Today we’d like to introduce you to Zack Ritchie.
Hi Zack, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to create art and make a living from it. I just didn’t know how to get there. I spent many years learning traditional art working with materials and sculpting. It was until I decided to transition to graphic design that my life and career started taking shape. I realized commercial work would be the best way to grow myself.
This shift made me appreciate the two different worlds between fine art and graphic design. What I had learnt at that point in time was fine arts is appreciated for the uniqueness, man-made skill, labour and material, whereas graphic design to me is appreciated for the simplicity, story and communication. I worked in an agency for a year and I decided to crazily go freelance out of an urge to push myself. At that point, I had no personal clients but just focused all my energy one person at a time and little did I know how things would change.
New clients and projects brought more experience and lessons and I slowly started narrowing down and specializing on Illustration. I am extremely grateful to have worked on some illustrations for brands like Iniala, Campari, Negroni, Cell Mark and Redbull.
2022, was the year I stopped freelancing and set out to work on my dream, to build an IP around a unique set of Cartoon characters that inspired me in my childhood. My mission is to show a fun new pop cultural perspective on my island, Malta’s culture and Heritage. One of the characters has now become a mascot where I explore style, mediums, techniques, narrative through his eyes. he is a cactus who represents a typical Maltese landscape, oh and his name is Beppe.
Beppe Cactus’s curiosity has lead me into the world of web3, exploring NFTs and collaborating with some key communities and names like Deadfellaz, Lirona’s Boiz, Fvck Render, Des Lucrece, KidEight, Alphadogggs, 3landers, Jake the Degen and many more.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There were loads of obstacles I had to overcome, before going freelance I was pretty much living in my comfort zone, I was a different person, very reserved and shy. I had never took an interest in writing and reading at school and struggled with dyslexia.
Curiosity changed all that for me, I was curious to learn, it all happened slowly and compounded over time. These big obstacles were just hurdles, curiosity pushed me to want to learn, to improve and get better. Books and meeting people has changed me and I realized how import it was for me to keep an open mind and listen.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My passion and career is in the arts and design. I am now mostly focused on building IP around a cluster of characters I call the Archipals – Archipelago pals. My long-term aim is building these characters into a cartoon and merchandise enterprise, Highlighting Malta in a new pop culture way. Malta in itself has always been a cocktail of influences, even our language is a mix of our previous processors. If you come to this little gem, you will realize how much culture and heritage there is, we have always pushed and promoted our culture and Heritage but not the new and contemporary, this is my way to opening up the doors to a new era.
Coming from a background in marketing and advertising has greatly helped me in how to approach this. This project allows me to multi cross-collaborate, having characters allows me to use them as templates to explore narrative, style, large-scale materials and mediums like bronze and also web3 NFTs and Metaverse.
What does success mean to you?
Besides hard work, focus and consistency, Looking back at where I started to now, It’s easier for me to see the trail of events and connect the dots. I am where I am now because of the people I met and the things we did together. People are the keystone to building dreams, collaborations and mutually benefiting relationships rock. I also keep saying how lucky I am to have gotten to where I am from a small island like Malta. The more I think about it, the more I realize I was always looking for opportunities and was prepared, because of this doors were opened or were noticed and opened.
Contact Info:
- Website: zackritchie.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zackritchie_design/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zack-ritchie-design/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZackRitchie5
- Other: https://opensea.io/collection/thecacticrew
Image Credits
– Charles & Ron – Rob Skulls3D – Gorillaz
