What type of graphics do you make and which is your favorite?

Let's see, I mostly make covers, because they do happen to be my favorite. I like messing around with photo manipulation and text because there's nothing like a spot of magic to make graphics go pop. I also make banners, profile headers, icons and I've been messing around with book jackets but I don't make them for the public yet. (Maybe by the next shop. Hmm.) As for style, even though manips are my favorite, I like to try out everything that I can. Simple covers and blends, working on it....

How long have you been designing graphics?

Since about November of 2014, you guys do the math....that's about a year and a half?

How did you start?

Jealousy and pride are two strange things. I was tired of having crap covers for books that I believed deserved better. I had a deep envy toward successful Wattpad writers at the time, with their beautiful covers and popular stories, and then there was me. To get someone to read my stuff I had to hold them at sword point. There came a point where I just snapped and said, "You are going to have a beautiful cover whether you want one or not."

You see I wanted my stories to be a hundred percent me, so I wasn't about to go and ask someone else to make a cover for me. Nope. No. No way in Hell, I didn't care how good they were, my ego wouldn't stand it if someone else made the cover for my stories. So when I got a phone, I downloaded this app called Pixlr and the rest is Spirit Writer Graphics XD.

I talk a lot....wow.

What is your favorite part about graphic design?

For me, it's creating something that you really like and making it the face of something. Like with book covers, when you go on wattpad, the cover is the first thing everyone sees and when people say that they were attracted by a cover you made and adore, it makes it all worth it. The time, the effort. Making something beautiful for other people to see makes it all worth it, props if other people like it too.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I get it from other graphic artists, and books I really like, and the music I listen to, as well as the dew that forms on the windows when it's cold outside. Sunshine. Zombies. Thunderstorms. AP US History. My inspiration are the smiley faces, the exclamation points, and the constructive criticism that actually helps. And Wattpad's failed emojis.

In short I get my inspiration from everywhere, I search for styles all over the Internet while still trying to make sure that my covers are still my own. Every time I feel like I should stop I come across a new style or a new design and I suddenly want to be like them. And of course I can't forget everyone who follows my graphics, those who critique them and those who say they like them. Feedback makes all the hassle worth the time.

How long do graphics typically take you?

Honestly? Anywhere between fifteen minutes and four hours. I'm all over the place, man.

What advice would you give aspiring designers?

Don't stoooooppp doing what you're doing --

Have faith, there will be people who turn down your cover or simply never pick it up. You can't let that go to your head because the world is full of idiots who don't realize how hard you work on these things. The only way any of us can be great is if we just keep plowing on. If someone graphic hops or disobeys your rules, don't let them get in the way of you and a good design.

Also, you have every right to say no. Especially on Wattpad, no one is paying you actual money for the graphic you're making so you shouldn't have to stress about it. If someone is making graphics not fun, then politely kick them to the curb then tell them to find someone else. Graphics should be fun for you as a designer.

Don't get too mad when someone takes the beautiful cover you made and replaces it with something unworthy -- it's happened to us all, and if it hasn't, it will. It will make you angry, it will, but don't close shop because of it. Don't be the villain in that scenario.

A fun fact about yourself:

So me and my best friend since fourth grade are planning on going to different colleges because our majors are kinda different. It turns out though, when we started talking about where we were going, that we were accidentally planning to go to the two largest rival universities in the state, but the ones that are also in the same city....I swear we're twins.