Today we’d like to introduce you to Xavier Herran.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The evolution of a creative spirit can take one into many surprising career paths and unique professions that can be unpredictable to foresee. It is a subtle nuance, but Artists naturally create as a form of expression, so the idea of establishing it as a career or business can be absent from many creators’ minds at early stages. There are many artists that even go the lengths to exclude money from their aspect and influence of work to keep their works pure of external interference. Personally, I took art classes only later in my final high school years and had no vision or concept of what my career path would look like, let alone one as a professional muralist. As a self taught artist, I hadn’t even contemplated applying to Art Schools until Senior year.
Growing up in the early 90’s, I learned my basic skills recreating comic book art, but quickly found myself entranced by the underground graffiti culture that had risen up through the blooming Hip Hop movement. The 4 elements of Hip Hop (breakdancing, graffiti, turntablism and emceeing) offered a whole new reality of skill building, so my creative nature strongly embraced the visual side of the culture’s expression; GRAFFITI. I can confidently say graffiti art was the energetic level up in my growth and introduced me to a new world of tools, techniques and possibilities!
I put years into developing as a graffiti artist, and with dedication and consistency comes reputation. This naturally led to small opportunities to paint for local businesses in and around my social circles, basically word of mouth. Coming from a very pure artistic mindset took a lot of trial and error as a beginner. One thing that many people don’t know is that translating art and design from paper, ipad or your mind onto a large scale wall is so much more than meets the eye. So I started small and amateur, but as every opportunity would come with creative success, I started changing my perspective from just being an artist to being more business oriented. The final boost occurred when I took my skills to work as a contract commercial painter. The skills involved in painting and restoring walls was the last touch of magic that I needed to be a well rounded master level painter.
Our first breakthrough collaboration was in Ft. Lauderdale with the amazing people at the Tap 42 family who have ran a very successful restaurant brand all throughout South Florida. At this point i knew there was something more than just a side job or a hustle, but a calling. I had found a solid feeling of new direction and purpose with what I was doing, so I formed The Creative Outcome in 2021 with a childhood friend; Andres Pico aka Creative Days, a solid partner and amazing designer.
The purpose is to bring creative visions to life, connecting and tapping into the minds of our clients to co-create a positive and interactive reality to the message of Art and Design. Today we have our murals ornately placed all throughout our beautiful home we call South Florida and nationwide in key cities like Newyork and Los Angeles.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Thats a great question, I like to look at the positives and I learned that nothing worthwhile is ‘easy’ by definition, so I view the struggles as growth opportunities. That is to say that there are challenges but they are more specifically business demands that require business solutions. As an artist entering the professional landscape you learn that success is not just making pretty artworks but more importantly building a brand around your services and a client’s needs. Many creators have managers or representation through galleries traditionally, but the modern approach outside of gallery profession is freelancing and requires one to wear many, many hats of role and responsibility. The greatest challenge I experience is the creating consistency in the craft, bringing in new projects and staying as productive as possible.
Nobody will push or remind you to own your responsibilities when you work for yourself, and art professions can be very arbitrary and subjective if you do not place value on your work and set expectations in your professional field. Choosing to make a living from your skills will really incentivize you to set those standards or risk creating a ‘starving artist’ type of reality for yourself. I always encourage Artists to study how to value and price their work so they can make a just living doing what they were called to do.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Artists do many things as creativity is inherently multidimensional, so distraction is a part of the process! But all jokes aside I specialize in a few mediums mainly large scale mural art and colorful graphic illustrations. I currently pursue my personal art as therapy and enjoyment, starting to showcase in group exhibitions and participate in live painting at events like El Fresco Gallery in Little Havana and the monthly Artwalks at Wynwood’s Marketplace.
The Creative Outcome was created to provide a higher tier of artistic production services catered to clients and businesses of all types, from local Mom and pop startups to the top global brands doing something exciting in our hometown. We specialize and are known for our passion in large scale, fine finish, interactive mural campaigns and digital branding services to boost marketing and company presence when interacting with their respective audience. Businesses require many moving parts and communicating effectively through color, design and impact is our main language. Anything that is custom hands-on production is our area of expertise, and we love to co-create with others.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Sure, risk taking in any aspect of your life is closely related to how familiar you know yourself, and knowing your strength, weakness and limits of your power in free will. Risk is simply weighing out the pros and cons to any decision in your life.
I also think that value perspectives can alter your view on life and risk taking in beneficial or debilitating ways.
Personally, when I think about my career path on a surface level, I can say that I took a risk in going into freelancing full time. I traded job security for the uncertainty of my ability to succeed in my journey and risk falling into financial troubles, but upon taking a step back I can also see the risks of not pursuing a personal higher calling, and allowing myself to fall into a comfort zone of job security where growth is not incentivized.
So many ways to view it. But ultimately the most growth comes in challenge and a discomfort that comes with unknown, that is where you learn and discover the most about yourself and your relation to the world around you.
I would venture to say the biggest risk in life is taking no risks in your life. It may be an easy and peaceful one, but the amount of self discovery that is missed out can never be experienced in hindsight.
A life of epic memories risking fate or a life of regrets wishing you had taken risks. I choose to explore risks, with caution that is!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thecreativeoutcome.com
- Instagram: @professorx305 @thecreativeoutcome
- Twitter: @professorx305 @thecreativeoutcome
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCreativeOutcome
Image Credits
Artist photograph courtesy of @observecapturedestroy
