Back in February, we debuted “For the Win,” an occasional series in which one of you tells the rest of you (and us!) how Dribbble helped you move forward along your career path, or change career paths, grow your company, launch an app, or __ (enter your big achivement here). Letterer, designer, writer, and speaker Ryan Hamrick stepped up for FTW #2. Take it away, Ryan!
L-R: Design is Where I Found My People, Four Years, Sad Ball
A little over four years ago, our family situation aligned itself just right to provide a window of opportunity for me to take the leap and work as a designer, full-time.
This is a scary leap for anyone to make, striking out on his or her own, and there’s no shortage of times that can be plenty scary after that initial decision, either.
My decision to dive headlong into freelancing was particularly brilliant for many reasons. I had never been to design school in any capacity, unless of course you count the “Intro to Graphic Design” class I took in my first semester of community college where I painted shapes and shit.
“…the decision to become a designer was a complete 180 for me.”
I also knew absolutely no one in the design industry, which is something I mention a fair amount, as anyone who follows me around online knows, but it can really make starting out quite difficult. I had been in the wireless business, managing retail stores for various carriers and eventually writing for a few wireless news sites over the seven years or so prior. So aside from a few silly (and often free) logos for friends and family throughout the years, the decision to become a designer was a complete 180 for me.
For instance, I looked back in my email, and found my original email confirmation message from the day I signed up as a prospect on Dribbble. That was January 15th, 2011. I wasn’t actually drafted until July 25 of that same year, over six months after signing up. I literally had no one that I knew near well enough to where I felt like I could approach them and ask for an invite.
At the time, I saw Dribbble as the way that I was going to change that. A chance to directly interact with all of those great designers pumping out the incredible work I was ogling at for so long. To ask them questions, share my admiration, give feedback, and just flat-out get on their radar, if nothing else.
For me, it turned out to be all that and more.
“Nearly all of my present-day best friends are people I’ve met through Dribbble, Dribbble meetups, or through other friends that I probably met through Dribbble.”
Not only did I immediately start interacting with other designers, but I was quickly able to pick up a sense for what pieces of mine were working, and which ones had sharply less impact. You can’t base your design decisions solely on the feedback you receive online, but for me, this was the first real response I’d gotten from anywhere outside my own head. It only made my desire to keep at it and keep sharing on Dribbble stronger and stronger.
Nearly all of my present-day best friends are people I’ve met through Dribbble, Dribbble meetups, or through other friends that I probably met through Dribbble. I’ve built an amazingly rewarding career around my lettering work that I first began after being inspired by Dribbble shots from the likes of folks like Simon Ålander, Sergey Shapiro, Ged Palmer, Rob Clarke and many more, most of whom are pretty good friends of mine today, thanks in no small part to our interactions on Dribbble.
“…having a platform like that to gain some attention and essentially ‘set up shop’ on was absolutely paramount to my success.
Some of my earliest lettering gigs, back when I was designing interfaces and scrambling to teach myself web design, came to me through Dribbble, and eventually, they ended up taking over as the sole reason anyone ever came to me with work (which is just fine by me). Living in Pittsburgh where I knew no one and had zero connections of any kind, having a platform like that to gain some attention and essentially “set up shop” on was absolutely paramount to my success.
Today, I’m based in Austin, TX, after moving down here last year with my family. Austin is like “Dribbble User Central,”” boasting one of, if not the most active and best supported meetup groups anywhere. And so with that ever-burgeoning community in place, I had a whole mess of built-in friends just waiting for me here, thanks once again to Dribbble.
In fact, a pretty large group met up with my wife and me for a happy hour welcome in the first couple weeks we were here.
@Hamrick @gjhead It's okay, there will always be more!! Let me know when you arrive and I'll gather the welcoming committee for a happy hour
— Sophie Shepherd (@sophshepherd) May 13, 2014We didn’t even have half of our furniture and clothes here yet (long, ugly story), and already, we had large groups coming out to welcome us with open arms, all because I had made a few friendships on Dribbble. Pretty wild, man.
I finally got to meet Dan Cederholm at the SXSW Dribbble meetup/party here in Austin in March, and for fear of sounding like a complete fanboy, didn’t thank him enough. Although in reality, nor could I have.
So thanks, Dan, Rich, Susanna, and everyone else who’s ever been a part of the Dribbble superteam, for all the wondrous things you’ve done to provide such a powerful and inspirational place for us to learn, grow, and achieve great feats of our own.
I think I speak for everyone when I say it means the world to us. Dribbble for the motherfucking win.
Find Ryan at Dribbble, on Twitter, and at ryanhamrick.com.
And hey, if you’re in Austin and want to meet some of the great crew of designers Ryan’s talking about above, get yourself on over to the ATX Dribbble Meetup at Easy Tiger TONIGHT (Thursday, May 7)! The shot above is Ryan’s shot for a previous Dribbble Meetup. For information on tonight’s event, see Bryan Butler’s shot, ATX Dribbble Meetup #23.
Find more Inspiration stories on our blog Courtside. Have a suggestion? Contact stories@dribbble.com.
