Who is Kinsey Designs?
A bit about me.. I'm originally from the Boston area of the United States, I went to school in Vermont up in the mountains. There I studied Chinese language which took me over to living in Southeast China for two years teaching English. While I was there, I got tons of time to solo backpack throughout all of Asia and mainly Southeast Asia. After that, I packed up my things and moved down to Australia for a year where I worked and lived in a van and drove from the East Coast to the West Coast. Following that I came back to the states and road tripped from Boston to California, drove up and down the coast until I found a town that I liked, which happened to be Ocean Beach, San Diego. There I spent two years teaching Art and English and transitioning into graphic design. I started working for a local businesses, friends, surf photographers, and anyone that needed any design work. After I left California I moved back to the East Coast where I am still located and working full time as a freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer. Throughout the past years of traveling and moving around, I try to always spend time outside whether that's at the beach, hiking, in the mountains, or fly fishing. Being outside, being able to spend time in nature and travel really inspires me and my artwork, and I love to be able to share that with people.
You can see from Kinseys love of travel and design, she'd be the perfect fit for our surf style clothing which will launch in June!
Above is one of her designs for our clothing.
What made you want to be an artist?
I've wanted to be an artist for a long time, but I don't even think I realized it. As a kid, I was constantly trying to take cool photographs, constantly drawing, making clay in pottery pieces, and trying new crafts. As I got older, I really wanted to do something that let me be creative and let me have the freedom to make my schedule, travel, and design things that I really liked and cared about, like desert scenes in vans :) When I got into graphic design that's when I realized I could make art and make it into a living. It's been a lot of work, trial and error, but I cannot explain to you how fortunate I feel to make art into my career and living. A nice reminder for myself and hopefully for other people too, that if you really want something and you really work hard at it it can definitely happen!
What made you want to design for our clothing?
I wanted to design for Pineapple Island's clothing because the overall brand and style of Pineapple Island is so minimalist, nature based, and beautiful. I feel like creating artwork for clothing that follows that style and brand is really exciting, and I love bringing that style to life. Pineapple Island is also very beach and surf oriented, which you can see in a lot of my artwork and what I love to design.
I have an immense love and interest for surf culture, the outdoors nature and the sea. Growing up by the ocean I got to spend a lot of time by the beach and in the sea, and still to this day go to the beach every day. Being outside and being able to create artwork that brings the ocean, and love for the sea to life makes me so happy.
What is your favourite Pineapple Island product?
I love all the jewelry from Pineapple Island. It's all so beautiful and minimalist, but I think my favorite product is the sunrise ring. It reminds me a lot of the artwork I create and I love the simplicity of it!
What was the process for creating these designs?
My process for creating these designs it's a start with the idea, this might be some surfboards, waves, the sun, sunset, moon or something that brings me joy. From there I sketch out some ideas and from there I tweak and refine, change the style. Maybe the layout, add some text, rearrange the colors, really experiment with it until I get a design that I absolutely love. The entire process of designing these is so much fun for me because what might start out as an idea of a surfboard or a wave turned into a full sunset with text and not what I envisioned to begin with but what I love as a final result.
What is the hardest challenge you have faced? Any tips for other designers out there?
I think the hardest challenge I hd to face is getting my art and turning it into a business up and running and off the ground. I think I've sought out a lot of advice from people who I know in the art world, and people who just share their stories on blogs on Instagram. I think the most important thing that I've learned in this process is that your art makes you different from other artists. And your art comes from your experiences in your life and your interest. To elaborate on that - my art is very particular style, because it's minimalist, adventure-based, lots of desert, van, and ocean designs because the traveling I've done in my life has inspired me to draw and create those designs. Therefore, my art and my style stand out to people who like it, and they want to have that same style, therefore allowing me to turn my art into a business. So I think the biggest tip I can give is to find what makes your art unique, and what makes it yours, and then put your all into it. There's almost 8 billion people in the world, somebody's going to love it and somebody's going to want it.
Best piece of advice you’ve ever given.
This would definitely be for my father. As he said when I was younger and feeling very unsure of what to do with my life, he said 'Kinsey, if there's something you don't like in your life just change it. It's that simple.' Looking back I can see how sometimes not that simple, and you may have to work really hard at what you want to change, you may even have to make drastic changes in your life to get there, but if you really truly want it and it really truly makes you happy you should go for it.
Keep up to date with Kinsey on Instagram @kinsey.h.designs
Website www.kinseyhdesigns.com