Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Day.
Hannah, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. The total weird kid that never seemed to fit into just one clique. My father sang country music in both inspirational and secular genres, because of this, we were on the road most of life, we were probably home 60 days out of a year and those weren’t consecutive. This set the stage for myself and my sisters to think outside of the box.
Some of my earliest memories were turning coloring books to the flyleaf pages and using my crayons to draw on the blank pages. My great grandmother was an artist and she encouraged all of us to draw and paint, but I really think my sister and I absorbed this encouragement the most. We loved going to her house and being allowed to paint with watercolors and play with modeling clay.
As I got older my influences broadened and I began to consume more diverse forms of media. I’ve always been a big fan of Genndy Tartakovsky, Shinichirō Watanabe, and Jamie Christopher Hewlett and their grungy urban future scapes. Inspiration from these artists, along with artists such as Yoshitaka Amano with a softer style, I really started to develop a style of my own that helped me begin to find my own voice as an artist. But also solidly painted me as the weird kid. I was a super anime and SciFi fan in a time when that wasn’t cool.
At 20, I moved to a tiny village in Spain to be apart of a faith-based leadership training school. My art style and super-nerd weirdness were often viewed as dark and my lack of traditional upbringing kept others from relating to me as easily as I would have liked. I hadn’t yet learned to embrace my weirdness. This time helped me to grow as a person and to this day gives me some of my best memories, but much of my time there very isolating. There were so many days I felt like I was an outsider in a class of 21. At the time, it felt horrible but now I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. I learned so much about myself sitting alone on the beach or in cafes drawing or writing. It was here that I also was introduced to a different side of art; graphic design.
I was asked by members of my class to design a logo for a jewelry business they were thinking of starting. I had never thought before about using my art in this way and eagerly jumped into a world a typeface and icons. I was so inspired to try something new. This foray into graphic design gave me a conduit to use my artistic skills to reach a broader audience and to take a message and really tell its story through imagery.
When I returned to the states, we were in the midst of recovering from the economic recession and jobs were scarce, I eventually found work at a coffee shop where I met the owner of a design studio who offered me my first job as a graphic and web designer. From here, I really felt like hit my stride. I’ve worked for a few studios and even national brands using my skills as a designer to help create brand messaging that was not only creative but informative. I was also able to continue my art career by participating in weekend and evening art shows and exhibitions. Eventually, I was able to use all of these skills and experiences to develop my own studio alongside my husband, photographer William Twitty.
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?
I wouldn’t say it’s been a smooth road, there has been a lot of head-scratching and wondering if I was making the right choices along the way. Early in my career as both an artist and a designer, I was consistently underselling myself, I didn’t have any formal education and I really let this color my opinion of myself. It took me many years to finally realize the value I had and the skills that I had learned.
This realization helped me to land what I thought was a dream job, but a few years into working there I struck from behind on I-85 and suffered a traumatic brain injury and damage to my eye. While I was recovering from this accident, I was laid off from this dream job and left completely stunned. My husband had been let go from his own job only two weeks earlier and we were at a loss as to what to do. While we were scrambling to make ends meet, we realized that the skills we had been using to build other people’s business were the same ones we could be used to build our own dream. In November of 2017, we started freelancing full time, and a year later in November of 2018, we formally filed our paperwork and began our company SkyCastle Productions.
SkyCastle Productions – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
SkyCastle Productions is a full-service design house and visual media company. We specialize in websites, branding, and visual media, visual media being photography and videography. Personally, my specialty is the branding and web design side of things. I love working with companies to create a brand identity they’re excited about. Sometimes for an entrepreneur seeing their idea laid out as a logo and brand guide really makes them see their vision as a reality. Giving small to midsize business owners the chance to feel like their vision is real.
What I think set’s us apart is our point of view on marketing and design. Both William and I were artists before we got into our fields on the corporate side and this gave us a chance to learn fun and eye-catching ways to create brand messaging. We both bring something different to the table and this allows us to strategize with our clients to create something that doesn’t feel stale while still encompassing their ideas and business goals.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think more than luck I would say hard work and networking have played an important role in both our business and life. When you’re pursuing your goals and really going all out chasing them down, you’re going to get lucky eventually. The right people and the right time will come along, but they’re not going to be able to see you if you’re not working hard to be seen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.skycastleproductions.com/
- Phone: 678-732-9600
- Email: hannah@skycastleproductions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theartisthaa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SkyCastleProductionsLLC
Image Credit:
Photos were taken by William Twitty
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