We Need Help!

Ok seriously guys I really need to do something with this site!!! I’m lacking a ton of vision and direction for what I should do with it. I started this site out with a friend 10 years ago with the idea to help inspire artists and fuel their imagination. This site was built out of pure passion and a love for art. We put about a year of hard work and dedication toward it and then… We got busy! The whirlwind of life and our careers took over and we lost site of our vision for Creative Tempest.

After about a year of not doing anything we noticed on analytics our site went viral for a season. We had over a million people visit us because of all the shares and links. Really the growth came because of you guys and your amazing work. It was really incredible to see the response we received from the art community and wished we would have just stuck it out. Since then it has always been this project in the back of my mind. It was like starting a puzzle and never finishing it. So I’m needing to finally make a real decision about what to do.

How I see it, there are two options:

1. Make it Awesome or 2. Pull the plug

Lets be honest!

At this point its hard to ask for help from a community that we really haven’t been a part of. Let’s face it we got crazy busy and haven’t had the time to post inspiration or give back much to the community. So to be honest it feels like I am writing this article to a bunch of strangers. Over the years we’ve received so many talented people to our site but no real relationships haven’t been formed. I’m sure in some small ways we’ve inspired artists but it doesn’t feel like we’re really making an impact in a significant way. I’m at the point in my career where my time is very much limited. Right now I am running a wedding photography and photo booth brand which takes up the majority of my working hours. I would love to remove myself more from the day to day and make Creative Tempest a primary focus but I cannot do it alone. I’ve put this site off for years thinking that one day I would build up a team that could revive it but that just hasn’t been the case. If I’ve learned anything about myself, it’s that managing people is just not my thing. I honestly think if this site is going to make the change for becoming awesome it’s going to need the following:

1. A clear vision for the future
2. Small team of the right people who can serve as curators, writers, artists, etc.
3. Relentless pursuit toward helping inspire, promote, equip and empower the art community.

My Vision

The following is my vision of what I think Creative Tempest could do but honestly I don’t know how any of it would be possible without the help of others. So I’ll just put it out there and see what you think:

Creative Tempest is all about helping artists succeed at creating their ideas. To make this happen we want to regularly feature and promote artists and their work by giving them a platform to be seen, heard and recognized. We want Creative Tempest to also maintain its original purpose by using your work to fuel other artists with inspiration for new ideas. We believe artists also need better ways to learn and craft their skills. So we want to provide ways to teach and equip artists well beyond just learning their craft. We want to help them learn business, marketing, sales, communication, personal growth, leadership, etc. We want to learn from those who’ve gone before us and stand on their shoulders. Finally, we want to empower artists to gain freedom and independence. Not just freedom from their day job but freedom from the whirlwind of grunt work, poverty, suffering, life challenges that gets thrown at them every day. We want to help artists to be released and free to explore and expand their creativity. We want to help artists evolve, thrive, focus, be effective, love what they do, care for themselves, build their faith, remove pride, help others, inspire the world and enjoy art for life. We believe we’re all called to create!

Your Vision

Now its your turn. We want to make all of this possible but we really need your ideas and your help. We know there are plenty of sites out there who are doing an amazing job at this already. However, we want our site to be community led in order to provide you guys with something you really want. So comment below with anything. Seriously it can be a link to a site you frequent often, an idea you’d love to see for Creative Tempest accomplish, an improvement we can make on our site, a roll you could play be involved in at Creative Tempest or your own vision plan for Creative Tempest. Seriously, no idea is too small or too big. Be open and honest with us and please make a comment below. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

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What has your creative journey been like?
My journey has been great so far – it’s really a dream come true. Playing in bands and skateboarding as a teenager introduced me to the awesome artwork used for band shirts, gig posters and skateboard graphics which really grabbed my attention. This really flung me into a world where I practiced drawing as much as I could. After school I attended an advertising college where I received a degree in graphic design, while doing loads of smaller illustration projects on the side. This lead to me working for an illustration and motion design studio for a while until I felt like I had built up enough courage and experience to take the leap to work independently, which is what I’ve been doing up to this point.

WHO or WHAT inspires you?
Inspiration can really come from anywhere. I try and be conscious of that through daily life, always keeping an eye out for things that get the cogs turning. My personal work is usually more inspired by my interests as it’s what I surround myself with on a daily basis. Things such as music, movies, books can easily trigger some ideas. Client work is always dictated by the requirements of the brief, so the thought process of that can be much more practical and less abstract.

What does your daily routine look like?
I wake up fairly early, considering I work from my home studio. I stumble my way to the kitchen to forage for coffee. Once I have my first cup of coffee in I’m usually awake enough to pull myself together. My day usually starts with some admin tasks: replying to emails, checking my social media channels, scheduling and preparing my work for the day. My work times are fairly flexible, depending on how much needs to get done. I do take regular breaks (if I can) to stay fresh, in which I’ll play some guitar or distract myself to avoid burning out. I try to stop working after a certain time of the day. I love my work so much that I do this to avoid overdoing it. The last thing I want is for something I love to become bland. That being said, there are obviously the exceptions of tight deadlines and rushed projects from time to time.

What does your creative process look like?
I almost always start by jotting down some quick ideas with a pencil in my sketchbook. They’re never very detailed, but usually reflect the overall composition and direction for the project. My next step includes some refinement where I pick out the best ideas from the batch and spend a bit more time ironing out potential problem areas. The ‘winning’ idea is then chosen, sketched out neatly as a reference for the final piece. The final artwork is always almost done digitally, as it seems to be the standard these days. I have a huge appreciate for the perfectly imperfect look that hand drawn artwork has, so I often find myself going great lengths to make sure my final artwork still has that organic, natural characteristic.

What advice would you give to someone just getting started?
If you know that you aren’t passionate about this line of work, try something else. The design and illustration world has become incredibly saturated, and it really takes a lot of hard work to stand out. Put in the hours until you’re happy, then ask other people for honest criticism and learn from it.

Please list all your favorite tools/gear/medium you love using?
Rotring Mechanical Pencil
Moleskine Sketchbook
Wacom tablet
Computer
My Music

Are there any books or websites you love? 

Children’s books! They usually have imaginative and stylistic characteristics that you can’t find anywhere else. I love comic books as well. I am quite selective as I’m usually drawn in by the artwork rather than the story. Other than that, old art history books usually have some great content.

Children’s Books
Comics
Art History Books

Name 3 of your favorite artists?
Jim Phillips had a massive impact on me. His skateboard and apparel graphics are still unmatched. Other than that, I love Alphonse Mucha’s iconic Art Nouveau pieces and the way that he can so perfectly embellish his art with such distinctive decorative elements. Lastly, every illustrator in South Africa that was in the generation before me because they paved the way and showed a young me that being an illustrator was a reachable goal in South Africa.

Where can we find you online?
Website & Instagram

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WHO or WHAT inspires you?
Mostly music, video games and other artists/illustrators. I like to keep the inspiration sources varied so i’ll listen and look at artists with radically different approaches to their art, like going from pop music on to post rock and going back to j-pop tunes, same goes for visual artists and illustrators!

What does your daily routine look like?
Wake up at like 10 am and take my dog for a walk. Have breakfast while scrolling through emails and checking my calendar so I know what I’m getting done in the following days. After that I’ll work on the chosen project for the rest of the day with some dog walking breaks in between. If I’m done with what I had scheduled I might get some gaming done until midnight and then continue working on some of my personal stuff until 2 or 3 am. If there’s a deadline approaching and I need to do some extra work then I’ll end up having some all nighters. Sleep is for the weak!

What does your creative process look like?
For starters I’ll begin by making a quick brainstorming session where I’ll decide what I want to draw. Usually this is, for me, one of the hardest parts… specially if I’m doing some personal work or drawing for the sake of it. When it comes to client work the what-to-draw spectrum gets narrowed because of the clients’ needs. After having a clear idea I’ll work on some thumbnail sketches so I can have a basic composition for the illustration. Next big decision I have to make is color. I used to work with desaturated dead-looking colors but as of lately they have become more vivid and eye catching. Additionally from this step I like adding dot work textures to my illustrations since it makes the shapes pop out a bit more.

What advice would you give to someone just getting started?
GET. YOUR. ART. OUT. THERE. (Seriously, having an online portfolio works wonders, don’t let those files sitting on your desktop!)

Please list all your favorite tools/gear/medium you love using? 
I mainly work with a Wacom Tablet on Adobe Photoshop. For sketching I’ll go for pen and paper though.

Are there any books or websites you love? 
I LOVE the Creative Pep Talk Podcast, it gets me pumped every time. Great creative and business related advice too!

Name 3 of your favorite artists?
Tatsuyuki Tanaka, McBess and James Jean

Where can we find you online?
Currently creating a website, still in development though!

Website | Behance | Facebook

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WHO or WHAT inspires you?
Traveling, my Ghanaian heritage, my son, contemporary art, photography and London inspire me.

What does your daily routine look like?
Working for myself, I don’t have a daily routine and I work best this way.

What does your creative process look like?
Photograph subject, sketch, compositional studies, organize spray paint and brush paint. Prep wall. Photograph portrait with the subject.

What advice would you give to someone just getting started?
Think globally. Surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth. There is a difference between working hard and working smart. Reputation is everything.

Please list all your favorite tools/gear/medium you love using?
MTN 94 Spray Paint
VIP Graffiti Paint: One Take 400ML
Astro Fat Caps
Montana Level 1 cap

Are there any books or websites you love?
Mascots & Mugs
Subway Art
Spraycan Art

Do you have a favorite quote?
Accept your own and be yourself.

Name 3 of your favorite artists?
Caravaggio
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Egon Schiele
Jenny Saville

Where can we find you?
Website
Facebook
Instagram

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What has your creative journey been like?

Born + raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Grew up exploring the Metroparks surrounding my parents’ home. I was further encouraged by stories of my father’s youth. He embraced a similar adventurous childhood that definitely transcended the generation. I received a BFA in Visual Communication Design from the University of Dayton in southern Ohio in 2011 and took a job as an in-house designer. After two and a half years, I felt that I lost the tenacious enthusiasm that got me into design in the first place, so I quit my job and took what turned out to be an eleven-month sabbatical. I traveled through southeast Asia for four and a half months, then road-tripped across the USA.

After this life-altering trip, I moved to Denver on a whim with no money, job or home lined up. I’ve been in Denver for about two and a half years working as a freelance designer, proactively pursuing a career that combines my two passions in life: design and travel/the outdoors.

WHO or WHAT inspires you?
The outdoors. Taking long trips or hiatuses from my work and computer often provide a much-needed refresh and enables me to approach my work with a much clearer, more driven mind upon my return.

What does your daily routine look like?
5 a.m. wake up. Coffee. Work until 9 a.m. Go for a run. Work until 1 p.m. Lunch. Work until 6 or 7 p.m. Sometimes hang with friends, but oftentimes pursue personal projects.

What does your creative process look like?
For client work: tons of research and questions to my clients. It is vitally important to truly understand who you are working for and what they offer before even considering to begin the design process.

For personal work: I don’t do much research at all. I just begin with an idea and start sketching. Ultimately, most of my ‘first-pass-sketches’ are then thrown on a light-table, and I then refine the sketch one more time with pencil and then ink with Micron.

What advice would you give to someone just getting started?
Work harder than everyone around you. Also, share your work. It’s doing you no good just putting your drawings in a drawer; post them on Dribbble, Instagram, Behance, Tumblr, whatever—get yourself out there.

Please list all your favorite tools/gear/medium you love using.
A sharp pencil, a felt-tipped pen, and some whiskey.

Are there any books or websites you love? 
4-hr work week by Tim Ferris (audio version)
Essays in Love by Alain De Botton (audio version)
P.S. – “I hate the internet” – Adam

Where can we find you online?
Website/Portfolio: Adam Vicarel
Instagram: @adamvicarel
Facebook: Vicarel Studios

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