Today we’d like to introduce you to James Buckey
Hi James, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My art and design career started in highschool, being introduced to Adobe through Akron Public School’s Information Technology program at Ellet High School. From there I worked in and ran major retail chain stores that included a full print center.
Combining my love for art and music, as well as my management background, I moved on to Wayne Center for the Arts in Wooster, OH — running their digital arts program as well as instructing students of all ages in graphic design, Photoshop, and other digital art studies.
I’m currently the Director of Marketing for the Akron Symphony Orchestra, and have been pursuing my art career in stride with my design brand that I’ve been working freelance under for the last 15 years.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Having to shake the imposter syndrome every time you enter a new arena where youre standard is that of folks with formal education can be rough. It’s never easy to quantify your value until you can put the rubber to the road and prove it to others and yourself.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I mainly work in the digital art space. The focus of my work is in image blending and exploring visual textures. I enjoy take multiple images and molding them together with various “eye-feels” so-to-speak, like halftones, static, and even exaggerations of the source image’s proportions.
I’m certainly most proud of all the students I’ve been fortunate enough to work with — both in art and in music, but also in my former management career. Professionally I’m still over-the-moon in being selected as part of Akron-On-Deck III: Bicentennial Edition, where my work will be on the “Joker” playing card. I also have a few projects I can’t announce yet that have me really looking forward with glitter on my eyes.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I see the design field becoming even more accessible with tools in AI and with platforms like Canva opening doors. I hope that this inspires new and various trends in both the corporate and artistic sides of branding.
I’m constantly in awe of what my generation and those after have been able to achieve artistically in the Internet age and I can’t wait to see the bar raised even more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/buckeyart
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buckeydesignstudio
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/buckeyart
