ramirez and have shared our conversation below.

Will, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

Ideally, I would love to get to a place where I can create whatever I want and have it resonate with enough people to support me. At the moment, I’m still figuring myself out; creating art and selling at local art vending events and working as a freelance graphic designer to make ends meet. I used to work as an in-house graphic designer for an advertising agency and as covid hit I was laid off. I then landed another design job for a banking app and about six months later I was laid off again. The banking app I worked for positioned themselves towards small businesses and it was inspiring taking in the stories of successful people who figured it out. I decided all this effort I’m putting in to work for someone else, I’d rather put back into myself. So far, It’s been challenging and I feel unsure about the future but I’m still determined to keep going.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve always known that I wanted to do something creative as a job. I grew up in Delaware to two hardworking immigrant parents. I was shy and introspective, loved arts and crafts and I still enjoy anime and cartoons; which inspire my art to this day. When I was around 8 years old I had Kirby: Nightmare in dreamland for gameboy advance and I was really into drawing Kirby. In high school, I had some really supportive art teachers who saw potential in me. I experimented with different mediums, including ceramics, intaglio printmaking and I was introduced to adobe photoshop and illustrator. My favorite projects to work on were always personal passion projects with no particular goal in mind, just experimental and for the sake of making something cool. At the time I was really inspired by Salvador Dali and Esao Andrews along with a bunch of digital art I would see on tumblr. I decided to go to art school and I studied at the Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD) for two years and graduated with an AFA in graphic design. I was feeling good leaving DCAD and I finished my studies at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn New York where I graduated with a BFA in communication design.

After college, I moved into a shitty basement apartment in Brooklyn. I got my start as a graphic design intern at the Milk Studios Agency department in Chelsea. I helped out with graphic design tasks like organizing visual presentations, brainstorming and build graphics. My favorite project to work on was illustrating a batch of stickers for Milk. I met some cool people and learned a lot. I felt inspired and it felt good to be part of a team and feel valued. Though, after six months, the internship was not going to lead to any longterm design position, which was a huge bummer.

After Milk, I worked at LaPlaca Cohen, an advertising agency for cultural institutions like the Met and the New York Botanical Garden. Throughout my time there I gained experience designing ads for online spaces and I learned more about print production and my understanding of branding deepened. It was fun nerding out about design and typography with my team, who were really supportive and encouraging. We had a nice vibe going. I worked on a variety of projects along the way but still, whenever I got the opportunity, I loved creating art and combining that with design.

Then covid hit, Trump still sucked, and I was laid off. No one really had any idea what was going to happen. Both my parents are immunocompromised and I was so worried for them that I decided to just move back to Delaware until society stabilized a bit (lol). Looking back, I was in a bad mental state. I wasn’t creating too much or too often and my thoughts were overwhelmingly negative. I really lost a lot of motivation, and my self esteem tanked. Further more, it was becoming increasingly clear that our own government is not for the people and more closely resembles an oligarchy. Especially today, the future seems bleak.

I needed to get myself out of that funk. My self care is plant care. I was keeping my plant babies alive and well. I wanted to try making some concrete planters for myself and found this cool art grade concrete to experiment with. I ordered some planter and coaster molds online and went for it. Concrete is a cool material and at first was tricky to get the hang of. There’s a lot of variables at play like the environmental temperature & temperature of water used to mix the concrete. Plus there’s a fine line between just enough and too much water and I’m still learning. There’s a lot of science involved and I like the contrast between the industrial vibe and finished polished concrete. It was sweet getting my hands dirty again and crafting something away from my computer. I really enjoy marbling colors together and seeing the unique swirls and patterns that are organically created. That sweet spot between your own craft and an element of organic randomness is wonderful and definitely calls for more exploration.

During this period, my boss from LaPlaca Cohen was working at a banking app named NorthOne and when they had an opening for a remote design position, he reached out and suggested I apply. I did and I got the gig. I worked remotely with a design team to build animations, ads, social media content and presentations. My drawing skills were also utilized and that felt cool to be able to contribute those skills on a team again. My favorite days were those where I got to draw all day. Though, the job itself was just that, just a job. It was inspiring learning about small business owners who used the app and how successful and rewarding their journeys have been, I wanted that too. After six months working there I got laid off again.. bummer. I was starting to feel drained and burned out by advertising. Sell sell sell! Capitalism sucks and seems to ruin everything but here we are.

Being laid off again was the push I needed to decide to pursue art more seriously. Looking back, during school I decided to pursue graphic design out of fear and pressure to choose something more “safe”. I took as many studio classes as my major allowed and in my senior year when I presented my work, I showed as much illustration and art as I could alongside my design work. When I think about my favorite projects I’ve worked on or what was the most rewarding to me, I think about the opportunities I had to create art or an illustration in tandem with design. I don’t get as much opportunity to do that in an agency or in-house design position. I’m still doing graphic design on a freelancing basis to make ends meet. I’m also working on my own personal brand and that has been a slow burn; a lot of overthinking but I’m proud of how it’s shaping up. I still love design and the more I learn about art, the more I understand how graphic design principals exist within art. That discovery has been encouraging in and of itself as I am evolving and combining interests and seeing where things lead.

Somedays I struggle to stay motivated and I get into my own head. In general I feel that art and creativity have really been devalued and extremely exploited in today’s society. Especially with the use of AI which, yes, could be used as a tool but ultimately is not for the working class. Ai is mainly being used to make the rich richer – surprise surprise. It’s so frustrating to feel so powerless against these billionaires who buy themselves into our government and rule aspects of our lives. It has definitely demotivated me but I’m working on using the rage and anger to fuel my work and transform it into something positive.

Since I’ve been living away from the city I’ve been exploring nature more often.. My plant collection keeps growing and I’ve been learning about gardening and fungi. This last year I challenged myself to learn how to work with apoxie clay and I’ve been excited creating clay mushrooms. The fact fungi have their own kingdom and are not classified as plants or animals feels so alien. That feeling of surprise and magical intrigue one has when discovering a mushroom in the forest is something I want my work to tap into. The mycelium underground is beyond amazing; existing as a larger organism made of smaller organisms. The line between self and other is totally blurred and that is so exciting to me.

I’ve been getting more involved with the artist community in Delaware; meeting new people and sharing a little more. It’s been nice hanging out with other creatives and inspiring each other. We had a group show at the Chris White gallery in downtown Wilmington this last November where I sold a painting, a good handful of us sold artwork. That was a lot of fun and we will definitely be planning future art shows together. I also plan on applying to some local grants and I’m looking forward to seeing what other opportunities come my way. One of my goals is to create more with openness and less judgement. I’ve been working on getting over a perfectionist mentality. Nature is so healing and there’s so much one can learn by simply observing and reconnecting with that ancient wisdom. I feel society in general is disconnected from nature and we’re so overstimulated by the constant rat race that is surviving within late stage capitalism. It sounds cheesy and cliche but everything really is connected. That concept of self and other fractals into many parallel ideas and is a concept I want to keep exploring in my artistic journey.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I don’t know a whole lot about NFTs and I’m not personally into them. Anything to do with crypto feels scammy to me so I avoid it. NFTs can be dependent on manufactured hype which feels inauthentic. Some NFTs give customers exclusivity and special access to events or whatever else which is an interesting concept but you don’t need NFT’s for that. I’m pretty sure the NFT and crypto systems are harmful for the environment too. There’s plenty of other ways to consume art that are more enriching for us and the planet.

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

For me, the most rewarding part about being a creative is self discovery and learning about different topics. For many artists I think that life and work are two sides of the same coin, both informing and shaping each other. In both design and art I like to research to get a better understanding of whatever I’m working on. When it’s a topic I’m interested in it’s fun and it enriches my life. The introspection is useful and I love connecting with the things that get me excited.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.willramirez.us
• Instagram: @willramirez.us
• Other: Shop: https://www.willramirez.us/shop

Image Credits

Will Ramirez