Francisco Reyes Jr. aka Never Made has a problem with design influencers and it is that the shortcut skips the part where you build a point of view.

He would know what the long way looks like as he's spent 11 years inside Shepard Fairey's Studio Number One, most of it he was pen-tooling references building a strong vector art library. Before that, four months of unpaid interning.

In Part 1 of this conversation we get into the case for gatekeeping, why nobody digs for references anymore, and what being in the room with someone great teaches you that no tutorial can. Plus, the 1000 fan theory, and why he tells every major brand exactly where he stands before he signs anything.

It ends with a stranger at demanding to know why his print said her anger was a gift.

In this episode

• The case for gatekeeping, and why the shortcut hurt the people taking it
• How Pinterest flattened everyone's references into the same board
• What four months of unpaid interning taught
• Pen-tooling elements from archives to build Shepard Fairey's library
• Why he will not sell a client his own color palette, and how that turned into collaborations
• The fork between calling yourself a designer and calling yourself an artist
• Bobby Hundreds' thousand-fan theory
• What he told students afraid of losing clients
• Why he discloses his politics before signing, and what brands keep saying back

Notable Quotes
"A million followers does not equate sales."
"Art's not supposed to tell you what to feel."
"To protect your brand, I'm just letting you know that this is my brand. And they're just like, that's why we want you."

GUEST INFO
Francisco Reyes Jr. is a Los Angeles artist and designer working as Never Made. After eleven years at Shepard Fairey's Studio Number One he went independent, and now splits his time between Never Made and his design agency, Design Bedroom.

Website - nevermade.com
Peace & Unity Tee as seen on Joe
https://nevermade.com/collections/shirts/products/peace-unity-tee-1

instagram.com/nevermade

Host
Joe Baron
Website brandedbaron.com
If your brand still looks like everyone else in your category, that is usually a sourcing problem before it is a design problem.

Start with the free Brand Refresh Checklist: brandedbaron.com/rebrand-checklist

Every episode of Mark It 2 Me: markit2me.com

Part two is next. Sign up for the newsletter to know when it drops.

Chapters
00:00 Cold open
00:47 Intro
01:38 The beef with design influencers
03:41 Bring back gatekeeping
06:27 Flea markets, Playboys, and crate digging
07:10 What Pinterest and AI did to inspiration
10:42 Advice for the 22-year-old creative director
11:17 Why nobody wants to intern
15:20 The pen tool, and eleven years next to Shepard Fairey
20:05 Why the colors are not for sale
20:51 Artist or graphic designer
21:45 Making work nobody asked for
24:36 The thousand true fans theory
26:27 Where the protest work comes from
29:45 Some Designers are vanilla
31:42 Telling clients who you are before they hire you
33:17 Do institutions want creatives to fail
34:26 When to explain your work and when to shut up
37:13 Your anger is a gift