Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in visual design but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Biankeye Designs, located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Biankeye Designs plays fluidly with modern art through digital paintings. On the one hand, Biankeye takes existing images and reproduces them with a twist of colorful yet modern painting style. On the other hand, Biankeye creates freehand vector-style illustrations with a preference for opting out of outlines where they apply. In those freehand vector style illustrations, the nature of the shapes is flat, the edges are smooth and defined, and the color fill is crisp & full.
Biankeye's customers are: Art stores willing to acquire new artists and expand their customer variety; College students willing to decorate their dorm/bedroom; Young adults who are living alone and want to make their apartment feel warmer; Influencers who want to have an aesthetically pleasing background when creating content; Modern art critiques who create written or video pieces about an art movement or a specific artist and their techniques; Art collectors who want an exclusive piece of art before anyone else catches on to the artist's work; Working from home individuals who want to keep the energy flowing in their space; Graphic designers who are supportive of artists in other realms for their own pleasure / to gather inspiration; Curators/trendsetters who want to be recognized as the first to have adopted that artist; Fashion designers keep art pieces of all kinds around them as they recycle their inspirations and create from them; Visual learners and daydreamers;Photographers who explore new perspectives and color play; Comic book artists who are implementing new styles/ideas.
Tell us about yourself
The artist behind the art is anonymous. I use the alias Biankeye Designs to represent me. As a kid, my go-to activity was watching Disney and Pixar movies, and up to this day, I remain fascinated with their color choices. I've always been inspired by cartoons and, most definitely, anime, which have kept me company for about 15 years now (and counting). In addition to enjoying comic books and graphic novels, that is why I started visual arts. Initially, I wanted to become a video game designer, but I later decided to pursue illustrations until I moved on to animation. My art is solely digital, and it casually touches surrealism here and there as it is my favorite art movement, right before fauvism. I learned about fauvism in high school, which is an additional reason why, throughout attending school, arts has remained in my top 3 favorite classes. I enjoy highly saturated artwork with tons of colors. I like my paintings to be bright as they personally make me feel optimistic, and I'm hoping it has the same effects on my enthusiasts. Oh, and as vague as it is, I enjoy "weird."
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My biggest accomplishment is to have done tremendous "self-teaching" when it comes to the world of digital illustration, graphic design, and even web design. My single year of college in graphic design was paused, and so while I'm waiting for it to resume, I've been learning alone, online, using all sorts of teachers and established artists I was able to take notes from.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
- Managing my time and productivity is the number one challenge.
- Creating artwork and marketing it at the same is a particularly exhausting headache of mine.
- Letting go of attempting to make everything perfect all the time has to be my biggest challenge.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
For starters, make sure you love what you do because you'll be eating, breathing, sleeping, and daydreaming about that business. Then, learn as much as you can about that business. Discover the ins and outs. Explore. Take notes! Lastly, give it your all and do not hold back. That's the only way to give it a proper chance... and those are words from Ryan Holiday, author of "Perennial Seller." Check it out!
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://biankeye.wixsite.com/designs/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.
