Will Sawyer of Conceptualized
Rico:
What's Your Name?
Will Sawyer
Rico:
List your shop(s) -
Will Sawyer :
Conceptualized Conceptualized: This is my only shop at the moment. I chose the name because it best exemplifies the central theme of all my work, concepts. For example, one of my recent product lines, hand drawn, began as a breakdown of M.C. Escher’s “Drawing Hands.” I expanded on the original idea with my thoughts as to why the hands were creating themselves and where such creatures would live.
This store is divided into 3 main categories: Digital art, Hand drawn, and Photography. The bulk of my work begins on paper and is then digitally colored, but I will do some purely digital work. My goal is to organize the site so that customers looking for a particular kind of image can look over what I have to offer easily and quickly without having to look all over the place. I may break these into distinct stores as I get further into the development of my site and increase the number of products.
Rico:
How long have you been at Zazzle?
Will Sawyer :
I’ve been on zazzle about 4-5 months. But I think that if you were to add all the time I’ve spent creating new products, it’d probably be more like a month and a half. I am starting to ramp up a bit though. Rico: Are you a ProSeller?
Will Sawyer :
Not yet. I’ve actually yet to make a sale. I’m hoping to move up to that level over the next year as I increase the number of products. Rico:
What's the best advise you got when you were starting out?
Will Sawyer :
Be patient. There is a lot of work and learning that goes into making and promoting products on the web and the initial gain is nothing. When you’ve stopped drawing for a week and are learning as much CSS as the web has to offer in order to set up your site and your blog and you’ve yet to sell a single item, patience keeps you going. Early on I read that it’s common that it can take many months to get your first sale, and that’s what I focus on. Rico:
What medium/tools do you use to create your designs?
Will Sawyer :
I start everything I draw in pencil. I have a number of pencils of varying hardness/softness depending on what I’m working on. I also use pens, charcoal and on one occasion oil pastel. For my digital work, I use photoshop and illustrator. I use a point and shoot for my photography, but I adjust my iso settings/white balance/exposure/etc.. manually as the default settings for most cameras are all but useless. Rico:
Who or what inspires you?
Will Sawyer :
I’m inspired by everything. I come up with some ideas while hiking, others when reading and a surprising number when blankly staring off into space while waiting on things/washing my hands/going from point a to b in my daily routines/listening to music. Rico:
How much time a week to you spend on Zazzle?
Will Sawyer :
I average about 2 hours a week. It depends on whether or not I have a new design for that week. Rico:
What's the best advise you can give someone just starting out on Zazzle?
Will Sawyer :
Take your time at the beginning and get your processes in place for creating products. If you want to use quick create, get your templates together. As you get further and further into this, your focus is going to shift towards promotion more and more and you don’t want to have to go silent from potential customers for days as you make more products. Try to get to the point that most of your work is either creating the design for your product or promoting your products. This is especially true you have as little free time as I do. Rico:
What do you like to do when you are not creating art?
Will Sawyer :
I like hiking and generally being outside as much as I can in my free time. I also enjoy all the typical things like reading, movies and television. I also like to learn as much about everything as I can. Rico:
Tell me 5 random things everyone should know about you?
Will Sawyer :
I’m generally a quiet person upon meeting others, but I am by no means a “quiet person.” I’m just listening.
If I ever win the lottery, the first thing I’m going to do is hike the Appalachian trail.
I’m a big music fan.
I believe art is a form of communication more precise than words.
Rico:
List 3 of your favorite designs you want me to feature. Tell me something about each design.
Hand Drawn Collage iPad Case
Conceptualized as a play on the idea of "Hand Drawn" with an homage to M. C. Escher in the background, this is the hand drawn image mentioned previously. This was created with pencil and water color pencil. The text was done digitally, but other than that, this is the original drawing. It is my favorite concept/design to date.
Octobeerfest Mug
This pun inspired design gives a new impression of the much-celebrated Oktoberfest while keeping the spirit of the holiday intact. So, grab a beer and a braught and keep this design with you throughout the celebration. The design was created with pencil and watercolor pencil. Only the beer and foam were added digitally.
Love Song Mouse pad
This depicts a moment of time, unseen. I came up with this while listening to 311’s version of “Love Song.” In listening to the song I was reminded of a lava lamp I used to own and the image just seemed to create itself from there. I originally did this as a sketch, but ended up completely redoing it in illustrator and photoshop. This is one of my favorites in how the scene syncs up with refrain of the song.
Rico:
This is one of my personal favorite designs from your shop
Eyes Shirt
The designs of this shirt are a more abstract take on what it means to see and the different ways that can be expressed. Rico: Very cool design!
Rico:
Where else can our readers find you online?
Facebook Artist Page
Tumblr Page
I also post some updates via my personal google+ account (this will change once google+ allows pseudonym):
Google+
Thank you for this interview!! ~ Diane Clancy
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