Today we’d like to introduce you to Zachariah Stuef.
Hi Zachariah, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve loved making artwork as long as I can remember. My family, friends, and teachers always guided me to go the way of my passion, and that has always been expressing myself visually. In high school, I started to focus on going to college for illustration. At the time, I wanted to work for Pixar as a concept artist, creating the environments and characters that would be animated in the film. Once I got to college, I matured in the fundamentals of illustration and also began doing various graphic design jobs on and off campus. It’s awfully difficult to make a living with only illustration and nothing else to offer. So, as a way to venture more easily into the intersection of art and commerce, I decided that making a design portfolio would be a good idea. And it was! It led me to quite a few opportunities. A design internship at Quicken Loans in Detroit in 2018 led to more design work, until the pandemic hit and I was laid off from a junior art direction role. This proved to be a huge turning point in my career for the better. Out of my childhood bedroom, I began focusing on making more and more illustration work oriented around the hope-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ. This afforded me work with the Archdiocese of Detroit, Christianity Today, and now my current employer, 1517. There, I’m Lead Designer and Art Director, where I illustrate theology book covers, storyboard animated YouTube content, design social ads, and brand theology conferences.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
When you decide to step out into the world of creative entrepreneurship, there are many challenges. Among them is obtaining a consistent client base, making work consistently to attract said base, making strategic connections, showing up on social media, etcetera, etcetera. At one point, as I was building my practice, I had to pick up a part-time job and freelance at the same time to make ends meet. It was exhausting and left me somewhat isolated. I’m grateful that I’m able to do it full-time now, and it’s placed me in the middle of a thriving community.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Currently, I specialize in creating work that maintains a certain hand-drawn quality. I enjoy using organic textures, and sometimes collage elements, throughout my dynamic, colorful compositions to evoke a level of humanity in an otherwise digitally executed piece. This is the result of much experimentation and tuning my taste to what I’m trying to achieve aesthetically as my own artist. I will continue challenging myself in this way, and God-willing, my work will evolve in new and inspiring ways.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Yes! When you’re fresh out of art school, you have a certain amount of work in your portfolio, and some of it is good and some of it is not. Maybe you’re like me, and more of it is bad than good. My problem in college was that I didn’t know specifically what I wanted to make work about. My illustration professor nudged me to make work about my walk with Christ, and it’s what I make work about most of the time now. Another reason I didn’t know quite what I wanted to say or do in my work was because I didn’t know how to follow my taste — not until I was exposed to a multitude of different pieces from many various illustrators out in the world. When you make work and look at the work of legends, you find specifically what about the art-making process lights you up. You also discover what subject matter lights you up. Follow these things and form your business around them. I wish I knew this at the top of college instead of at the end, but it’s all a process.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stuefcreative.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stuefcreative/
