Where am I from, currently, and where did I move from? Well, this is a long story… I’m a military brat so I’ve been around. I was born in Landstuhl, Germany and lived in Ramstein, Germany ’til I was about 6 1/2 or so.

I then moved to O’fallon, Illinois and lived there for about 3 years. I then moved to Wichita Falls, Texas and lived on and off the base there, Sheppard AFB. I lived there for 6 1/2 years as well.

I then just moved where I am living now, Redondo Beach, California in August of this year. So that puts me at the age of 16.

I didn’t really get into graphics or work on the computer in general until 8th grade. I took a ‘computer programming’ class which was really just an HTML class. I also took a digital arts class which really gave me the push. The teacher was the same for both these classes and he really saw my potential so all I really did in those classes was play around making whatever my poor heart (at the time) desired. Looking back at my old work I think “Oh my God…” but you gotta start somewhere. I also took an art class for the first time in my life and that helped as well. I then progressed to my Freshman year and had a Multimedia teach er who was my art teacher as well and we really got along very well and so my graphics and artwork continued to fluorish. And then I moved to Redondo and sophmore year sucks big time… I have no creative classes except for Intro to Engineering but that isn’t quite the same… So I’ve been doing work for fun whenever I get some sort of break in my homework. Next year though… All creativity baby!!!

I focus on freelance really. I just turned 16 so I haven’t been able to do corporate stuff but really hope to maybe get a taste of it. I do really love my current position. I’m working with my dad right now to build up a graphic design business. It will be Wicked Rad Graphics so look out!!!

My favorite part or aspect of graphic design? Hmm… I’d have to say the creativity. It really has nothing to do with the digital part of it. Well, that is until I get my Cintiq. Should get here soon… But anyways, I really like the drawing process of getting thoughts onto paper and playing with different strokes and emotions of characters or random placements of shapes for the more abstract work. It’s the best.

I really wish I could work for Rob Dyrdek at Dyrdek Enterprises. I know, it sounds totally random but the whole aura the people there radiate is way “me.” The whole deal with that is that they are really cool people and I would just love to work for them.

NEVER, EVER take a job you *think* you can do. Whether you could do it or not, there is ALWAYS a time frame. Unless it’s for your own personal work, DON’T take a job that you’ve only experimented in.

One individual who has helped shape my graphic design career is Mr. Tommy Evans, my freshman art and multimedia teacher. He got me into various art competitions, which I entered only digital art and gave me a lot of ideas about everything. He had ADD which made things quite different but he was a great teacher and person none the less.

How do I spark my creativity? Oh man… I get desperate for new forms of creativity… The internet is my BFF and should be yours too. Check out Deviant Art, Threadless, ilikecharacters, and googles daily for new ideas. Go walk outside and look at the most random things. Trying to find things you’ve never seen before or never really noticed helps a lot.

People’s opinions are great for creative work (don’t really take it too much for business work though… go by what the client wants). Play lots of video games and watch TV! People say it’s so bad for you but as a designer (especially digital), you’re used to looking at a screen and probably have a higher tolerance for the screen than most people anyway. The screen can’t hurt you, just make sure to get some exercise and take breaks every once in a while. That’s usually how my creative juices get going. Oh, before the next question, a big thing to help you: people watching. I can’t stress this enough how important it is to people watch. It doesn’t matter if you even do character or draw people or anything human-like at all! It sounds kinda creepy to some people, but just pick a bench at a park or a mall, stop into Starbuck’s or something with a sketchpad and draw what you see. Their clothes give me TONS of ideas and their facial structures and expressions give you different feelings which translated to paper reveals very cool work.

I’m also passionate about Extreme Sports as the general population would call it. I raced ATV’s for quite a while and got pretty good, 4th in my first and only time at Nationals isn’t bad, eh? Anything crazy or what some people might say is stupid or ridiculous is what I love. So outside of art and graphics (and school…), you could say I’m an adrenaline junky.

I see myself building up WRG Inc. (Wicked Rad Graphics) into something pretty big. I’m going to go to a good college for graphics and art. I will meet up with all my friends from back in Tejas, and after that point, who knows? I want to have a small urban looking, two story studio type building that I will use as the home base for WRG and I will probably have a few great people in the business as well, not too many (max probably 5 others). I say so few because honestly, I don’t want to have to worry about a whole lot of people in my business. The few people would specialize in some task such as printing shirts or doing textiles, a Flash or Web Guru, people like that. And on that point, I have no idea where I’m going to go from there.

Thanks for allowing me to have this interview with you guys!

Kye Pirrie