We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Russell Webster. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Russell below.
Russell, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I firmly believe that my work ethic comes from surrounding myself with ambitious people in my community. From close family members like my mother and father, to creatives in the Pacific Northwest who had to work their tails off to achieve the successes they’ve earned. My partner, Finn, is an amazing inspiration for my work ethic. They encourage me to overcome challenges like imposter syndrome and general self-doubt, and keep on pushing to create designs that truly inspire who I am as a creative.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am a graphic designer and recent graduate from Eastern Washington University’s Visual Communication Design program. I specialize in conceptualization and artistic direction, and spend my time trying to “reinvent the wheel” designing concept art for musicians, filmmakers, and other pop culture phenomena under the name “Mellowed Media”(@mellowed.media). Just discovering design during my time at EWU, I am still new to the world of graphic design. I initially went to college for a degree in Communications with the hopes of exploring the world of radio and news outlets. I found graphic design through an “Design Fundamentals” course that was a requirement for my Communications track and decided to minor in Design. After taking a few more design courses, I fell in love with the program and ultimately decided to double major in Communication in Public Relations and Visual Communication Design. The best of both worlds! Growing up, I’ve been fascinated with logos, band t-shirts, vinyl album packaging, video game covers, and movie posters. Subconsciously, I would reverse-engineer these pieces of art and brainstorm what the root of the messaging would be and why exactly I liked it so damn much. I’ve learned that developing the technical skills and using design softwares, in a sense, is the easy part, but conceptualization and coming up with something new is the hard part. I constantly ask myself “what can I make that no one has seen before”? Or taking inspiration from resurfacing vintage/retro designs and seeing how I can use them to inspire works that I create. Going to thrift stores or finding artists that create in styles anywhere from the 1950’s to the late 2000’s can lead to an explosion of inspiration.
Listening to music is a MUST, no exceptions. Music somehow activates my brain and gets the gears turning like no other resource. It’s like looking at art with your ears.
Outside of designing, I work for the clothing brand, The Great PNW, and watch graphic design reels on Instagram from creators like Jesse Nyberg (@permanentglue), Kel Lauren (kel.lauren), Elliot Ulm (@elliotisacoolguy), and many others. My goal is be a full-time merch designer and create work for clients in the music, film, and video game industries. I take great inspiration from all these artistic fields and hope to one day be a known name in these industries. With Mellowed Media, I currently see my Instagram page as an equivalent to a portfolio, although I do have a separate portfolio that I attach to resume when applying for positions. It’s easier to quickly pull-up, and makes it convenient for my audience to stay up-to-date with my newest works and see my growth as an artist. I can admit that I’m not the most skilled designer in the world, but I’m working every day to get there.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1.) Open-mindedness. Don’t judge others by their experiences, titles, or anything like that. Look at the person you’re communicating with and hear what they have to say. Every persons’ insight and perspective holds an immense amount of value, and it’s worth it to take a step back and listen to their stories. 2.) Support local artists. Whether it be attending events, buying their art, following them on social media, etc. Every bit of support they can get helps motivate them and allows them to gain the strength to overcome their fears of sharing what they hold valuable to them to your eyes. Attend that event, give them that follow, that like, that support.
3.) Do whatever sparks joy for you every day. Whether it be listening to music, going on a hike, playing video games, binging movies or a show, reading comics, playing D&D, hanging with friends, treating yourself, whatever! Do that thing that sparks joy and lights that fire in your heart.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
Be more well rounded and invest effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in, as long as it’s something you want to do. Have you wanted to learn guitar FOREVER now and just repeatedly said “nah, I’m good”…? That’s wasted time you could be spending learning that skill! Everybody sucks at a new skill at first, but if everyone was immediately good at what they want to do, then they’ll get bored of it. It quickly becomes unexciting, stale, and uninspiring. Constantly challenging yourself to take a leap and do something that you’re interested in fills the soul, and when you achieve that thing you’ve been wanting to do FOREVER now, you can look at all the progress you made from the top of that mountain. A quote that designer, Jesse Nyberg, references a lot is “Nothing easy is worth doing” and I back that up 100%.
Contact Info:
- Website: mellowedmedia.myportfolio.com
- Instagram: @mellowed.media
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mellowedmedia/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mellowed_media
Image Credits
Mellowed Media
