Brock Davis

Interviewed by Teddy Mathias

Brock Davis is a multidisciplinary artist specializing art direction, creative direction, design, photography and illustration. He's best known for his instagram and vine accounts, where he transforms everyday objects and situations into new ideas. Brock is based in Minneapolis, MN.

What inspired your project Make Something Cool Everyday? What did you learn from the project and how did it influence you moving forward? The project came along at the perfect time. A friend of mine, Olly Moss, came up with the idea for the project and hosted it through a Flickr group. He invited me and other designers to try and make something every day for a year. Initially I was interested in the endurance of the project, I liked the challenge of trying to create a piece of art every day for 365 days. But I also like the challenge of trying to make every piece be the best it can be. The project helped me revert back to how I used to create art as a kid, spontaneous, curious and without limitation. I learned to be creatively observant and pay attention to the ordinary things we see every day.

What would you say is the best thing and the worst thing about social media for an artist? Brock's Links: Instagram Vine The exposure is great and rewarding. It’s nice to be able to show work to a wide and diverse audience. Plagiarism is the downside. By reaching such a large audience there will be some people who will copy and show (or sell) my work as their own. This happens to many artists and designers.

The designer Bruno Munari once said, "keeping the spirit of childhood alive in your life means maintaining a curiosity for knowledge, the joy of understanding, ones will to communicate." Can you discuss the importance of this spirit of childhood in your work? When we are kids everything is new, nothing is old and boring. Everything sparks our curiousity and imagination. We lose a lot of that the older we get. Adult responsibilities make it easy to forget about that kind of creative spontaneity. My work helps keep me young, or at least my creativity young.

What is the best advice you received that you would like to share with aspiring designers? Always be a student. Creativity is a constant learning process. Have a great idea and execute it meticulously. Make work you truly love and others will love it too.