Stan Robertson is the Global Art Director for IRONMAN. Originally from New Orleans, he spent his teens in Oklahoma City. He is a six-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and a graduate of Miami International University of Art & Design. His design career has been based in Florida, where he’s worked for a mixture of design studios, ad agencies and media companies. Stan has more than 10 years of design experience. In 2017, he took the next step in his career: launching madebystan.com.
During my time in New Orleans, I experienced a somewhat rough childhood. My mother was a single parent raising my sisters and me on limited resources. Up until middle school, I had never attended one school for longer than a year. During middle school, my family moved to Oklahoma City. It was there that I was able to flourish. I am thankful to my mother for having the strength and courage to make that change, and giving my sisters and me a better quality of life.
I’ve been an artist and creative all my life. During middle and high school, I sold drawings of sneakers and custom hand lettering. But design first caught my attention during the early days of social media. I customized MySpace pages for fun. Soon after leaving the U.S. Coast Guard, I enrolled in college and began studying graphic design.
Over the course of my career, the type of design work I’ve done has continued to evolve. The first two-thirds of my professional life was heavily based in branding and identity design, for start-ups and large companies that were being bought and sold. For start-ups, I would create an entire identity package, including brand guidelines, in addition to their advertising and website design. For the large companies that were being acquired or sold, I would provide a brand refresh. I spent the latter third of my career in the media/magazine industry, working for Luxe Interiors + Design. I recently made a shift back to branding in my new role as Global Art Director for IRONMAN.
My proudest moments aren’t actual moments, but rather my development and progress. I push myself daily to improve as a designer, in skill, aesthetic and leadership.
Being in a smaller creative market has been stifling at times. Smaller markets limit job prospects, exposure and resources. Fortunately, I’ve been blessed with some amazing opportunities to work on projects that have had an expansive reach.
I believe that my creative process is what sets me apart. I invest time into studying my client, doing design research, creative development and collaborating whenever possible.
My experience has been similar to most businesspeople of color. Oftentimes, I’m one of few people of color on the job. And that creates an environment where I have to conform. That is difficult to say out loud, but it has also afforded me the opportunity to build some amazing friendships and experience other cultures.
My son and daughter. Early on in my career, it was my competitive spirit and love for design. But now it’s definitely my children. My daughter is a creative also, and being able to share my passion with her means everything to me.
Most of them think I just draw all day, haha.
Being creative. I’ve done other things, and none of them compare to being a designer. Solving problems creatively with words, typography, colors, shapes and images is how the kid in me continues to live.
I’d like to see better representation at the agency level.
By keeping art and design in the school curriculum and incorporating more outreach from the design community.
I’m currently working on the brand refresh of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series. Find us in a city near you and “Run With Us.”
I’m in this for the long haul. I hope that five years from now, I’ll be opening the doors of my own design studio.
Polish your skills, learn how to communicate your concepts and process, and study your craft. It’s not about the software, it’s about the ideas and execution.