Today we’d like to introduce you to Cornelius ‘Hank’ Washington.
Cornelius ‘Hank’, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
To start, I was born and raised in Columbus, Mississippi. I grew up on the outskirts of the town in the woods and I live around 5-10 mins from the state line, so I guess you could say I was a country boy. Most of my childhood was like any other kid. I was brought up with my Mom, Dad, and older brother. Once I entered my teenage years, I was raised in a single parent house home.
I had no clue what design even was at a young age. The closest encounter I had with art and creativity was watching my brother sketch in his room when I was a kid. He used to have notebooks filled sketches of random cartoon characters and hip hop artists and It used wow me on how he was able to come up with such a unique style and randomness when it came to art. I never thought in a million years that I would be able to do what he did. As I got older, I dove deeper into sports. I played a little everything, but I was deeply invested in basketball. I enjoyed baseball but wasn’t the best-built player for the game. I played basketball every year all the way up until I graduated high school. I had dreams of playing college ball, but unfortunately, life didn’t work out that way. I was in a weird space where sports was over and I had to really make a decision about what I was going to do with my life.
College was around the corner and a lot of my friends had ambitions of being doctors, physicians, and scientists and on the other hand, my friends who did not want to go school founded trades and starting working industrial jobs making a living. I was stuck in the middle and didn’t really have a passion for either. One day, I was on myspace….yeah myspace…and a friend of my brother had this blog site that I found so interesting. It kept up with the latest in hip-hip news and the graphic layout out of the site was amazing to me at the time. Honestly, I’m still a fan of the brand today. Although I didn’t know what it was called at the time, I just know I wanted to making something like that. My brother explained to me that it was graphic design and it seemed like a light just flickered on in my head and I knew that was what I wanted to do.
So, I attended Mississippi State University and studied graphic design. It was a real challenge because the program was so small and I didn’t see a lot of people who looked like me in the industry and it had me worried. It was almost unheard of to me that you could make a living doing design. It always seemed like something you do on the side. I grew up in a community that didn’t really understand the impact design had on our everyday lives and businesses. Going through each semester was intimidating because it was expressed that you weren’t going to make a lot of money as a designer; which was completely wrong! Learning was challenging because I didn’t know how to ultimately express myself through design. In other words, I didn’t know if I was designing for me, for my teacher, or for my future clients.
So after a few semesters of overnighters and adobe crashes, I pushed my way through to finishing up in 2016. Before I graduated, I was employed as a graphic designer at an agency called Socially in Starkville, MS. At the time, the team and company were small and young, so there was a lot of learning on the job daily. The position really forced me to think like a business and ultimately it forced me to learn a handful of crafts to meet the demands of clients. Let’s just say that graphic design was just a screw in a toolbox of skills that were needed to survive. Ultimately, I helped the company grow by upgrading our creative capabilities that helped land clients like TGI Fridays, Dick’s Sporting Goods, A3C Festival and more. I also helped grow the company from 5 people when I first started to 18 employees and move to Birmingham where it resides today.
In my off-time, I took advantage of YouTube to learn multiple creative avenues that sparked my freelance career. I began sharing my work through Instagram and website, which landed opportunities to work with some amazing businesses and brands independently. I have gotten opportunities to be in rooms with some of the most influential people and be a part of some amazing work. It’s crazy how far design can take you if you just stay curious.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road was definitely not smooth. Not at all. The challenging of overcoming the negative connotation of being a designer alone was really tough. As I said, at home, it was unheard of to make a decent living as a designer. It was always something you should just do ‘on the side’.
Another challenge was adapting after college. Programs were not teaching enough of the business behind graphic design. Learning the craft was wonderful, but I didn’t really know how to become a successful business designer. It seemed like I only had to be an in-house designer but not a studio owner.
As we all know, college is not cheap. It was already challenging financially to support yourself with the tools needed to pass studio so trying to take on a business course on top of everything else wasn’t for me.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Hank Designs Studio story. Tell us more about the business.
I’m the owner and operator of Hank Designs Studio. I help businesses and brand ultimately define themselves through the power of creativity, strategy, and design. I specialized in content creation as well as branding and strategy development for brands who dare to define the human element within themselves.
I am most proud of my studio because of it being 100% black-owned and ran by me, honestly, I hope to play a part in being another amazing black-owned creative studio. What sets HDS apart is the understanding of social media. Right now, social is becoming the bread and butter of marketing. Understanding that, HDS is able to help brands communicate their identity outside of traditional marketing.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Hmm. I don’t call any of the things that happened to me ‘luck’. I think a good amount of patience sprinkled with baby steps working towards a goal can take you a long way. I definitely had unfortunate moments that taught me a lot. I’ve had some unfortunate client relationships that taught me tough lessons.
I guess I would say the good luck was surrounding myself with friends who understood my capabilities and really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Yeah, actually I am really lucky to have them.
Contact Info:
- Website: Hankdesigns.com
- Email: hank@hankdesigns.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iam_hank/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/designedbyhankw/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hank_iam
Image Credit:
Aubrey Crawford
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