Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Pope.
Ashley, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
From the time I was young, I was fascinated with both technology as well as design. I would get my hands on any cell phone, pager, and computer that I could, and I would often spend my days “designing” clothes and coloring.
Once I hit junior high/high school, coloring transitioned to making my MySpace page look cool and learning how to use photoshop. I knew I wanted to do something that involved technology + art, and the further I looked into different career paths, I knew that graphic design was for me!
After high school, I went to college and got my Bachelors in Design. I learned so much in school and had such amazing experiences with classes and peers that helped pave the way for how I think and create as a designer. Once I graduated, I started designing in-house for a few different companies, knowing that my ultimate goal was to be freelance. Three years later, through a serious of unexpected/scary/exciting circumstances, I’m a full-time freelance designer. Freelancing has given me a whole new passion for what I do. I get to work with so many different amazing people and brands and help their ideas come to life. From custom illustrations to email marketing, and brand identity/logos, I can pretty much guarantee I do it all in a week’s time.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My art is so diverse. In a day, I can go from designing email campaigns to drawing custom illustrations, to formatting restaurant menus. I think for me, the key is to make sure that I am remembering that each design is going to be an experience for someone. Whether they’re opening a menu and choosing a meal, or handing out a business card, it’s all going to be an experience. I want anything I create to be functional while not compromising good design standards. Each piece I make is important to me. If I design, say, an identity package for your brand, you should best believe that I hold each piece close to my heart! It’s always a bit sad at the end of a project when I’m sending out the final files because I spend so many hours working on each piece that I get attached!
What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
For me, success is doing what I love and working hard at it so that I can live a life outside of work that I genuinely enjoy. I think with social media being such a huge presence in our society, so many designers define their success by their follower count. However, recently, I’ve been challenging myself to get outside of social media and that whole world and focus on what I have in front of me and work hard no matter how many followers I have. There are so many people that I know who are so successful and have zero social media presence. Those are some of the people I admire the most. They really inspire me, because they’re always in the moment and focusing on what they can do to work hard and grow their business without constantly being insecure about their following and what others think. I believe confidence and passion are key to success as an artist.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
People can see my work in a variety of places!
My website is ashleypope.co, and that’s more of a broad scope of what I do and the projects I have worked on. For more day-to-day, I have two instagrams: @ashgpope is one for personal/lifestyle with a mix of film, and the other is @ashleypope.co, and that’s where I post the majority of my illustrations, logos, and other projects!
I currently sell 8×10 prints in a variety of designs, and you can see those at @ashleypope.co!
I’m always taking new clients and projects, so I always urge people to reach out and send an email if they’re in the discovery stages of needing new designs.
Contact Info:
- Website: ashleypope.co
- Instagram: ashgpope
Image Credit:
The Beloved Photo
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