WEEK 42 - Have multiple passions & don't know which one to pick? Open up!
Hey HOMwork friends, happy Friday!
(If this is your first time joining us, take a peek at our Challenge Archive for all previous assignments.)
I'm excited to introduce you to my long-time lettering friend Ryan Hamrick as this week's guest #HOMwork teacher!
Ryan Hamrick is an Austin, Texas-based letter director, artist, designer, speaker, and instructor. Teaching himself the art of the letter in the early 2010s, just before the wave of great resources for learning this stuff came along ( ), Ryan has been determined to try and make pursuing this craft a little easier for those after him. He even recently launched his own studio ALFA - Advocates for the Letter Focused Arts with a primary focus on elevating and advocating for the value of letter art and design in the industry, through client education, workshops, and even representing and negotiating fair project fees for letter artists who need or want it.
From Ryan:
When preparing a talk for a conference last year, I took a long look back at my life, and tried to figure out how it led to what always felt like the completely random decision to drop what I was doing and become a designer out of nowhere. In reality, it was far from random. Design and letter art were just the latest in a long succession of life-driving passions.
There was a long period before design in which I always saw myself as passionlessly “paying the bills” in a several-year career in wireless retail management. Though, in fact, I was being driven by a passion at that time, too—the passion for starting and raising a family.
For most of my life before that, however, far and away my primary passion was music, and the kind of artist I always imagined I’d be…was a rap artist. Then and in recent past, I’ve always operated under this sort of false self-restriction that I can and should only fully pursue one passion at a time. In today’s environment of valuing specialization, curation, individual style, etc., it’s easy to fall under a similar misconception and feel like you have to find “your thing” and use it to set yourself apart.
As many passions as I’ve had in my life, not among them, unfortunately, are the things that are super helpful for stuff like self-promotion, networking, and the like—hence, the fewer inquiries these days, as the massive surge of demand for lettering tapers a bit.
But now, nearly 15 years after starting my family, I have a son, who in some strange way, has found his way to that same love of music I’ve always had. Today, though, the avenues for promotion, and more importantly learning and creating your own music, are wildly different than they were back then. That, combined with perhaps a little something genetic (hey, why not?) and the full encouragement of younger, creative parents, has made him a 14 year-old beat-making prodigy, if I do say so myself.
Interestingly, through learning the ins and outs of how things are done today, in order to help him, that old passion in me that never really left, but was traded out for others, has been fully relit. This leads me to where my head’s been at lately, and more importantly, to this week’s assignment!
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Your Assignment: Say “To hell with Specialization & Curation” and combine two or more of your passions in one incredible creative expression overload. I’m calling it #PassionMashin…
I’ve decided that not only do I no longer want to be known simply as “that swashy, flourishy script lettering guy”, but I don’t even necessarily want to even just be known as a letterer or designer. I’m done focusing on one passion while the rest languish dormant in the back of my mind, and I’m done framing what I should care about based on anyone else’s input or expectations. How about that shit?
My son and I just released our first single YESTERDAY, and of course, I had to do some artwork for the cover. So we have the passions of design, music, poetry (rap is poetry, fight me), my newly found passion for progressivism and social justice, if you listen to the song, and perhaps most importantly, my passion for my kids, and the absolutely wondrous joy it’s been to be able to spend so much quality time and create with my brilliant, inspiring son. Talk about #PassionMashin.
Now it’s your turn! Here are some examples to get you started:
Combine your passions for photography and lettering, and letter over a favorite photo you’ve taken
Mash your lettering and illustration passions to make letters out of fun characters (get it?)
Write a poem, and then paint its words beautifully on canvas (EXTRA CREDIT: All my points will be awarded to you if you rap them—video or it didn’t happen)
Caption Idea: Tell us about all the passions you have (other than letters, obvs), why you’ve been stifling them, and what mind-blowing ways you plan to mash them together to redefine your relationship with creativity and put a little more “special” back in specialist. :)
Don't forget to tag @homsweethom and @hamrick then follow and use the hashtag #HOMwork so we can see your passions come to life. We’ll both be sharing our faves in our Stories all week!
x
Ryan and Lauren
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P.S. Do a deeper dive and follow along with Ryan and his son's music adventures at @bennyxmusic & @hankmirracy on Instagram and their website designedsoundmusic.com!
Listen to Running Scared on Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Tidal, and Amazon Music.
