Welcome back to The Spark, IDEA GENERATION’s weekly newsletter and your source for all things creative entrepreneurship.
Spark Gang,
In this day and age, you need to be a dual threat.
Having a creative skill is only half the battle. You also need to be able to promote that skill to find work. And for now, vertical video on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts remains the king of promotion.
Today’s guest, CJ Cawley, is a talented logo designer from the UK. But his graphic skills aren’t the only reason we found him interesting. He also makes high-level social videos that show his process, his interactions with clients, and his tips for other designers.
From going door to door searching for new clients, to having thousands of inbound requests in his inbox, Cawley was able to build his design career by creating great video content. Now that’s a dual threat.
Check out our interview with Cawley, a job opportunity, and a reminder from Hebru Brantley to Keep Shooting.
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📬 Have questions for us? Feedback? Want to share your work? Email us at thespark@ideageneration.com
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HOW'D YOU THINK OF THAT?!
CJ Cawley makes content from his process.
CJ Cawley is a graphic designer from the UK.
Just over 18 months ago, Cawley quit his job as an in-house designer to pursue a career as a freelancer.
Initially struggling to find work, Cawley began to create videos documenting his journey and showcasing his creative process. After hundreds of videos, and months fine-tuning his craft, Cawley caught some viral moments that have propelled the designer to gain nearly 500,000 followers and endless inbound work requests.
And he’s done it all by having an open mind, the guts to put himself out there, and the determination to learn whatever skills he needed to advance his career.
How did you get started in design?
I studied design at University, and then started my career in a creative agency. I got to work with loads of weird and wonderful creatives, and we got to work on wild brands like Yamaha, Costa Coffee, Atlantic Records and stuff like that.
I then moved into in-house roles where I would be the designer for companies, which was just a totally different experience. But I learned a different skill set. I did that for a number of years and then just got sick of working for somebody else.
I hated having to ask another human being if I'm allowed to go and eat food or go on holiday. It started to just piss me off. I realized there would never be another moment in my life where I could just quit my job and go freelance. I was like, “If I don't do it now, I'm never gonna be able to do this, so just fucking do it.”
I quit my job with minus money in my account. I was that crazy. I was like, “I need to go and do this myself.”
“I knew the only way to get past that ceiling was to chuck myself in the shit.”
When you first started freelancing how were you getting clients?
I was going into shops and just saying, “Hey look, I'm a designer. I would love to help you whether that's designing your menus, your signage, whatever it is.” Everyone turned me down. They don't want to spend money on that. They're a small business too.
The pressure started to grow, and I was leaning on anyone and everyone I could in terms of friends and family, if they had a business or whatever.
My first client was actually from the agency I used to work at 10 years before. I did a logo for him back then. He reached out to me and was like, “Oh, I've heard you're on freelance. I have this other project. Would you want to work on that?”
It was a thousand pounds. I was like, “Cool, I've made my first thousand.” And then I was like, “Fuck, how do I do this again?” That felt like such hard work, and it almost felt like luck that I even got it. It's like, “How do I do this again next month? And the month after?” It just felt overwhelming really quickly. I was like, “I'm fucked here. This is a nightmare.”
“It just felt really overwhelming really quickly. I was like, ‘I'm fucked here. This is a nightmare.’”
Why did you start making your process videos?
I was seeing all these other designers, creators, illustrators and all these wonderful people on Instagram, and they were putting themselves out there. I'm like, “If you can't beat them, join them, dude. What you're doing isn't working. Just emailing people's not working. We need something bigger.”
I started shooting videos, and taking fucking terrible videos of my face and my voice, and I hated it, and I rejected it so much. I was like, “I don't wanna do this, this sucks!” But it was the best thing I ever did. It changed my life.
What video experience did you have before this?
I'd never been in front of a camera, just behind one. I skated when I was young and we filmed everything. And then there was “Viva La Bam” and “Jackass.” So I was always shooting stuff and I understood little bits of editing.
“I was like, ‘I don't wanna do this, this sucks!’ But it was the best thing I ever did. It changed my life.”
How long did it take for your videos to catch on? Is there one that stands out as a turning point?
The first hundred sucked and didn't do anything. But I had a lot of time on my hands. So you make videos Monday to Monday, nine to five. You see what works and chuck shit out there and then one day something clicked and it started to make sense, and before I knew it I had a few kind of trickles of work coming in.
There was this film festival here in a local seaside town near me. I came up with a logo mark of a donkey and a camera kind of merged together. The reason for the donkey was that in this seaside town, you would find donkeys on the beach that people would bring, like a farmer, and kids would ride the donkeys on the beach. Super normal thing, especially at this particular beach.
So I drew this donkey and shaped him into this camera thing. I did a video on it and it fucking blew up within honestly like an hour. It had 2 million views so fast. It was crazy fast.
Before I knew it, I had like 400,000 people are watching me all the time and millions and millions of views. I show how to make logo marks, but at the same time, I educate other designers along the way by sharing my wins and my fails. If I mess something up, you're gonna know about it. If I get something right, you're gonna know about it. We're all gonna learn together. That's where I'm at now.
“So you make videos Monday to Monday, nine to five. You just see what works and chuck shit out there.”
Any advice for creators who are good at their craft, but struggle with creating social media content for it?
We're all good at what we're good at, okay? I'm good at logo design. That's my world. That's my space. I wasn't good at making videos. Quite frankly, I fucking sucked. But I learned, because I wanted to. Because I needed it more than I needed air in my lungs.
So, you're good at what you're good at. Don't stress about that, you've worked on that for as long as you can. Put it to the side, and go learn how to fucking do this. I know it sucks, I know you don't want to do it, I know it's not the most fun thing in the world… but it's necessary at this point in life. You just need to fucking want it. That's the only advice I've got, unfortunately. Just fucking do it.
“I know it sucks, I know you don't want to do it, I know it's not the most fun thing in the world… but it's necessary at this point in life.”
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TAKE THIS JOB!
Cool job listings for creatives.
Tasca Studios is a cutting-edge video production & media agency based in West Palm Beach, Florida.
They’re looking for a skilled freelance photo editor for a long-term remote position. The job responsibilities include:
Edit 3-5 car photos per week (around 100 photos each)
24-hour turnaround time.
Detail-oriented (Removing imperfections, dust, specks, etc.)
Upload and organize photos on the client's website.
Organized folder management is a must.
Available to work weekdays, nights, and occasional weekends.
Sound like you? Apply here.
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KEEP SHOOTING
Your weekly reminder to keep going.
After getting fired from his job as a condo doorman in Atlanta, artist Hebru Brantley decided to pursue his passion.
Brantley had already been painting and drawing for years, but it wasn’t providing him a stable income. But he noticed that the dozens of parties being thrown in the city each week all came with “No Limit” style promotional flyers. Realizing that kind of work is well within his wheelhouse, Brantley started offering his services to design those flyers. It wasn’t necessarily the art Brantley wanted to be making, but it provided some much needed income.
Years later Brantley has shown in major galleries, found critical acclaim for his work, and has sold paintings to collectors like LeBron James, Jay-Z and Beyonce, Lenny Kravitz, and George Lucas.
Sometimes you’ve got to design that flyer before you can design FlyBoy.
Till next week. Keep shooting.
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