Meet Ian Strong

We were lucky to catch up with Ian Strong recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ian, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I’ve been heavily involved in sports for as long as I can remember, it’s a world I understand and deeply appreciate. As a kid, I would design alternate jerseys for my favorite teams, create logos for fictional franchises in video games, and eventually design gear and promotional material for the teams I played on. I learned art as a way to engage more deeply with sports; it was never enough for me to just play or watch.

Now that my serious athletic career is behind me, I stay involved solely through my art. I try to use the skills I’ve gathered over the years to share my passion for sports with others, to hopefully get people just as excited about it as I am. In my search for content, I am constantly witnessing greatness and I feel lucky that I have the skills to highlight great athletes, teams and moments with art cards.

I started making custom baseball cards for two people: my brother and my wife. We would attend minor league games and collect autographs as a pre-game activity. I made my first cards so they could get autographs from players who didn’t make that year’s team set. The players liked the cards, and I began making them for the players as well. Since then, I’ve created thousands of cards.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a graphic artist, focusing on art cards, specifically for baseball. The last few years I’ve been working on my skills and preparing to make a career as a sports artist.

To this end, I am in the early stages of launching a website where fans and collectors will be able to purchase 1/1 cards, designed and produced in my workspace.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I give most, if not all, of the credit for my passion for sports to my dad. He taught me how to watch, how to really see what’s going on and understand what everything means. My dad is the most passionate baseball fan I’ve ever seen. He passed a bit of that passion on to me, and it’s what I try to pass along (in some small way) to the people who see my cards.

The credit for my artistic side goes to my mom, who has always been the person I turn to when I want to talk about the artistic aspects of life. I have fond memories of us watching What Not to Wear together, taking mental notes on what I would later learn was color theory and similar concepts.

I feel that my brief time studying industrial design in school was a foundational part of my art career. Industrial design is about finding a balance between form and function, a principle I carry into my work today. I like to play with traditional forms, and I believe that viewers are more accepting of changes when those changes serve a clear purpose.

My advice for others on their creative journey is this: do something that you feel makes the world a better place. When I’m tired or facing a creative block, I can push through because I know that once I finish, the piece might be special to someone, for far longer than it took to make. Sometimes that person is just my wife, but even a little better is still better.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

I enjoy celebrating special moments. The ultimate version of this would be doing promotional work for a team in some official capacity, but smaller works of celebration are fulfilling as well.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: insomnia.customs