January 20, 2017

Meet Suwanee UI/UX Designer and Creative Director: Brandon Tully

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Tully.

Brandon, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m an L.A. native living in Atlanta, where I work as a UI/UX Designer creating beautiful products for a wide variety of clients. With a hunger to continually grow and evolve as an artist, I have a genuine passion for art, typography, music, technology and creative thinking. I also make a mean grilled cheese.

I’ve been super lucky over the past 12 years to work with some amazing, forward- thinking companies and have had the opportunity to work on some big name clients and projects. Here is a quick list: Walt Disney, McDonald’s, TOMs Shoes, CrowdRise, Anthem, Philips, EA Games, NBC Universal, Jack in the Box, Toyota and Bank of America.

My very first job was for an antique oriental rug company in Los Angeles, where I worked as a product photographer. My role was to photograph inventory and process photos for internal and external catalogs. I soon transitioned this role into a Web Design position. I would consider this to be my very first steps in my career journey.

From there, I spent the next several years freelancing for Advertising Agencies in Los Angeles, mostly as a print designer.

Has it been a smooth road?
I can certainly say it hasn’t been a smooth road; I bounced around from agency to agency in my early twenties searching for a break and trying to find a place to land. Often, I had to over-sell my abilities just to get in the door. In hindsight, this probably wasn’t the greatest strategy, as it led to a lot of turn-arounds. At each shop, I attempted to learn from other designers I worked with to advance my skill-set.

It wasn’t until 2009 where I found an agency outside of Los Angeles where I could settle in and work on my craft, both as a designer and developer. I decided to move on after 2.5 years to take an exciting opportunity with a gaming company, started by the founders of Myspace. My introduction to start-up life was a short-lived, as my position was downsized after ten months.

I’ve always believed that every step in my career was meaningful and with purpose. Something better always came next. After exiting my position with the gaming company, I felt I had bounced around long enough and decided to start my company, BT Creative for lack of a more creative title.

I was lucky to find a few clients to keep me afloat and be able to pay for pricey Los Angeles valet. One of my clients was CrowdRise. A start-up fundraising platform for Non-Profits, Charities and other awesome social causes for good. I contracted with CrowdRise for about a month before they hired me as their Creative Director. At CrowdRise, I was responsible for the overall visual product design in addition to ideation and branding of the platform. When I started at CrowdRise, we were a product and front-end team of 6, and I had the pleasure to watch the team grow to over 50. After 3.5 years, I was ready and excited to tackle a new challenge. Also during this time, I continued to scale my business and curate new client relationships.

Now twelve years later, I am the Creative Director for an online project management software called, TeamGantt. I am happier than ever, both with my full-time job as well as with my business. I feel incredibly lucky to have made it this far in my career, considering all the early setbacks.

Is there some part of you work that is particularly difficult?
The most challenging aspect of my job is the inevitable vulnerability of any creative project. The moment where I have to hold up something I’ve been putting my heart and soul into and ask my clients and colleagues, “what do you think of this thing that I have made? Is it any good? Or am I, in fact, a talentless impostor, as I have secretly suspected all along?” When I was younger, I thought this process would get easier with time and success, but it never seems to!

How do you define success?
I approach every design project with the mindset that it will be the best thing I’ve ever done. I continually strive, with each project to push myself beyond my previous work. At the end of the project, if I can say that I have achieved this, then I feel successful. Another aspect that helps me define success is fulfilling the objectives I’ve set with clients and my full-time team.

On a personal level, I feel that I have had a successful career thus far, especially given the obstacles I faced early on. At the end of the day, I’m able to support my family, live in a nice home and do the extra things that make us happy. I’ve come farther in my career than I ever thought possible.

So, what should we be on the lookout for, what’s next in store for you?
In the not too long term, I’d love to expand my business by building a larger team and establish a more significant client and project roster.

I’d also like to learn how to cook the perfect al dente noodle.

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