My Story.
Since as long as I can remember I have loved drawing. Looking back at work from my primary school I came across a piece of paper which asked us to draw what we wanted to be when we grew up. On it, I drew a man painting a picture and underneath I wrote ‘I want to be an artist’.
My experience with secondary school was much more dream breaking than it was inspirational. The only great thing to come from my time at Whitburn Academy was befriending a band which later impacted my life quite a bit – The Snuts. At the start of their early days of playing in a band I would do little scribbles for them and even made a make shift music video for their first demo.
As I found little encouragement from the majority of my teachers at school I left and went to College to study Art & Design, where, despite having a great lecturer I also lost interest and dropped out. I then had little choice but to carry on working to sustain life and repay my student loan.
The years that followed seen me graduate from working in supermarkets to being in the financial sector. It was there that, despite being paid relatively well for my age and experience, I became extremely depressed. I must have been the worst employee possible and could barely function in my job. When I inevitably got fired after scraping by for two years I made the best life changing decision possible, to focus on the one career I wanted.
As if a light had switched on in my head I began to tunnel all my efforts towards this one goal. At around the same time, The Snut’s also decided to reform and take being in a band serious. I went back to college and began working with the band again creating more make shift music videos such as Glasgow & Proper.
Settling down, I got a girlfriend who has business along with her Mother. They needed a logo and a website which I offered to do. This then led to the other odd job and a growing client list. Almost completely unintentionally I had stumbled into two industries. Freelance Art for the Music Industry and Commercial Graphic Design for Businesses across Scotland. When it came to officially launching my business I was already inundated with requests to work on an array of projects.
Off the back of The Snut’s success I had several other up and coming local bands who were eager to work with me. As we live in a small community there were also many small businesses who needed a push to get them off the ground. Because I had just started out, my prices were very low and perfect for start ups and struggling musicians.
Through what I would describe as an ounce of luck, a bit of talent and 100% commitment working 14 hour days – I graduated college with flying colours and now have a profiting business. Today, I work with some of the best rising musical talents in our country as well as many amazing small business start ups and even larger Companies such as Argyll Holidays, Witherby Publishing Group & Spring Solutions.
Scott Kempik | @skempik
Freelance Artist for Music Artists
