November 19, 2016

Meet Lawrenceville Multimedia Artist: Devon Butler

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Devon Butler.

Devon, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started off doing graphic design and video production pretty late in my career. I went to Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina on a basketball scholarship in 2008. I majored in mass communications. This was around the start of the digital age. The iPhone had just come out 6 months prior and graphic design was just starting to take off so I was more interested in sound and video. I jumped around with what I liked to do most between video production sound production tv production and radio. I figured out quick I didn’t want to be on screen and wanted to do behind the scenes work. The good thing was I basically learned everything. This put me in a different class because everyone was focusing on one thing and I was doing everything I could. Quickly video became the leader in it. By junior year which was 2010-2011 I realized those dreams of going to the NBA wasn’t going to happen so I was looking to figure things out knowing I only had 1 more year left of school and basketball so I needed an easy class so I signed up for graphic design. Once I took the first class I knew that was it and I could merge all my talents together into one creator. The rest of that year I decided to redshirt in basketball not forfeiting my eligibility and spent more time on my craft. This extra year in school and basketball helped. I then transferred back home to Southern Polytechnic State University which is now Kennesaw State Marietta campus to pursue my degree in New Media Arts and continue playing basketball. This was perfect as New Media was a hybrid art degree infusing all aspects of media, exactly what I was looking for. Instead of looking for a job I continued with my basketball pursuit while starting my own production company. This would allow me to make my own schedule and train full time to go overseas. Work was slow at first until I went to Las Vegas Nevada in the Summer of 2012 which was my redshirt junior year. I flew out to Vegas during the NBA summer league because all my friends were there for ball. I went there to try and film the basketball camps and meet connections. I ran into a guy by the name of Chris Warren which was the head of the biggest basketball camp in vegas called Eurobasket Summer League. He didn’t have anyone filming his camp and gave me the opportunity. The rest is history from there I went on to do almost every camp in vegas and build my brand to doing weddings contract work and anything you can think of by giving one opportunity and doing a good job at it.

Has it been a smooth road?
Not having any money to start off with for equipment coming out of college. Had to use credit cards and money from parents to get equipment and etc. In school, you just use all of their stuff once your done your own your own. Once things picked up it became an easy task. It’s not to hard to get business in the media world you just have to have a good portfolio and talk to people, the rest takes care of itself. I credit that to my school. I had a lot of work to show people. Now my name kind of speak for itself and you can find many of my stuff online.

What are your plans for the future?
Right now I have been expanding my mobile basketball training app. I have currently developed the number 1 basketball training app in the world called evolve basketball app. It enables kids to obtain all of the necessary tools they need to become successful on and off the court all on their mobile device. Right now in 6 months, we have 65k active users on IOS and Google Play. We are working on expanding the features and implementing new designs. The website is evolvebasketballapp.com

Let’s go backward a bit – can you tell us about the most trying time in your career?
Haven’t had any particular hard times to me as of now. I think playing basketball high school and college and overseas you deal with adversity everyday in the battle of the game and in practice so you dealing with it on a more frequent basis so any adversity is only looked upon something that makes you stronger. The only thing I could think about is when I first was getting started. It went to hard because I started in college so I didn’t need money and built my name up so when I got out I was off the ground and running. It’s been more struggles with the app of lately. No funding I have bootstrapped the entire operation myself and built the entire app. That puts a lot of pressure into making it successful because a lot of companies and tech companies get funding so they have a lot of room for trial and error and mistakes. I can’t afford to make these mistakes because I don’t have any room for mistakes.

Do you ever feel like “Wow, I’ve arrived” or “I’ve made it” or do you feel like the bulk of the story is still unwritten?
Well, I can say most recently and in the past when I meet people who know who I am and have already seen my work. That’s the most gratifying when someone says hey man I saw your videos online or I want to business with you and do something like you did before. Also with the app kids and parents and other athletes who found out I made it and stop me when they see me and tell meow they like the app.

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