Creativity Worth Expressing- Ep.16- Interview with Kathryn Holeton- Character Brand Design

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Transcript

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (0:00 - 0:18)

Hello everyone and welcome to Creativity Worth Expressing. I'm your host Ryan Anthony Hernandez and today I'm with special guest Kathryn Holeton. You told me that you are a character designer.

Can you share with us a bit about the work that you put into this?

Kathryn Holeton (0:19 - 1:42)

No problem. So I like to call myself a character designer because that I have found that it's the simplest way to describe brand design. And what brand design is, it's basically making a company, more or less.

You start with your business plan, your mission, your goals, your purpose, why you're wanting to help people, how you're going to help people, what sets you apart, all of that. And then the other part of the brand is, of course, the visual aspect that everyone knows. The logo, the website, the colors, the typography, the pretty frilly stuff.

But for the reason why I call myself a character designer is because when I go through and explain all of that, most of the time I get the deer in headlights look. They're like, what the heck are you talking about? You're smoking something.

It's much easier to describe it as a character designer because the way I describe it is you start with your character sheet. You have your stats you got to fill out, like your purpose and your mission and all that not so fun and nitty gritty jazz, like a D&D 5e character sheet, if you've ever seen one. I still need help filling mine out on occasion.

And then I do the actual outfit part of your character. I do all the clothing and the pretties and the frillies and the sparklies.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (1:44 - 2:07)

So you're very busy, very active, and it looks like you need a variety of skills to engage in this kind of work. You need to know, of course, graphic design, the types of font that you're going to use, the color, and also a bit of fashion to make things look nice. What kind of people do you target to help as a character designer?

Kathryn Holeton (2:08 - 2:18)

So I primarily work with musicians. I also do other writers on the side, but my target audience is musicians. There are musicians.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (2:20 - 2:25)

Now, do you have a favorite genre or is it just anybody who comes to you?

Kathryn Holeton (2:25 - 2:45)

First, I have a favorite genre for listening to music. In terms of people coming to me to work with me, I'm pretty open to work with whoever, but I do not want to work with anyone who is promoting the sale of drugs or abuse or anything that's not good.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (2:45 - 2:47)

Okay, so you have a bit of a line.

Kathryn Holeton (2:48 - 3:07)

Yeah, I am not very supportive of abuse, drug abuse, animal abuse. I don't want any of those kind of topics talked about unless they are being called attention to, like how Shinedown did in the album, Sound of Madness, where he was calling out that side of life in the album.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (3:08 - 3:13)

Kind of like bringing awareness to it instead of glorifying it.

Kathryn Holeton (3:13 - 3:30)

Yeah, I'm not going to support glorification of any of that, but if it's bringing attention to it and trying to bring more awareness to it and trying to help people get out of it, so to speak, I support more of that.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (3:30 - 3:43)

Where did you first encounter your love for graphics and for this form of creativity? Was there something that drew you to this?

Kathryn Holeton (3:44 - 5:02)

Well, for graphics, on a slight tangent, I had been trying to learn how to draw since elementary school, but it never clicked. And then I watched an artist friend of mine draw in middle school, and then I taught myself how to draw after that. So that's how that started.

For being drawn to brand design, I actually started out in the music industry, my own self as a musician, or trying to be a musician. I'm really good with lyrics, but I never got the confidence up to actually put my voice on there and sing. I'm always more of a, I'm more confident as a writer than a speaker most of the time, or a singer for that matter.

I just get super shaky at times. I'm better about it now. So I mainly helped on the songwriting and the collaborations.

So I did help with songwriting, production, and lyrical writing, but someone else always sung it. That was okay. But I found as I was working with other people that I was also helping them design their brand and their website, and helping them set themselves up for future stuff.

And I was like, oh, well, I seem to have a pretty big knack for this. I'm going to just transition to that.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (5:03 - 5:07)

It took multiple steps. It wasn't just one day you just woke up and said, hey, I want to be a brand designer.

Kathryn Holeton (5:08 - 5:12)

No, it was a process to get to where I am.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (5:14 - 5:33)

Okay, so when it comes to your writing, because let's start with your love for music, because that's where I think a lot of it starts here with your love for music, you also writing the lyrics. Did you have any inspirational, any people that you looked up to when it came to you writing your own songs?

Kathryn Holeton (5:35 - 6:17)

So I, the band Shinedown is what I like to call my muse. I love all of their music. I am a hardcore diehard fan, or at least I was when Attention to Tension came out.

That is by far one of their best albums. No one can tell me otherwise. That album was actually a turning point for me because for a while, I struggled to write poetry.

I couldn't even count syllables. But when that album came out, it was so monumental and inspirational to me that I actually sat down and taught myself how to write poetry, which then transitioned into lyrics because they're basically the same thing, just set up differently.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (6:17 - 6:24)

Did you also accompany it with instruments? Or was it all just you doing it acapella? How was that?

Kathryn Holeton (6:25 - 6:45)

Mostly just did the writing and focused on syllable counts. Sometimes I would sing it or hum it. But it's more or less just stayed as a recording on my phone for future collaborations.

The only instrument I knew how to play was flute and piccolo, which was not rock and roll in any way.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (6:47 - 6:56)

How was it in the beginning when you started promoting yourself as a character brand designer?

Kathryn Holeton (6:58 - 7:21)

Well, when I first started promoting myself as a brand designer, it's like I said, I got the headlights look from all the musicians. They're like, that sounds really technical. What the heck are you even talking about?

The character designer thing is actually a recent transition, but I've already been getting a lot of good responses on it. They're like, dude, that sounds great. We need some of that.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (7:22 - 7:29)

Do people also confuse your work as a promoter? Are you called an agent? Or are you all the above?

Kathryn Holeton (7:30 - 8:01)

Sometimes I got confused, mainly as a marketer, which yeah, marketing is part of what I do. But I focus on the backbone of who someone is so that they can then market themselves. I myself am not that great at marketing.

At least I don't think I am. My social media numbers aren't that high, but I'm also kind of going away from social media because of all the current craziness going on over there.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (8:02 - 8:55)

I see you have a website. I actually was on it earlier today just to get a quick refresher before we started. There was something that I read there.

I wrote it down and it's a quote by somebody. I didn't check who it was, but it says 87.6% of 1.3 million musicians remained uncovered or undiscovered last year. That's quite a lot of musicians who are really working their butts off and sadly are not yet getting the attention or getting discovered.

I wanted to ask you, when you see those numbers of musicians who are undiscovered and who are working, how important do you see your work to be?

Kathryn Holeton (8:56 - 10:02)

I see it as being very important because the reason why those musicians went undiscovered is because they... I'm not going to... This is just a general statement.

I don't know that many musicians, but generally speaking, they remained undiscovered because they possibly... I mean, there's any number of factors, but a big factor is they did not have a solid way of marketing themselves or a brand set up or a character set up in order to market themselves. Because what a lot of beginning musicians do, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but they make music and then release it without a clear plan or strategy.

When you're starting out, it can work for a little while, but if you want to see further growth and if you really want to make a career in the music industry, you have to approach it with more strategy because at the end of the day, the music industry is a business. If you want to make it your career, you have to approach it as opening and running a small or future big business.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (10:02 - 10:13)

So you are basically helping these musicians, I guess, find a foundation to help them in this business, I would say. Am I correct?

Kathryn Holeton (10:13 - 10:30)

Yes. I'm helping them build their foundations for their business so that they can then be more strategic about how they market themselves, go for collaborations or other opportunities.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (10:31 - 10:33)

What would you say that you're most passionate about?

Kathryn Holeton (10:33 - 10:59)

I just love helping people and seeing their music and their careers take off. It's very exciting to see someone you become a fan of while you're working with take off and then you get to countdown for more of their new music to come out because I'm a new music junkie. I get bored easily of music.

Every two weeks, I have to find something new.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (11:00 - 11:04)

Okay. Do you have a Spotify playlist that you listen to or is it Apple or whatever?

Kathryn Holeton (11:05 - 11:38)

On my YouTube diehard, I despise Spotify because I can't pay their premium and I do not like listening to the ads and me in the middle of a song. Excuse me, that is sacrilege. I don't have time for that.

If I'm listening to music, I'm working hard on something. Don't give me a dang ad in the middle. That makes me want to throw my computer out the window.

I might go with it. I have a YouTube playlist I make and listen to on my personal YouTube because I also have a professional YouTube account.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (11:38 - 11:45)

What would you say are your top bands on your personal YouTube playlist?

Kathryn Holeton (11:47 - 12:30)

Well, currently, I've been really, really into Asian music. I'm listening to Lexi Liu, R.E.O.L., however she goes by, Stray Kids. There's this one called Alexa.

I think Alexa is Mongolian. I've been on the other end of spectrum kind of stuff at the moment. I also listen to some electronic stuff.

I bounce between electronic and rock, sometimes both, but most of the time it's one or the other and I bounce all the time. Although the Architects just dropped a new song last week and it's killer. It's great.

I can't wait for their new album to come out.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (12:31 - 13:07)

You're very open when it comes to the music content that you consume, which is great because if someone's going to be coming to you, it's great to know that you have a huge love for music no matter what country it comes from. I think that's great to know that people will want to approach you, that you're very approachable, and that you have a true, authentic love for music. Now, let me ask you this.

Are you drawn more to the sound of a song, of music, or to the lyrics?

Kathryn Holeton (13:08 - 13:45)

I think that comes down to based on my mood. I think recently I've just gotten bored with English music, so I switched to Asian music because I don't know a single Asian language to save my soul, but it sounds cool, so I listen to it anyways. I read the captions of the songs that are translated and honestly, I'm kind of shocked sometimes because the music is so pop and funky and it's like upbeat, but then I'm reading the lyrics and it's like, oh, this is surprisingly dark.

This is darker than I thought. This is a left field kind of thing. I like it even better.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (13:46 - 14:01)

I was checking out your website and it appears that there are, I believe I saw some packages. Am I correct? Yeah.

Can you explain to the audience or to the musicians out there who might be interested in maybe working with you what these packages are?

Kathryn Holeton (14:03 - 14:38)

The packages on my site are for varying aspects of what I offer. The packages I offer, I have some retainer ones for returning clients, which are at the bottom of the page, but then I have entry level ones. The cheapest pack is just a full on setup of how to, of setting your character up for your music to start taking off and stuff.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (14:38 - 14:48)

So do you require your clients to come see you wherever you are or do you go see your clients or is it all done just off of the internet?

Kathryn Holeton (14:50 - 15:22)

So I'm pretty easy to work with or I try to be as easy to work with. Most of the clients I have worked with have been all remote, but if you happen to live near me and it's not too bad of a drive, I don't mind meeting in person, but remote in person, we don't even have to meet at all. We just talk over email and send screenshots.

Whatever is easiest and works for them will more than likely work for me as long as it's not audio based because I stutter a little bit in my free time.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (15:24 - 15:37)

And what would you say has been the biggest challenge that you have overcome when it comes to you being a designer? What's the word again? Damn.

Kathryn Holeton (15:38 - 15:38)

Character.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (15:39 - 15:40)

A character designer?

Kathryn Holeton (15:40 - 15:41)

Yeah, character brand.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (15:42 - 15:54)

What would you say has been the biggest challenge that you have overcome as a character brand designer?

Kathryn Holeton (15:58 - 16:31)

Honestly, I think I can say this for all business owners. It's trying to get visibility to your work and reaching people in an authentic way that best explains what you do. I mean, everyone struggles with that on social media.

That would be one of the biggest challenges in terms of my business. What was your question again?

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (16:32 - 16:40)

What are some of the biggest challenges that you have overcome as a character brand designer?

Kathryn Holeton (16:40 - 17:05)

Yeah, definitely the marketing part. And I would also say setting up systems. The system has been sort of challenging because when you start something, whether it be a musical project or whatever, you never think about the system of how things work until you've started doing it for a while and you're like, this isn't working the way it should be.

Now I have to figure out a better way to do this.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (17:05 - 17:17)

So as you're doing all of this work, do you have like a favorite snack or a favorite drink to get you in the mindset of, let's go, let's do this?

Kathryn Holeton (17:18 - 17:31)

So I am not a drug addict, but I am kind of a coffee addict. It was really bad a while ago, like three years ago. I used to drink 12 cups of coffee a day.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (17:32 - 17:35)

Dang, were they all decaf or were they all full on?

Kathryn Holeton (17:35 - 17:36)

They were all caffeinated.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (17:37 - 17:37)

Oh, damn.

Kathryn Holeton (17:38 - 17:53)

It's not so bad now. I have put a strong limit on myself of no more than five a day. More often than not, it is two a day.

So the limits, I have put limits on myself and I am sleeping better. So plus size.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (17:54 - 18:01)

Good, good. So my next question is, since you are in this industry, do you get perks?

Kathryn Holeton (18:02 - 18:06)

I think the best perk is getting to meet cool musicians.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (18:08 - 18:10)

Okay. Do you have any favorite musicians that you've met?

Kathryn Holeton (18:12 - 18:36)

Pazzo and the Dead Cassettes are pretty cool. There's also this one band that's native to Knoxville. I haven't worked with them yet, but I actually play Magic the Gathering with them every Friday.

And I didn't know they were in a band until two weeks ago, but they're a death metal band called ELSEETOSS, E-L-S-E-E-T-O-S-S.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (18:37 - 18:37)

Okay.

Kathryn Holeton (18:38 - 18:46)

They've been gigging here in Knoxville and they are a black metal band.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (18:46 - 18:47)

Okay, cool.

Kathryn Holeton (18:47 - 18:52)

One or two albums out right now and they're pretty good. I'd recommend.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (18:54 - 19:05)

Okay. My next question for you is, do you have a favorite place to go while you're working? Like a favorite coffee shop, a favorite restaurant, a favorite park, anything like that?

Kathryn Holeton (19:06 - 19:31)

So I go wherever there's internet because believe it or not, I do not have internet at home. So everything that's online has been done without any internet at home. I've had to places to use internet.

So I don't really have a strong preference. However, recently I discovered my local library finally after all these years got internet. So I've been hardcore loving the library.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (19:31 - 19:32)

Okay.

Kathryn Holeton (19:33 - 19:53)

I am totally turning into Hermione Granger now. That is going to be my designated life. Library only for nothing.

I also like to go to coffee shops because coffee, yummy. You can't argue with coffee. As previously stated, I am a coffee addict.

If there's coffee to be had, I will go to a coffee shop with internet.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (19:54 - 20:03)

So my next question is, I know you do a lot of work remote, but you're in, currently you are somewhere in Tennessee, correct?

Kathryn Holeton (20:05 - 20:06)

Yeah, Knoxville.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (20:06 - 20:11)

Knoxville, Tennessee. What is the music vibe like there in the city?

Kathryn Holeton (20:12 - 20:56)

The music vibe is very kind of geared toward rock and roll, some country. It's really diverse, surprisingly. We don't have, in downtown Knoxville, there's, they do have gigs on occasion, but in shows, I should say.

The music scene in downtown Knoxville is not as big as it is in Nashville. Because in Nashville, you have blocks upon blocks upon blocks of gigs going on. And there's always music playing everywhere.

In downtown Knoxville, they do have gigs playing or music playing at the week, but it's not as rambunctious. Of course, it also depends on the time of year because downtown Knoxville is just down the street from UT.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (20:57 - 21:04)

Who are some upcoming artists that you suggest we keep an eye out for?

Kathryn Holeton (21:05 - 22:22)

So there's a few I have worked with that I definitely think should be kept an eye on. Pazzo is an alternative rock, alternative nostalgic rock band in Chicago. And they just released their EP, Cricket Chair, and it's got some bangers on it.

And they're actually working on getting ready to release another EP, or they just released one. I have to play some catch up here because I kind of went internet silent when I was working on the website, because I had to get it done. And they had a lot of work to do.

So gotta play some internet catch up now. But Pazzo is a good one. The Dead Cassettes are also very cool.

They are also an alternative rock band. They're based in Northern California. And they've been making some waves in there.

Another one is Kelly Maxwell. She does alternative and sort of acoustic style. Her voice is so pretty.

I highly recommend checking her out. She's great. And actually, one of my music producer friends did the mix and master on her song, Better On My Own.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (22:23 - 22:26)

Why is creativity important for you?

Kathryn Holeton (22:26 - 22:46)

Creativity is how I keep my sanity. Because I mean, that's how you express yourself. And that's how you connect with people.

And I've connected through just so many really cool people through my creativity.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (22:48 - 23:01)

Thank you so much, Catherine Holton, for being here on Creativity Worth Expressing. Now for those who are in the audience who are thinking, damn, I would love to work with Catherine, where can they find you?

Kathryn Holeton (23:03 - 23:23)

So you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, threads, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And also schedule a free 30 minute no obligation at all strategy session with me by going to my website at kathrynholeton.com.

Ryan Anthony Hernandez (23:24 - 23:52)

Perfect. So thank you so much, Catherine, for being here on the podcast Creativity Worth Expressing. And to everyone who has listened to this podcast, or if you watched it on Spotify video, or YouTube or anywhere else, thank you for tuning in.

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and please share this episode so that other people can also discover the work of our guest today, Catherine Holton. Thank you so much.