Meet Dave Homer | Illustrator / Creative Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dave Homer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dave, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
Making the conscious decision to accept that my style of illustration had merit was a turning point. That sounds like an odd statement, but I went through years where I didn’t trust my own vision enough and therefore tried to emulate what was on trend at any moment, and work in multiple styles. That worked reasonable well commercially as I became proficient in a lot of different types of illustration and made me more versatile, but it didn’t let me establish my own brand or unique vision.

When I moved to New York to find an agent, I was told that my body of work was too diverse and they were unsure where I fit. I had to constantly tell myself that my own vision was good enough to stand on my own and worthy of pursuing. that decision changed everything and enabled me to build my own brand and a body of recognisable work.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I come from a background as a Creative Director for the music industry. I spent about 15 years designing album covers and directing video shoots for a huge variety of Australian bands and artists. I worked for a major label for about 5 years before co-founding a boutique studio specifically catering for music. That was an amazing time, but also brought its own challenges. Working with musicians can be difficult at times as they are very creative people, but their creativity is usually sonic rather than visual, so trying to interpret their ideas in a different medium can be challenging.

After 10 years in this studio, I moved to the US to concentrate on illustration rather that design direction. It took a few years, but I am now a full-time illustrator working in a number of different areas. Advertising is a large part of what I do now, but I also still do music related illustration as well as sports and entertainment projects.

The 2 biggest lessons I have learned are to have trust in my own vision and to build on it every day, and to surround myself with creative people who inspire me to learn and work at my craft.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Aaron Hayward aaron@nextepisode.co

Website: davehomer.com

Instagram: davehomerdraws

Linkedin: Dave Homer

Twitter: davehomerdraws