Partner Highlight: Charlie Coombs Design
Things are always exciting when you’re deep in the creative trenches, working on awesome branding and design projects. Nothing new there. However, nothing makes it more exciting than having more creative minds and perspectives along for the ride.
The best of them? Our friend and talented collaborator, Charlie Coombs of Charlie Coombs Design.
Hailing from Winthrop, MA, Charlie is an award-winning Creative Director and Art Director with a (serious) knack for designing amazing brand identities. With an illustrative mind and flawless execution, his work has been featured in the Logo Lounge books and his clients range from start-ups to creative agencies and larger brands, including Disney, Star Wars, Boy Scouts of America, and WWE.
We’re getting the deep dive on him and what he’s about below:
***UPDATE: Congratulations to Charlie for becoming the Senior Art Director at LGND, a creative studio based in Washington D.C.. We’re wishing you all the best with the new job!****
To start, tell us about your background and what brought you here.
When I graduated highschool, I applied to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston using a pretty traditional illustration portfolio. I unfortunately didn't get in so I went to a community college instead where I learned Photoshop and fell in love with digital design. I took every graphic design class I could and after graduating with an Associates, I reapplied to the museum school using my new graphic design portfolio just to see what would happen and got in! It was the first time where I thought maybe graphic design is right for me. I graduated with a BFA in 2011 and I've been working as a professional graphic designer ever since.
What sparked the idea for Coombs Design? What did it take to get started?
Coombs Design came out of desperation, haha I still don’t consider it a real business, more so just me trying to get by!
I was working in the tech industry and like so many other people, I got laid off at the worst time imaginable. My daughter was about 2 weeks old when I found out and I Instantly started to panic. I've always worked freelance at nights after my 9-5 because honestly my job was pretty unfulling. Thankfully I had built up a lot of relationships over the years freelancing and was able to hit up past clients for some pretty steady work when I lost my job. Freelance has slowed down a ton for some reason so now I'm looking for something full-time again with more stability but I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing freelance on the side.
With that said, I’m super proud I've been able to support my family using my mind and it's been amazing to work with so many different brands, studios and agencies I admire as an independent creative.
Your experience as a designer have had you working on a huge variety of clients. Have your professional experiences thus far met or exceeded your expectations?
I think at this point I've worked with over 30 different studios/agencies/in-house teams on all types of projects. It was a very humbling experience making the logo wall for my site recently. My design career has been a grind but I feel like I've come a long way. Lot’s of personal growth and lessons learned.
What has been your favorite project to date? Why?
I’m constantly working on some kind of personal project and those can be really rewarding because I have full control over them. Many of the studios I work with already have an idea in place and they hire me to be the hands that make it, expand upon somebody else's idea, or follow a brand guide that’s already established. Many of my favorite projects to date are the ones where I'm not just the hands making stuff, I’m also the mind deciding why things are done the way they are. Working with studios/agencies on big clients is incredible but there is just something that hits different about doing a freelance project solo and coming up with an idea by yourself that directly results in a business completely changing for the better.
Take us through a day in your life. What does that look like?
On the days where my daughter is in daycare I wake up at 7 and get her ready while my wife gets ready for work. I’ll drop Nora off at daycare around 8 and hit up the coffee shop in town I recently rebranded.
Half my day is networking (9-Noonish) where I try to meet with studio owners, video calls with other creatives, emailing studios about work, kickoff meetings etc. I’ll take the dog for a walk on the beach from 12-1. Then 1-4 is trying to actually make stuff, client work, updating portfolio etc. I’ll pick up Nora at 4 then watch Sesame Street with her until mom gets home.
Nora eats dinner at 5, bath time at 6, bedtime at 7. My wife and I will eat dinner around 7:30 and watch some late night shows on youtube (Seth Myers, Cobert, DailyShow etc.) Wife goes to bed at 10ish and I usually stay up to either finish working or I'll play video games till around 11. Bed is sometime between 11-Midnight.
I’m constantly working on some kind of personal project and those can be really rewarding because I have full control over them. Many of the studios I work with already have an idea in place and they hire me to be the hands that make it, expand upon somebody else's idea, or follow a brand guide that’s already established. Many of my favorite projects to date are the ones where I'm not just the hands making stuff, I’m also the mind deciding why things are done the way they are.
What is your favorite part of the design process?
Favorite Part: I really enjoy the sketch exploration phase and collaborating with other creatives. Having that free reign to explore ideas without judgment and riff back and forth on ideas is always so much fun.
Least Favorite Part: Production and file naming/exporting. I do a ton of conceptual exploration of what something may look like, then once I figure it out and it’s time to blast that look and feel over 100 Linkedin posts/ blog headers or something, I tend to lose interest pretty fast.
Design has changed leaps and bounds over the years, especially the need for great design in business. What are your thoughts on that, and how have you experienced this in the work we’ve done together?
I feel like businesses are finally coming around to how powerful proper branding can be but to me, it really depends on the business owner. Working in the tech industry as a brand designer has been exhausting! The last 2 companies I worked for were owned by engineers. They know they make their money by selling software (SaaS). I feel like brand design in their eyes just isn’t as important so they prioritize hiring more product designers and engineers to make the product and marketing teams are usually understaffed. Some CEO’s get it but for others it’s been a struggle to try and convince them that branding is just as important.
Top 5 Favorite Artists/Bands. Go.
Top 5 is really hard! I will say I’m kind of a psychopath and don’t do a ton of custom playlists. My spotify is just one huge playlist with like 4K liked songs, it’s a little bit of everything. I will say one artist I'm into right now is King Krule but when I work and need to zone out/focus, I usually listen to weird youtube D&B/Phonk/Jazz mixes like these.
Where can people find and follow you?
Portfolio: www.charliecoombs.com
Instagram: @coombs.design
Cheers!
