Chad Hammond – Bringing art to life
In recent years, pursuit of the arts has become an increasingly viable career path for people who were once encouraged to seek employment in traditional fields such as business, medicine and law. Chad Hammond is one such individual demonstrating how to make a lifelong passion into a profession.
The 33-year-old full-time graphic artist and designer, who also works part-time as a Crossfit instructor, said his foray into design began quite early.
“I have been drawing as long as I can remember. My mother used to give me outlines of Batman and [Teenage Mutant] Ninja Turtles when I was a baby, and I would trace them over” he said, adding that “she would date them and keep them, so I would always want to redraw things to see how I improved over time. That developed into a full-out love for sketching and drawing.”
A graduate of The University of the West Indies, Mona, Hammond studied computer science and electronics but jokingly added “don’t ask me to do anything computer science or electronics related.”
Among the pieces
Jamaica
Oberserver’s Sunday Finance found especially striking on his Instagram page @artbychadhammond, were illustrations of murals and depictions of popular artistes Shenseea, Koffee and Naomi Cowan.
Though his talent speaks for itself, it wasn’t always smooth-sailing for the sometime-photographer and videographer. “I actually stopped doing art for about three years after leaving high school, [I} had no desire to even sketch anything,” he said. “Then one day I started messing around with Photoshop, and realised I was spending more and more time with it. Eventually I was using Photoshop full-time, and I started sketching out ideas for the various projects I was doing, which led to me just wanting to draw and create again.”
With his love for art and graphic design reignited, Hammond set out to earn from his gift, starting off with small projects for friends, but said he “had a difficult time figuring out generally how to charge for my services once I started to work more seriously for bigger clients. I would always charge lower than I should, because I was always afraid that I would lose a potential job for charging too high.”
As a result, he was constantly working to maintain a steady stream of income, overscheduling jobs, and sometimes being forced to rush to meet deadlines.
“Now I charge what I know
my work is worth, whether it be graphic design, or a portrait or a mural. If I don’t get a job because the person doesn’t want to pay what I ask, it doesn’t bother me anymore; I know what my time, effort and the quality of work are worth.”
When quizzed about one piece of business advice he wished he had received sooner, Hammond said “Don’t jump at any and every opportunity just to make some amount of money. Price your services accordingly, and know that it’s okay not to pursue every job. Ensure every project is of top quality, and money will always be made.”
He encourages other creatives to get started on their dreams sooner rather than later.
“Don’t hesitate. Especially being in this field, you’re only as valuable as the work you actually get to show people. I waited way too long to take my own brand and art more seriously…until I realised that it didn’t matter about all that — what mattered is that I was missing the opportunities of getting my work seen and judged, good or bad.”