Interview with Eoin Kelly - Lead Designer and Founder at Clean Cut Pixel

Eoin graduated at Ulster University in Interactive Media, from then has been very successful with in the industry. With in his first year he went and worked for the university doing Graphics and branding. He then went on to work for bigger companies such as Liberty IT, through he found him self doing crazy amount of work in little spaces of time. To make his work life more exciting and time manageable, also more reasons like being his own boss and being able to take on jobs he was passionate about, Clean cut pixel was created, Eoin along with 3 other members of friends and freelancers joined together to make the business.







My Questions:

1 – What work do you find really inspires the work that you make?

2 – What do you think is the most important or favourite project that you have worked on and why was it important to you?

3 – What traits do you think makes someone a good film maker/script writer/web developer/media artist/etc.

4 – What’s the best bit of your job, and what don’t you like about what you do?

5 - What would be your best advice for someone who wants to start up a graphic design business?


Eoin's Answers 

1) I make work for commercial organisations, so most of my work is driven by trying to sell a product or solve a business goal. Therefore, I'm inspired by work that does this while also being fun to watch. I think companies like Apple are the best at this. I love work that I can enjoy, while also having a direct impact on me and influencing my choice when it comes to products in the market. It's especially satisfying when the concept is so simple but works so well. It makes me think it's the kind of output I could do myself one day. Work like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS8IC5LXqIw

2) As I touched on in my last email, all my work is very commercial and my projects are driven by whether they will bring money into the business to keep things ticking and keep my team and I paid. But on the rare occasion, I get to work on a paid-project that I also am massively passionate about on a value-based level. This happened last year when Ulster University commissioned me and my team to create a video for Mill Strand Integrated School. While putting our usual work into practice (video and editing), I also got to sit down with the principle of an integrated school that I already admired. I got to hear about their vision, see the benefits of an integrated school first hand, and most importantly I felt like our work made some real impact: https://www.cleancutpixel.com/integrated/

3) I think it's essential to be persistent in everything you do if you want to be successful in the media industry. If I compare the work me an my team are creating now compared to a few years ago it's honestly laughable in comparison. Make sure that you learn on each project and put that into practice on the next. At the start, don't be afraid to take on jobs that you're only 70% sure you can do. Rome wasn't built in a day, but over time you will become more confident and produce much better work. The clients/projects may start small and in low numbers, but if you work hard and produce consistently better results each time this will only go in one direction. It can be very easy to see someone the same age/experience do much better work and be left feeling deflated or close to giving up. But if you have the foundational experience of motion graphics / videographer / script writing or whatever it may be, you also have the potential to transform that into a successful career over time. Please please please be persistent!

4) Working for yourself has many pros and cons. I think it's important I mention some cons first as I don't want to oversell it. You'll have to organise your own pension, sort your own taxes, organise your own sick-leave insurances and be responsible for every project that gets sent to every client. BUT, you will also have the satisfaction of earning a salary that reflects your input. It's up to you to go out and reel in clients and projects. It's up to you to make good work that attracts recurring clients and it's up to you to work overtime if you want to make those extra jumps. Having your income based on your own drive really does bring a sense of liberty/freedom to mould your own future.

5) Don't expect it all to come easy or all at once. I worked on side/weekend projects for years before I had built up enough clients and money to take the jump into full-time self-employment. Once this happened in June 2016, I then had to work on a lot of absolutely shit budgets while working overtime to get them done on time just to pay the bills. It took about a year and a half of full-time self-employment before I was in a position to drop the time-wasters and only keep on clients that helped the business grow. Now I'm in a much more comfortable position, working with a few recurring clients. They have big marketing departments so the work is constantly flowing, and it's being billed to people who have an accurate understanding of budgets and timelines. Again, it took a few years and a lot of long nights to be able to get here and I'm still nowhere near where I want to be. Expect it to be tough and timely!