Today we’d like to introduce you to Walker John Moses.
Walker, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m a Los Angeles native (Valley kid) and a Northwestern graduate. I grew up in a family of artists – my dad is an actor and my mom is a writer/actress. I was a competitive baseball player most of my life, and I played Division 1 college baseball in the Big Ten. Even though most of my days and summers revolved around practice and baseball, I finished NU with a degree in Radio / Television / Film. My academics became my creative outlet – a pretty unique major for a college athlete.
I took a few basic design and art courses in college, but my love for branding and marketing didn’t surface until a few years into the working world. My first professional experience was at Dish Media and Sling TV, and I was at the Fortune 500 company for almost four years in LA and Chicago. This company provided fantastic opportunities and encouraged me to explore many areas of interest. I started in the advanced advertising space, learning about television and streaming services and then shifted my career into a creative marketing role, thanks to some helpful and inspiring mentors. I was a project manager and drove our upfront presentation, produced video content, and helped Dish Media through a full rebrand overhaul.
In the summer of 2018, I realized I wanted to dive into the fundamentals of design. I took online design courses every day and read lots of books from Massimo Vignelli’s “The Vaginelli Canon” to “Logo Design Love” by David Airey. A blank canvas filled with colors, shapes, angles, and design became my playground and I loved it.
After spending some great years in Chicago, I decided to make the move back to Los Angeles. I landed a marketing manager role at a creative shop in LA. The responsibilities were vast, from creative directing to social strategy to brand identity to paid media, I touched it all. I worked primarily in the non-profit group (Seth Rogen’s Hilarity for Charity (HFC) being one of my clients), overseeing brand, social, and creative strategy. During the time I worked with HFC, they went through a major rebrand, the first change since they launched the charity in 2012. This fueled my passion for the importance of brand identity even more.
In April 2020, my freelance work was taking off so I took a leap of faith. The last month has been exciting and rewarding – being my own boss, setting my own schedule, and helping brands through my own creative lens.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Like most creatives, I have absolutely had my struggles along the way. At Dish and Sling TV, I struggled with the fact that the world of media sales wasn’t for me. I was lucky enough to change the trajectory of my career at the same company.
For those that have worked at a start-up agency, there are plenty of moments of being completely overwhelmed and many late nights in the office or dialed-in at home. You can often lose sight of what you are doing, why you are doing it, and those moments of pure creativity can quickly turn into a brutal grind.
The last month has been a breath of fresh air and a time to refocus. The freelance lifestyle may not be permanent for me, but for the time being, I’m working with clients that I’m excited about, growing as a human being, and bettering myself as a creative every day.
As many of us know, the talent pool of designers and marketers in L.A. can be overwhelming. I often wake up with internal thoughts – “Am I learning quickly enough? Should I have gone to school for design? Am I good at what I do?” As a creative, I constantly need to remind myself to live in the present, focus on making quality work that I love, and the rest will follow.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Walker John Creative – what should we know?
I started Walker John Creative (WJC) as a side venture in 2018. My elevator pitch would be WJC is a brand identity-focused one-man shop, providing digital services and creative consulting for businesses and brands.
I compare working with clients to painting a house. Some houses have peeling paint and need a lot of sanding, the owner wants to drastically change the color, and therefore several coats of paint are needed, and a new bench on the porch might bring the whole image together. These projects take more time and planning. Others just need their front door painted red. There are clients that need a full scope of work – a new logo and brand identity with guidelines, a new website and focus on SEO, social strategy, and everything in-between. Others just need a few ad designs for a campaign.
For now, I’m touching on a bit of everything, depending on what service is requested. But my passion is geared more towards branding – a new product that needs a distinctive look, or a website color palette and choosing three perfectly paired web fonts. If the work allows me, I’d love to make this my full-time focus.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Being a communicator. Being able to listen to the client, relate to the client and earn and build trust, which is so vital to a working relationship. To achieve success requires thorough field research before jumping into a project, and asking lots of questions. Who is the target audience for your product? What are your goals? What is motivating you to change the identity of your brand?
If you go into your preliminary client discussions with research and lots of questions, your role will quickly shift from a contractor to a partner.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.walkerjohnmoses.com/creative
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walkerjohncreative/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/walkerjohnmoses
- Other: https://www.behance.net/walkerjohncreative
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