jon contino, illustrator & designer
The Creative Insight has been a huge admirer of New York native and Alphastructaesthetitologist, Jon Contino, for quite sometime. His hand illustrated logos and branding style has caught the eye of many influential companies across the world. It's to no surprise that he has garnered considerable attention for his unique approach to design utilizing hand-drawn lettering and typographic illustration in conjunction with a modern, yet minimalistic sensibility giving each of his works a distinct personality. His unique style & vision stems from the influence of corporate mass marketing and inspirational street art. Graffiti-covered walls and hand-painted signs have played a large role in his development, not only as an artist, but as a person. How did you go about establishing yourself as a freelance illustrator/designer? Well, it really all started after my clothing brand CXXVI started to take off. Once that really got into gear, I started doing some more stuff I liked and put it out there on the internet. It seemed like my more personal work got more attention than any of my previous design firm stuff, so I went with it. Before I knew it, I was a full-time illustrator and brand consultant extraordinaire. It's really been a wild ride and every step has basically been one out of necessity. I wish I could say there was a path I took to get where I am, but it's really just been playing with the hand I was dealt and seeing where it took me. We'll see where I end up five years from now though, haha.  How do you manage your time working on freelance design projects and your role as the co-founder/creative director at CXXVI Clothing Co? It is not easy. CXXVI takes up the usual 9-5 hours of the day and freelance takes up whatever's left in the measly 24 hours the galaxy has allotted for us. I basically work and work and work until I can't work anymore, then I keep working and hope I don't fall into some kind of sleep-deprived coma. Is it difficult to manage all of your projects as well as have a stable marriage?  If so, how do you keep the balance?  My wife is a saint. She puts up with all my crazy hours and completely understands my work lifestyle. She has always been incredibly supportive. I mean, I'm sure it helps that she's a creative person too, so at least I don't have to try to explain why "I need to work on this idea!" at 3am. The good thing is that a lot of my time is spent working from my home office, so whenever she's not at work herself, we get to at least be together in the same room all day. I'd say that my life is the most hectic it's ever been right now, but the excitement levels, and the the opportunities I've been honored with, have made it all worth while. I know that one day in the future it won't be crazy like this, so I'm trying to enjoy it while I still can. As far as keeping the balance, I basically work 100% of the day and then just try to figure out how to get family gatherings, quality time with my wife, and random bits of relaxation in wherever I can.   Who has been an inspiration (or possibly a mentor) to you during this process?  Do you feel a mentor is a necessary part of success? Wow, good question. My parents have always been a huge source of support, but my father is probably my biggest inspiration. He managed to work a full time job to support my family and start his own business on the side simultaneously. Once he retired from his day job, he took his side job on full time and turned it into something insanely successful and respected. I've learned so much from just watching him and it's something I think about and appreciate every single day. I honestly don't know where I'd be without all of his great advice and help along the way. I got my work ethic from him and my sense of respect and compassion for all those around me. I'd like to think that over the years, I've made a lot of friends in this industry thanks to the ethics and morals my father taught me in terms of business and real life in general. If everyone could have someone half as influential in their lives as my father has been to me, we'd live in a much much better world.  What has been the greatest challenge presented to you in running your company?   - What has been the easiest thing?  What has been the hardest thing? The greatest challenge I think in running any company is just learning the whole business side of things. A lot of people in our field (design in general), are such creative people, that they never really stop and learn how to exactly do their taxes or do any kind of bookkeeping. Being an artist is one thing, but being an artist AND an accountant is something entirely more challenging. The easy part of any creative business is the creativity part. The hardest part is the business. How do you seek out new commissions? I haven't gone looking for new commissions in a while. I've been lucky enough to be completely jammed up with work for a while now and I haven't seen any signs of slowing down. I'd love to have a couple weeks off just to visit some ideas I have for personal projects, but the stuff I have going on right now is so good that I really don't need that outlet at the moment.   Do you work with a marketing company to spread the word about your work as well as CXXVI or is it more of a grassroots approach? Nope, never have and I doubt I ever will. I've worked with a few marketing companies in the past and they've all seemed to come up short. I feel like the time it takes to explain to someone how to market me or my company would be better spent just marketing it by myself. After all, who knows me better than me? I'm sure there's some PR guys and marketing firms out there that could do an insanely better job, but I haven't gotten to the point where I've found it necessary.   How do you identify an ideal client?  What makes you decide to work or not work with a client or take on a project? It's a very delicate process and something that I feel I've really perfected over the years. There is a very small amount of client types out there and once you get acquainted with all of them, it's very easy to identify who's going to be good, who's going to be a pain, and who's going to be just plain boring. A lot of it has to do with enthusiasm, but also the level of professionalism and preparedness they come to me with. If a client comes to me with hours upon hours worth of research and mood boards, I know they mean business and I know they're serious. It means a lot to me that the client is extremely passionate about what they're actually doing. This is my world, and if I'm going to work with you, then you better believe your intensity level has to meet or exceed mine.  What bit of advice could you offer someone who is considering transitioning from working for a design studio to establishing their own studio/going out on their own? Do it and don't look back. You will hit every obstacle you can think of and every one that you can't, just don't quit. If you really want it, you'll make it a success no matter what gets in your way. Just make sure you don't let discouragement get the best of you. What designer/s do you most look up to and why? Lately, my main sources of inspiration have come from no-name printers and craftsmen from the early 20th century. There's something about making something with your bare hands, putting it out there in the world to serve a purpose, and just creating this extremely pleasing aesthetic nature almost completely by accident. If there's one thing I admire, it's personality in design. It's all about character. What is your dream project and/or person to work with? There's so many! I'd love to be able to work with Levi's on some sort of throwback project. Something with a classic American car manufacture would be amazing in that same vain. Maybe working with Ford to create an ad campaign that really celebrates their history in a fun way. Anything that has a lush historical background is always enticing to me. I can always take something like that and run with it for days on end. It's funny you mention a dream project working with Ford.  I was having a discussion this past weekend with a friend who works for them. We were talking about how their re-designed vehicles are looking really good and how well they are selling.  He did mention that it still has been a tough sell with the younger generation as he thinks it has a lot to do with the Ford logo.  It would be great to see an ad campaign that maybe included the redesign of their logo, maybe giving it a fresher feel or something.  Do you feel that their logo would be redone as part of your dream project? That whole Ford thing is so funny. I would LOVE to just go in and redesign their whole image, even if just for one campaign. Kind of like that Levi's campaign they did last year with all the black and white imagery and the Walt Whitman (I think that's who it was?) quotes. They've definitely stepped up their game and some kind of youthful re-energizing could put them over the top. I think that if I worked on the project, I'd be better off as some kind of team leader though, creative directing the whole thing. My illustration style alone would probably be too loose, so it would have to be this whole overarching campaign that does a little bit of everything. It really would be an awesome project though. What is next for Jon Contino/CXXVI? CXXVI? Who knows, the sky is the limit. We never expected the brand to even get this far when we first created it, so any type of planning or predicting is next to impossible. For a company that spends the majority of its days working a year in advance, we sure like to take things day by day. As for myself, there's a few things I'd like to get into — maybe some small personal collaborations with accessory-based brands. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't quite fit in with the CXXVI mold that I'd like to take a hack at one way or another. I really just love making all sorts of things. Jon resides in Brooklyn with his wife Erin where he works not only as a freelance illustrator, but also as Co-Founder and Creative Director of menswear brand CXXVI Clothing Company. For more on Jon's work: personal website: http://joncontino.com/ CXXVI website: http://cxxvi.net/ blog: http://blog.joncontino.com/ twitter: @joncontino **all images can be found at joncontino.comhttp://joncontino.comhttp://cxxvi.nethttp://blog.joncontino.comhttp://twitter.com/#!/joncontinoshapeimage_3_link_0shapeimage_3_link_1shapeimage_3_link_2shapeimage_3_link_3
"Do it and don't look back. You will hit every obstacle you can think of and every one that you can't, just don't quit".
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