Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh LaFayette.
Josh, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started trying to take “cool pictures” with disposable cameras when I was a teenager. In my senior year of high school, my older sister lent me her 35mm camera and I shot a few rolls and got hooked. When I went to college, I started photographing bands performing live at their shows and posed promotional shots for their press kits.
I learned about the term “graphic design” when I was about 19 and realized that it was something I had been doing for fun—making logos/flyers/stickers/business cards/promo kits for bands and skateboard crews. I got a pirated version of Photoshop 7 from my roommate and started figuring out how to clunk around in it. I changed my major when I was 20 and earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Auburn University’s College of Architecture, Design, and Construction in 2008. I worked at boutique branding studios, agencies, and in-house, and freelanced while moving around from Alabama to Georgia to Florence, Italy to Alabama to Massachusetts to Georgia again.
In 2016 I earned a master’s degree in Illustration from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. It was published by Chronicle Books in 2016. As an independent creative, I have had the privilege to work with Jolly Rancher, Vitaminwater, Citibank, Toyota, Adobe, Microsoft, Tumblr, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Atlantic Records, Sony Records, Hilton Hotels, Nike, New Balance, Oscar Mayer, MailChimp, Intercom, Harvard University, and Atlanta Magazine. I have been fortunate enough to exhibit in group and solo shows around the US and in Seoul, South Korea. I spoke at Creative Mornings Boston in 2015 and have done guest lectures and workshops at universities around the U.S. I’ve taught at Lesley College of Art & Design in Cambridge, MA and Miami Ad School at Portfolio Center in Atlanta.
Basically, I’m just really, really lucky—on top of being born with tremendous privilege. I’m grateful every day and don’t take any of the above experiences for granted.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Honestly, I think it would be weird to find an artist who feels they had a smooth road to travel on! I have had so many opportunities and handouts because of my social background and identity (cisgender, able-bodied, straight, white man raised by an upper-middle-class white family), so a lot of things have been easy. When it comes specifically to my art practice, I struggled a long, long time trying to figure out “my style” (and how to make money with it). I copied other people, I got lost in blogs and social accounts, did work that I thought would be “popular” or “marketable,” and I forced myself sometimes to do work that was so not “me.” I’m 35 at the time of writing this and feel like I finally understand the kind of work that brings me joy and fulfillment.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I think “company” or even “business” might be strong words to describe what I do! I’m a sole proprietorship, and I currently only accept freelance clients that either stand for something I believe in or provide me with the opportunity to participate in a collaboration that will be really fun. I sell things that I make on my website, but I don’t really promote the shop. I worked full time at the Kids2 in Atlanta for three and a half years and just left that company in December 2020. I am starting as Art Director at Greenlight in Atlanta in January 2021 and very much looking forward to being a part of the team there.
For me, my “life” and my “career” are separate. My career is basically a necessary inconvenience while I’m here in this life. I do, however, feel very fortunate that my career is in a field that almost completely overlaps with what I like to do for fun.
In my personal practice, I am wholly focused on experimentation. I don’t like to do the same thing for too long, and I’m very easily enamored by new techniques, processes, and media. I draw food a lot, and I think I’m probably most well known for Food Fortunes, a cheeky, parody tarot deck published by Chronicle Books that focuses on helping you decide what to eat.
I’m most proud of any time I’ve helped a person or a brand to feel heard and to walk away from our time together feeling equipped to be more authentically themselves.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I don’t think there will ever be a situation where success is a finish line. Success is a daily goal. For me, it hears others, finding out where their needs and my strengths overlap, and giving them what I have to give. Writer and teacher Toni Morrison said, “If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.” I subscribe to this maxim wholeheartedly and strive to live by it daily. If I provide a place of safety and strength for others, then I am successful.
Contact Info:
- Website: joshlafayette.com
- Email: josh@joshlafayette.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/joshlafayette
- Other: joshlafayette.bandcamp.com
Image Credit:
Artist photo by Lou LaFayette. All other photos/graphics by Josh LaFayette.
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