Today we’d like to introduce you to Billy Daggers.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Billy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve been drawing and creating art in all different forms since as far back as I can remember, but my love for stenciling really started my freshman year of high school, back in 2000. Around that time I started cutting stencils to spray paint them onto my skateboards, shirts, hats, etc. I was constantly sketching up new ideas for what to paint next. As my stencil-work evolved into bigger, more detailed pieces, I needed a bigger canvas to display them, so I started taking them to public walls, sewers, electrical boxes, anywhere I could quickly hit in the middle of the night. It was fun for a period of time, but after a while I got tired of spending so much time and risking getting caught, only to see my pieces painted over within a day or two. From then on I started painting my stencils onto canvases, so I’d have a lasting copy, before going out to spray them on the streets. Over the next few years, I created more and more paintings until one day it finally clicked—I realized that I wanted to pursue a career in art. I couldn’t afford art school and the art classes at the college I was attending didn’t excite me, so in 2008 I made the decision to drop out and use my remaining funds to purchase my first Mac. I downloaded a bootleg copy of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and started teaching myself the programs. Then in 2009 I launched my first art-based company, 6Gun Graphics, and began selling my paintings and taking on commissioned design work. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of working with tons of great brands and companies on all sorts of projects. After 8 years of growing the business under the 6Gun alias, I rebranded as Billy Daggers and have pushed forward more aggressive than ever.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Running your own brand or company in any capacity is never an easy task. Especially if your team is solely comprised of you and you alone. I’m self-taught in most aspects of what I do, so it can become extremely daunting to juggle all of the designing, marketing, research, accounting, and everything else. There’s just never enough time in each day. You have to sacrifice sleep and commit to putting in long hours and late nights if you want to make sure everything gets done right.
What should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
There are two main sides to my business — my branded artwork and freelance artwork. And since I work with both physical and digital art, I’m able to take on a wide range of projects.
As a freelance artist, I primarily get approached to work on branding projects or custom t-shirt graphics, though I’ve done everything from food packaging to skateboard graphics to commercial van wraps and everywhere in between. I love the challenge of taking a client’s idea and finding a way to bring it to life. There are always new skills and techniques to learn and every project makes you that much stronger as an artist.
When it comes to my branded artwork, my specialty is painting using layers of hand-cut stencils and spray paint. I don’t use the traditional bridging technique of stenciling to hold everything together. Instead I’ve developed a technique that gives my work a very clean, almost screen printed look and I take a lot of pride in that. I think that’s a big part of what separates me from a lot of other stencil artists. My style is ever evolving, but is heavily influenced by 80’s skateboard graphics, street art, and pop art with a clean, vector style. Aside from my paintings, I also sell my designs on a number of products, including archival prints, shirts, pins, stickers, and more. You can check find them all on my website: www.billydaggers.com.
What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
Aside from launching some new products soon, I’m currently working on a new series of paintings that I’m really excited about. I don’t want to reveal all the details just yet, but this new body of work puts a unique twist on the women of product advertisements from the 50-70’s. I’m hoping to set up a gallery exhibit for the series sometime in the next year. If you’re interested, please keep up-to-date with me via my Instagram page or reach out via email if you’d like to get in touch. You can find my contact info below.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.billydaggers.com
- Email: billydaggers@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/billydaggers/
Image Credit:
Rhys Mavis
Suggest a story: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
