Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Sommerville.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up on the Westside of Akron, OH. Noah Ave to be exact. I was your normal kid. Loved video games, drawing, and playing outside. I didn’t really have it rough. Wasn’t rich, but wasn’t poor. Got Good grades in school. Started getting into trouble a little bit. Nothing that sent me to jail, but definitely had some close calls. I somewhat kept to myself, but that went away when I started getting into graphics. My design path started when my brother showed me Adobe Photoshop, and gravitated to it. He was into computer graphics also. He used to build computers and websites from scratch. He also could draw very well. He sat with me one day and showed me the software and me also loving to draw, got me interested it. Actually, before I got into computer graphics heavy, I was airbrushing. I started off airbrushing poster board until I got good enough to do clothing. I was airbrushing clothing in my mom’s basement, making around $20-$50 a shirt. Being that as still in school at the time, it was a lot to handle. Sometimes more than I could handle once word got around. My mom was very supportive of it though. She helped me get my first airbrush machine, paint, and any other equipment I needed. After a while, I slowed down and started focusing on graphics. I started doing graphics on myspace when I was about 15 years old for people in my city. FOR FREE!!! While doing that, I also found an interest in beat-making. I got a hold of the trial version of a program called Fruity loops, a well-known music production software. I only mention this because it helped me connect with other artist when I was into making beats in my mid-20s. I was okay at it. No where near a professional level lol, but like I mentioned, more people wanted to see what I was about. Which led me back to graphics since I wasn’t that good at music production. I thought I was great but you know how that is.
I’m a self-taught graphics designer. I learned mostly through studying other designers, YouTube videos, tutorials, and practice. I mostly dealt with local rap artist to begin with. At first, I did it just for the fun of it. It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I started trying to turn it into a business. I was charging artist $25 – $30 for album cover artwork just to get my name out there. I did this for a few years. I to this day say that was a big mistake lol. I was doing graphics for local artist and businesses and with word of mouth I started doing graphics for people nationwide. I have to give props to my city, Akron, OH is a small city, but has a lot of talented artists, both from a music and designer perspective. If it wasn’t for my city, I don’t know if I would’ve connected with so many artists as quickly. Special shout out to a few artists by the name of Aint Dat Threezy, Shoddy Boi, and Young Bossi. Doing work for them brought me a lot of attention. A lot of the people I worked with recommended me to people they knew rather than them finding me on social media. People from the East Coast to the west coast was interested in my work. I even had a client from the UK reach out to me, and I started doing album art for him. I’ve done worked on logo and merchandise designs for artist, clothing designers, a marijuana dispensary, and so forth. I’ve had my work on the side of food trucks, billboards, vans, and more. I’ve stayed up from sunup to sundown, working on many projects. Never knew it could get so exhausting. I haven’t had the privilege to work with any mainstream artists yet, but I’m hoping to in the future. Currently, I’m continuing to improve my craft as well as start a clothing line. I can’t reveal the name of it yet. Still putting the pieces together. Hopefully, it becomes a household name which is what I am aiming for.
I am currently a father of 3, a husband to a beautiful wife, and all 4 of them supports me through all of this. Designing has always been my passion. I’ve wanted to quit many times but never succeeded at it. The thought of being able to bring someone’s thoughts to life visually keeps me at it. It’s been a long journey. I’ve gotten a lot of support to come this far. I have yet to get where I want to be, so I’m still going strong.
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?
Not a smooth road at all. I’ve lost many nights of sleep. Dealt with old clients wanting designs for the same price I started at. Gotten into arguments with clients over pricing. When I started to up my pricing, I lost a lot of clients. It was like people only came to me because of my low pricing. It wasn’t like they didn’t have the money. It was many of times I wanted to just give it up. I’ve had moments where I felt like my creative side just disappeared. Times where I didn’t even want to touch any design software for a while. I’ve went through multiple computers and external hard drives. Computers crashing on me mid-project and I had to start a design all over. I have days where I’d have to work on a project while on break at my “9-5” type of job.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a freelance graphic designer. I go under the name Jay Ville Graphics. I make logo designs, album cover art, ads for social media, clothing designs, branding, and motion graphics. I specialize in photo manipulation, in which I incorporate into a lot of my cover art designs. Album art is what most people know me for. Over the past few years, I started getting more into clothing/merchandise designing. I have more of an urban/street style when it comes to my art, and most of the artists I’ve worked with have that background. I don’t know for sure what really sets me apart. I would say it’s that I can connect with people easily. I work through any conditions. I’ve even said in trap houses with people working on their projects. I’m just glad I never gave up. I’m proud of myself. I proud that I could turn what use to be a hobby that I loved doing into a side business and capitalize off of it.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
The closest thing to a mentor I had was my brother. He gave me tips and ideas how to scale my business even more. From talking about pricing, advertising only dealing with specific clients. As far as networking, social media is powerful. I’ve networked with a lot of people through myspace first, then Facebook, and through Instagram. Just everyday posting brought me attention as well as word of mouth. I would search who needed some kind of artwork done and message them. I’d tell clients that if they bring me more clients that I would give them a deal next time they needed something. Every now and then I would drop the price down.
Pricing:
- Album/Single Art – $75 to $150
- Logo Design – $75 to $200
- Motion Graphics- $100+
- Photography – $50 +
Contact Info:
- Website: jayvillegraphics.myportfolio.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/jayvillegfx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006216315432
- Twitter: @GfxVille
