Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Watkins.
Chris, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
The path isn’t always straight, and my journey has come with its unique variety of twists and turns. After graduating from Georgia State University in 2002, I found myself doing stints in banking and insurance for nearly a decade without any real career fulfillment. It was with food that I found my creative outlet.
With the help of a few friends who were equally interested in sharing our love for food with the world, we started a little blog called “Eat. Drink. Repeat.” in 2012. In a time before blogs reached peak saturation, we thought we’d share our point of view of the Atlanta food/drink scene from restaurant openings to chef interviews taking our readers only to the places we loved. I taught myself photography from watching every YouTube tutorial I could stream and soon after, an opportunity arose for me to become the Atlanta editor for Thrillist.com. Getting paid to eat and drink was quite the career high point, but that can only last for so long as the industry changed in favor of freelance writers instead of staff.
So, I took all the restaurant, hospitality, and communications connections I had made and the skills I’d honed over the years to start a full-service multi-media agency. Watkins Branding was born out of necessity and continues for the love of sharing powerful stories and imagery for the restaurant and hospitality industry.
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 goal is to make you hungry with words. Whet your appetite with eye-popping visuals. Create content that hits your brain in just the right way to make you want to learn more about what you’re seeing or reading. To say, “I want to eat/drink here. Where is it?”
This comes in the form of high-resolution imagery for restaurants such as American Cut, Davio’s, The Lawrence, and more. But not only letting the visuals stand as-is. The message is complemented by strong copy and communicated on various social media channels for my clients. And while food is my bread and butter, I’ve gained depth in the content I create and capture in collaborating on visuals with non-food brands such as the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, Diageo, Edrington, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, and more.
Now, with video ruling content streams, I’ve found my clients are investing more in sharing moving stories with succinct narratives to communicate their messaging. And this has become a big part of my service offerings.
How can artists connect with other artists?
I think the best way of connecting with me and others in the food communications space is just to reach out. Send us an email, DM, ask a question. We’re pretty open in giving you our suggestions for places worth your time or can point you in the right direction on where to find an answer to your questions.
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?
You can see my work on the social media feeds of some of your favorite restaurants. I share a lot on my personal and business Instagram accounts, @christopherbw and @watkinsbranding, respectively. My full portfolio of work lives at watkinsbranding.com, and the best way to support my work is to share it with your go-to restaurant – especially if they don’t have a social media presence. I work and consult with business owners to help them tell better stories on social media by creating engaging content.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.watkinsbranding.com/
- Email: chris@watkinsbranding.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherbw/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/watkinsbranding
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/watkinsbranding/
Image Credit:
Chris Watkins
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