Today we’d like to introduce you to Bennett Hogan.
Hi Bennett, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started out like most people who are creative by drawing in school, each year showing some improvement. After High School, I enlisted in the Army and even then, my creativity had me working on some unique projects from murals to videos. A tour in Iraq and a baby later, I found myself working for an insurance company, but even then I was still drawing. By then I was moving on from rough sketches to full-blown portraits. In 2014, I started posting stuff online and without realizing what I was doing branded my artwork. Initially, the hashtag was a play on words; Unique Artwork. Of course, that was already taken and with a thesaurus and some google searching unique Artworks became Sole Workz #soleworkz became my own personal hashtag.
At the same time, I was doing a lot of fan art for the Atlanta Hawks and it seems someone from their creative team was also following me on Instagram. Sometime during the season a mini-article was published on NBA.com about my artwork by the Hawks. They thought the hashtag was my art name so we just rolled with it. It was in 2017 when I met Anthony Prince whose son played for the Hawks at the time. I drew a portrait of him and his dad reached out to me. From there, being trademarked, creating logos, and other graphic design services were a direct result of being their in-house art designer. Like most of us that had to adjust to life during the pandemic, my services evolved into apparel customization. I now supply custom design t-shirts and polos to local businesses and even personalized shirts for individuals. I still get the occasional commission to do a digital painting and print it on canvas and, sometimes my Atlanta Hawks fan art gets used by them during games at halftime. The Hawks in have sent me some pretty cool stuff in return.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
There were some challenges early on especially when the hashtag first started. There would be times I would post some fan art thinking it was a sure-fire thing only to find out after a few days on the gram I’d have 2 likes. We’ve been conditioned to expect instant gratification and back then it wasn’t. It would be about a year before some fan art actually got some recognition from those other than Hawks and Falcons fans. I think the feeling is similar to most people, grind and grind until you finally get noticed. Another challenge was trying to get as much out as possible to point eyes at my pages. There are so many posts, so many hashtags, and hours of videos created just to carve out an identity in the social media age. It can be frustrating to know how hard you worked on a video to share on YouTube only to be outdone by a video of a cat knocking over a sleeping puppy. The other unique challenge once I started taking on clients was trying to price my work. Operating out of two cities where one has a more up-scale client base than the other, it was a challenge trying to stay competitive with other Graphic designers who already had relationships with the clients in Atlanta and then also be able to offer services for those clients at a comparable price in cities like Macon and Warner Robins. The hard lesson is to know your worth, charge your fee, then blow them away with your work so they come back.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As an artist, I fall under a few different categories. I do traditional art with colored pencils, portraits in grayscale, digital portraits, cartoon characters, anime characters and, vector artwork.
More traditional Graphic design work I do includes flyer design, typography, logo design, photo manipulation, and video editing.
On the apparel side, I’ve designed graphics for T-shirts and Polos, created vinyl decals for cars and customized tumblers.
What makes me unique is just the variety of styles and disciplines I can do, and that I am self-taught.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up I was a shy kid, kept to myself until I started drawing. Then all the other kids found me interesting as I could draw their favorite cartoon characters. In middle school, I actually started selling artwork on notebook paper. I would draw those Looney Tunes characters in the urban gear you used to see on t-shirts in the mid 90’s to pay for snacks at the end of the school day. My daydream was to either be a comic book artist or later a Manga Artist when I got into High School. Dragon Ball Z and other Anime had just got really popular back then and it was a huge influence on my art style. If you asked anyone who knows me what I was like growing up, they probably say I was just really chill, except when it came to basketball. I love the sport from watching my dad play pickup games before work. I would go to Friday night games and it would feel like to me being at NBA game. I just loved the whole experience. One other unique thing growing up was I was really into Japanese cars. This was before the forums and internet, and way before those Fast and Furious movies. My older cousin had this Honda Accord he was always doing something to and I could not wait to get my license and get my own.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://soleworkz.square.site/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sole_workz/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoleWorkz
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/sole_workz
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/user/marcushogan81
Image Credits
Deshaun Bryant, John and Lyria Collins, Anthony Prince
