Jason Craig, Graphic Designer, Artist

00:00
There's certain things that I really appreciate, like whenever I'm listening to music and people talk about Augusta or they reference James Brown, it feels like it's something I'm a part of. And I'm helping make Augusta what it is, so when these people are inspired by Augusta, I feel partially like a part of that.

00:20
Welcome to another episode of Chewing the Fat. I'm your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in, checking out the podcast and all the support. I really appreciate it that you're following along with me on this journey. I'm really excited for my guest in studio today. He designed the logo for the show. I have a lot of people who have really, really liked the logo for the show. Jason.

00:46
Craig, in the house. How's it going, Rob? What's going on, Jason? Thank you for coming in, man. Absolutely, thanks for having me. Thanks for the logo. I mean, it's funny, because I contacted you like probably over a year ago at this point, and was like, hey, I'm thinking of doing this thing. And you're like, yeah, what's your thoughts? And finally, a year later, I actually took the leap and hit the button and all. These things take time. You gotta do them right.

01:15
Well, you know, as I've said before, that's one of the things that kind of slowed me down. I wanted to do it so right. You know, there was, from my background on radio, there was a sense of perfection that I wanted to put out. And basically, I just had to come to the, it's like, look, I'm never gonna do it if I want it perfect. I need to just do it. And I can perfect it as I'm doing it. Because that's when you learn those things, right? Perfect's boring.

01:42
I mean, Perfect is real boring. You know, it's like a new build house with no tree out front. It's boring. You need character. Yeah, exactly. Jason, I reached out to you because I've been a big, big fan of your work, first of all, for a long while. You've been in Augusta as a graphic artist for about how many years? I moved here in 98. So I've been here long enough to call it home, definitely. So yeah, 98, right out of high school. I...

02:10
I was from Illinois, and I'm still from Illinois, but I was in the yearbook, most likely to get the hell out of town. Hey, well, there you go, self-fulfilling prophecy. What area in Illinois are you from? The corn part, the not Chicago part. There's two halves of Illinois, one is Chicago and one is corn, and I am from the corn. Yeah, a town of 4,500 people.

02:34
If you overlay it on downtown Augusta, it goes from 5th Street to 13th Street. That was my whole town I grew up in. Wow. So, you know, big change. Yeah, yeah. I mean, did you come straight to Augusta from there? I did. Wow. Literally, I moved here sight unseen. Was it work related? No, my dad's company moved him here. So he was here about a year before me. And I always had this like misguided thought to move to Atlanta based on.

03:01
rap lyrics and stuff I saw in movies. And so he called me one day and he was like, well, why don't you come check out Augusta? And so I got in the car and I drove down and I got to somewhere around Asheville. There was a sign that said Augusta this way, Myrtle Beach this way. I went to Myrtle Beach, hung out for a week, went back to Illinois, called my dad and I was like, yeah, I guess that's cool, I'll move down there. And he's like, you never came to Augusta. I was like, oh, I'll move there anyway. So I moved down here in May.

03:29
or maybe it was June of 98 and then like 4th of July weekend, I went back up and got all my stuff and it's been home since then. Yeah, and I feel like you have really, genuinely made it home. Oh yeah. You have made it home because the work that you do, aside from like your industrial stuff and, not to say that boring stuff, but that industrial stuff, that work work stuff that you were doing, your personal stuff has such a heart,

03:59
and a soul for Augusta and for having only been here, you know, was it 21 years now, 22 years? I mean, that's pretty amazing. Well, thank you. And you know, part of it, it's like that. Like, I feel like I do have a responsibility. I can't be the one that leaves home and then I just come here and I'm standing around in a parking lot or whatever I was doing back there. I have to make the best of this so that, you know, it is home and...

04:28
I'm proud of it, I'm proud to be here, and I'm glad that I'm not where I was, because I didn't really want to be a farmer, I didn't really want to be a factory worker, I had a different plan, and so, I'm just trying to stay on that plan and stay off a tractor. I mean, you know, driving a tractor is kind of fun, I don't know if I'd want to do it every day, you know, eight, 12 hours a day or anything, because farmers work crazy long hours. Definitely wouldn't want to be up at like three in the morning to drive a tractor. That's right. But with some of that work that you've done,

04:57
the murals that you've done downtown, I think of the Respect mural that you had on Pink Slips, which Pink Slips was a creative, what would you call that? It's like a co-op studio. Yeah, and not in like the, I'm not a millennial, so I don't think of it in like the hippie sense of co-op, like a commune, but it was just.

05:24
five or six of us and we all kind of brought something to the table. We all split the rent and had a real primitive space down there in downtown Augusta that we did a lot of stuff from. And that was a really special thing that sort of it ran its entire arc. It started with getting the place livable and really being productive in there all the way to last year where we decided that with, with not having a lot of art stuff going on, it was just time to close it down.

05:54
Yeah, and the building itself became iconic. Yes. The pink stripe building, for those of you in Augusta, may not have even realized what that was. That was down at Jones and 13th. I mean, just an iconic building without even, you know, quote unquote, advertising it or anything like that. I saw so many people doing photo shoots out front, you know what I mean? Because it was something that was so unique.

06:23
that there wasn't anything else like that in Augusta. That was something that was that next level thinking to take an entire building and do that too. Was there an inspiration from that? There is, and anybody that knows me or knows my approach to my work is a lot of times, I'm just trying to entertain myself. And I figure if it's like a joke, if you don't think it's funny, why would other people? And we had a meeting, we started talking about what we wanted to do with the front.

06:54
And it was weird because our powers combined, we came up with this like weird beige color. And I was like, I painted on a board. I was like, no, this ain't it. We got to go a different direction. And so we started doing some research. And one of the things at Pink Slips is that we wanted it to be a lot of action, not a lot of talk. And so we were very low key. We didn't advertise. We didn't put out a lot of posters or anything for it. And so we found this old World War I battleship camouflage that was called Dazzle.

07:23
and they would paint these battleships with black and white stripes. And so you couldn't tell how many there were, where they were, if they were 50 yards or 500 yards away. And we thought it would be hilarious to paint it camouflage. But then we decided also hot pink. And so it's hot pink camouflage. So to be inconspicuous while also being very, very conspicuous. And what I thought was so funny is all day, every day, there were mostly younger females.

07:50
out front taking pictures for Instagram, people taking wedding pictures out front of there, all kinds of stuff, and for it to have been painted by a 40-year-old dude in cargo shorts, it's the most artistic thing I've ever done, I think. It just cracks me up. Well, I don't know if that's the most. I mean, that's interesting that you think that. From an art thought.

08:13
standpoint. Yes, I can understand that from the art thought standpoint of it was a black and white camouflage pattern, but you flipped it to... Yeah, okay. I can understand that with the intellectual side of it. But some of the other works that you've done, the Get Up Augusta mural, the James Brown stuff that you've done, posters, of course, you know,

08:41
this being the home of James Brown. And again, you come being a transplant and just taking that and just did it just, did James, Mr. Brown, excuse me, did Mr. Brown just resonate with your soul at some point? Well, to me, there was the longest time that I wouldn't touch James Brown and it was just because I didn't feel like I was that person because I'm a transplant. And then after there was a certain time,

09:10
where I just kind of felt like maybe it is something I could work with. And so then it just sort of, I have my own sort of, it's like from an iconic standpoint. And so there's certain things that I really appreciate. Like whenever I'm listening to music and people talk about Augusta, they reference James Brown, it feels like it's something I'm a part of. And I'm helping make Augusta what it is. So when these people are inspired by Augusta, I feel...

09:38
Partially like a part of that and that's that's kind of how that came in and I started doing the James Brown stuff And a lot of people I respect Made comments about it. They told they talked to me about it and it was very positive. And so I At that point I was like well if they feel like that I'm okay with doing that then I'm cool with doing it too and now it makes it so that It's it's the it's the go-to idea for anything Augusta is James Brown to me, right, right?

10:07
And of course, I know you've collaborated with other great artists. It's amazing what I said to think about some of the artists and the graphic artists and the high art artists that we actually have in this area. We do. I know you've collaborated with some like with the Keep Augusta Funky. And that sign in and of itself is so cool to me as someone who grew up in Augusta that you took the font from other, you know, signage that was in downtown Augusta to make that word.

10:36
So that project was a pure collaboration. It was mostly Leonard Zimmerman, Pork Chop. They had been making some Keep Downtown Funky shirts for a while. And he really wanted to do something, a different twist on it. And so the idea came about, and we got together. And they ended up not making the shirts out of it at first. But I was like, well, let's paint it on a building.

11:03
And so me and him got together. We put out a thing like, does anybody want to help us paint it? April Henry, who we did not know at the time, April Henry King, she said, can I come down and help? So Leonard, myself, Brad, and April, all four of us went down and painted that on a Sunday. And that was April's very first mural that she had painted in Augusta. And that's how we did it. We did it in one after. It was just one Sunday morning and a little bit into the afternoon. And there it is. It's been there since. Yeah.

11:31
And it's, again, talk about another iconic photo op. I see tons of people tagging Augusto in front of that, that mural downtown on the old Woolworths building down there, which is also funny because it's, what's the deli that's there now? Groucho's. Groucho's Deli's across the street, which that actually used to be a radio studio that James Brown owned. Yep. You know, so it's, the synergy between the locale,

12:01
the people that are in it, the artists that are in it, the soul that is in it from a musical standpoint. There is so much going on in Augusta, and Augusta has so much to offer as far as just a rich history and vibe. And I think that's one of the things that resonate with me in wanting to collaborate with you just for the logo and other stuff like that. But you are...

12:31
setting up an Augusta poster show, first of its kind, here in town. So, for folks that are not familiar, what is a poster show? So, a poster show is just like it sounds. There's going to be posters there. And just, you know, dorm room, old school posters. Not to be confused with art prints. These are posters. These are what it's selling or telling. So, it's going to be posters that promote Augusta or kind of reflect on Augusta in some kind of way.

13:00
And basically, there's 30 different artists from around the country. And there's going to be an edition of 30 of each. You can come and look at them. You can come and buy them. It's going to be a good time. It's at the WOW Club at SRP Park. And it's just going to be different than anything that I've done before. Most of the time, you know, it's like Pink Slips was a garage with no air conditioning. And so it was like, come in there, sweat it out, have some fun, drink some beers. And this is on the other end of the spectrum.

13:30
high-end rented out the wow club, you know, so it's a little bit different. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Now how's the, how's the, I know, cause we talked about this as you were in the planning stages, we talked about this and you were trying to like, it kind of like with me with the podcast, it's like you just gotta do it. If you wait for perfect, it's never gonna happen. So I know you jumped and were like, you know what? It's not gonna happen if I don't go ahead and start. How has it been since then?

13:58
Have you been able to get all of your artists? Because I know that was, I mean, that's a big ask to ask 30 different artists to create a one-time piece for a show. It is, for a two-day show. Yeah. So what was that process like? Well, it was very different than anything I've experienced because I honestly thought that I could get, I could guilt five or six of my friends to do it.

14:26
you know, twist their arms and make them do it. And then we could round up enough people to get up to 30. And in the end, I had 75 people to choose from. And it was tough. I had so many people, and I had people from all over, all over the world, really, because there was a lot of people that had some kind of connection to Augusta. And at first I was like, is this a person that actually has anything to do with Augusta or they just sign up for everything they see? And I talked to them and it's like, no, my family's from there. Or,

14:55
I went to SCAD and now my sister lives in Augusta or something. And so everybody had some kind of tie to Augusta. One of my friends in Chattanooga, he called me and he wanted to be a part of it. And I was like, well, have you ever been to Augusta? And he said that he's in a band that plays Sharon Jones covers. Nice. And I was like, it's amazing how you can track so much stuff that's not just golf, not just James Brown to Augusta. And a lot of those people had ties like that.

15:24
They came out for it. And so it was a difficult decision. I wanted to do a lot of things different. I wanted to be sort of solely responsible for everything. I didn't want to have like a metric or rubric where I grade people and, well, your score was 85. So 87 is the cut. You didn't get in. You know, anybody that got in is because I picked them. And anybody that didn't get in is because I had to pick somebody else for some reason. And it was tough because there were people that I personally invited and then they didn't make it in the show.

15:54
And then I have to go see him. I'm like, man, you understand, don't you? And so it's going to be a lot better than I ever expected it to be. Which I don't know why. I have plenty of people that tell me, I don't know why you didn't expect it to be good. But yeah, the response was incredible. And then

16:12
Thus far, everything, all the milestones have been hit, all the deadlines have been hit. The worst artist in the whole thing is me. I'm the only one that hasn't done my poster and it's two or three days. Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah.

16:26
You might want to get on. I don't know why you agreed to record this thing. Yeah, well if I record this podcast, I won't have to go do my post-drag and procrastinate some more. Will you at least have an idea what you're going to do? I do. I came up with my idea on Friday. We recorded on Sunday and I had my idea Friday afternoon. Okay, okay. All right, so I'm not going to ask about it because I mean I want to see these things. So what's the furthest away someone is participating? Where do you think the furthest is? We have two people from Seattle.

16:55
We had one from Argentina but didn't make the cut, but Seattle I think is the farthest geographically. Okay. Yeah. Well you say you have people that didn't make the cut, does that mean you might have a short list for the Augusta poster show too? Honestly, if I inverted the list and had the show with the people that didn't make the cut, it would still be a great show. Okay. And so that was a tough thing. It was a very tough thing. And coming up with ways to decide.

17:25
Because the top, say, 20 people, that was easy. But then it was like, oh, these last five spots, these last three spots, this last one spot. And then we have three alternates just in case something happens. And it was just very, very difficult. And then it was sitting there. I had the email typed out with the list of the people that made it. And I hit Send. And then once I hit Send, all that stress and anxiety was over because it's like, it's done. Did it. It's going to be what it's going to be.

17:55
Now, was part of the process them having to kind of give you an idea of what they were thinking or was it, I mean, what was that process like? It started with, are you interested? It started with that. Are you interested? It's like, if you have an idea, just write it down. I don't need to see a sketch. I don't need you to do any kind of work. And there was plenty of people that said they were interested. And then as I was kind of whittling it down, there were certain people that I would, I called them.

18:19
And I was trying to really eliminate people. And I'd call them, and I'd be like, hey, I was checking on this poster show. Thinking they'd be like, oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I'd be like, oh, well, you know what? Don't worry about it. Right. Make your job a little easier, then. Right. Yeah. But what happened was is the people I called were like, oh, I'm working on it now. I have this idea. And here's my idea. And they would tell me their idea. And Rob, every idea was better than the one before. And I was like, oh my god. I honestly thought I'd have six people. We'd be doing James Brown and Masters.

18:49
That's it. And that's it. Yeah. It's the opposite. People come out of the woodwork, and the ideas are all over the place. And they're really, really cool ideas. And so when I had the deadline, you know, all these deadlines, they get extended. All of them do. I had so many people that I posted up. I said, deadlines today at noon. I'm not extending it. If you want in on this thing, you need to let me know. And I had people text me like, you're not going to extend the deadline.

19:14
I was like, no, I don't need to. And I had nine people sign up within 15 minutes of the deadline, and all nine of those people got into the show. Wow. I mean, that's how it's been. It has been a blast. And honestly, I think it's because there hasn't been a lot going on. And that's a big reason why I want to do it. It's tough to commit to things, especially six months ago, to commit to things coming up. Because it's uncertain how it's going to be. And so.

19:42
I feel if I want to be a leader of any kind in this arts community, there's different ways that you have to step up. And I think that this was one of them, stepping up and sort of funding a thing. We don't have any sponsors. That was an important thing to me. I wanted to be independent. Nothing against sponsors. I love help. I love organizations. But I wanted the artists to know that it was just about the artist. It's a passion project. Yes. It's 100% about the passion. It is.

20:12
Are there any any posters or any designs that just well I know you're gonna say all of them but That when you heard the concept it just blew your mind. Yes. Yeah, there's there's one Somebody is doing a like a dungeon masters map of downtown Oh, wow, like an old like a like a Lord of the Rings style map. Yeah, and I was like, oh, that's cool

20:38
There's somebody's doing a poster for the 1991 Bo Scherz fly in. Very cool. Which I was just, I was like, I wouldn't have thought of that. And they go on and on. There's a Sharon Jones poster. There's a lot of different stuff. Somebody's hooning in on architecture downtown. And so it is a very eclectic group with all the same prompt, what does Augusta mean to you? And they all have something different.

21:07
And some of it's nostalgic. Some people grew up here and they want to kind of show what that was like. And so it's very, very different. Somebody had the, did a canal poster. That's really, really nice. So it kind of varies. Like some of these are going to be more of your, you know, they might go in your man cave or something, and some of them can go framed in your living room because they're, the broad spectrum is.

21:33
Incredible. The range is there, but the quality is fantastic. Some of them are illustrated, some are painted, some more photographs. Peter Stitt, he's a photographer and artist in town. He sent me his, and it's an incredible photograph and it's very moving. And it's just different than what I could have ever done or what anybody could have done. I'm getting like chills listening to you talk about it. I'm so excited for this. When does it happen again?

22:03
It is. So there's two days. And one of the things you ever notice how when you go to an event in Augusta and there's a VIP tent and like everybody's a VIP in Augusta. We're all VIPs here. And so I was like, well, I want to split it off. So Friday night is the VIP night. So everybody that's there on Friday is VIP. And that one actually is $10. And then but it's going to be cool. We're going to give out awards. We have judges that are going to they're going to pick their favorites. We have some really cool judges. And then

22:33
Saturday it's free all day. Okay, so everybody can come down for free. They walk through check them out They don't have to buy anything. I hope they will but they don't have to they can just look at them and And that'll be that you know, we're gonna do a little after party get together at southbound down there and Yeah, Friday meet the artists come on and it's gonna be cool so That's gonna be on

22:57
July the... Oh, 23rd and 24th, yeah. 23rd and 24th. July 23rd and 24th, yeah. I just said Friday and Saturday. Well, I mean, that's the day, obviously. I just didn't know which, because there's lots of Fridays and Saturdays. Yeah, keep showing up. I know, right, right. Just show up. This, no, there's any, what about this? No, okay, all right. And one thing that, you know, I've done a lot of events, and Augusta is a very day out of town, and we have pre-sold almost half of the VIP tickets. Wow, that is rare.

23:26
It is very rare. And we've also sold, pre-sold a lot of posters that haven't even been made yet. I wonder if that's partly due to COVID and people not being able to get out and do anything. I think it is. I think it is. Just the people are as much as the artists are hungry to do work, there are people that are just hungry to see work that's being done. I think it is. And really that's a big motivation for me for doing it in the first place because I travel a lot.

23:55
and I participate in things like this and I can't really travel like I used to, so I'm like, well, if I can't go somewhere to do this, I need to bring it home. Absolutely. And I think that's, again, speaks to your heart for your chosen hometown, you know what I mean? For your community. And you're always doing stuff for your community. It's so cool. I can't wait to see what's going on there. Who do you think would be?

24:22
I mean, obviously anybody can come that appreciates Augusta, appreciates great art. But like, I think if there's like somebody trying to open up a new restaurant or something like that, they could like come by one of each poster and they got 30 posters to decorate their new restaurant. All custom work. Absolutely could. But I mean, I think it's gonna be an amazing thing. All ages at the WOW Club, SRP Park, the...

24:49
You said 23rd and 24th. 23rd and 24th, rain or shine. Rain or, well, it's inside, right? Yeah. I didn't want the paint dripping on the posters. You don't want to get ruined or anything like that. That's just, that's awesome. Anything else that's going on that you're really stoked about? I mean, obviously that's probably taken up the majority of your conscious mind here. It's probably taken up part of your unconscious mind. But what's going on for you after that? Because I know it was,

25:19
but 2019 you decided to go out on your own. And you're like, you know what? I'm gonna make this what I wanna make it. And I think that takes balls, man. Because I think people get caught and stuck in that weekly paycheck or that bi-weekly paycheck, that insurance, that 401k or whatever, and they may have the heart to want to branch out and do their own thing,

25:49
That comfort level is scary. That fear is a lot to get past. It is. It is. So yeah, I've been working on my own. I don't like the term freelancer, because that sounds kind of like the guy hanging out outside the newspaper looking for work. So I'm an independent graphic designer. It just means that I was the best candidate for to be my own boss.

26:14
And yeah, I've been doing it for two years. And I have learned a lot. It's a roller coaster. And if you can't survive the downs, you don't deserve the ups. And part of it too was I started getting called out by people, especially people I was working for, that were calling me out like, what is holding you up? And enough people that I respected had kind of brought that up to me. And...

26:41
And somebody was like, is it a money thing? Do you really think that you would make less money if you didn't have a job? And I was like, I don't know. I never thought about it. Yeah, and it was just one of those things. But once you do take that step, if it's right for you, and I am not an advocate for starting your own business at all, I would highly recommend letting somebody else pay you every single week, because there's a lot of weeks in the year. But for me, it's just different. Because.

27:09
I, there's less variables. When you walk into an office, if somebody else is having a bad day, it's going to rub off on you. And part of it too, is that with, with COVID, it was sort of a blessing because before I was working from home and there was a little bit of a stigma about working from home, but now working from home has been normalized. And so a big company doesn't mind you working from your home office. It sounds like you're smart. And so that, that part, I was, I was ahead of the curve on that. So, so that, that just worked out pretty good. And then the biggest thing.

27:39
is I survived a global pandemic. So between now and the rest of my days, what is the worst thing that's going to happen after that? I mean, I lost every single client all at once. I had everything on the horizon. I had it all mapped out. It's going to be great. And then I had one t-shirt job a year ago. That was it. And I came back from that. And so to be able to just kind of hunker down and survive

28:09
top of mind whenever people are stuck at home with no groceries. And so if I can make that work, I'm pretty sure I can, I can stick it out through anything else. That's amazing. That's, and that's, and like you said, the days, what else could happen to you? I have a friend who, um, he actually, um, does a golf podcast, John Patrick here in town. And he went out on his own for a while.

28:39
And that's what he said. Every morning you wake up and you're like, how am I gonna invent enough money to pay this next bill that's due? That's it, that's it. Because it's all on you. It is. It's like, okay, if I wanna go on this trip, I gotta work a little bit harder because I need to make a few more dollars than I would have otherwise. Or the power's gonna come and do the end of the week, I need to make sure I have X amount to be able to pay that bill. I mean, it's definitely 100% of responsibility. You can't...

29:08
just slack off. And I think that puts you in a different mindset too. And it's not a mindset that is for everybody. Like you said, you're talking about don't wanna, it is not a mindset that is for everybody. But I think it can be. Sure. If you have that fire in your belly and the contentment that you get from doing it and knowing it, I mean, you're what?

29:34
Employee of the month, 24 months running now. 24 months running, I've been employee of the month, and it's been a landslide each time. Now, but you know, we all know people who are self-managed and people who aren't, and that's a skill in itself. It doesn't matter if you're a plumber or a mechanic or an artist. If you're not self-managed, if you can't, if you don't have the discipline to get up, get dressed, go to work, doesn't matter where you're working or who you're working for. If you can't get that done, you're not going to succeed.

30:04
And that goes for anybody. If you work in a restaurant and can't show up to work on time, it's not going to work out for you. And so you take that leap all the way to the other end, where you don't know where money comes from, and you're right. And I do mine a little bit different. I have a salary. And so even if I do have a really good month or a really good quarter, I still get the same salary. And so it's kind of nice to have that stability.

30:29
But at the same time, sometimes it's the first week of the month and I'm like, man, I could take the rest of this month off and no one wouldn't even notice it, but I don't. Because you got that mindset. Because I have that mindset and I love what I'm doing. I love the people I get to work with. I get to work with some crazy cool clients. And then it makes it that much more fun to walk into like my local clients and do stuff for them. And they're like, oh man, you just did this stuff for HBO or Nike. And

30:58
I was gonna say, I was gonna brag on you a little bit. Cause I mean, you've done some work for the Atlanta Braves, Nike, you mentioned HBO for one of my favorite shows, the Righteous Gemstones. You did some caricature stickers that of, well you did Baby Billy, Baby Billy First, right? Right. Now was that on your own or did they approach you for that? No, so that was, I was in a group chat.

31:26
as people are in group chats these days. And so everybody was watching the show, and we were talking about it, and I wouldn't do anything. And so I was like, I'm going to draw baby Billy for the group chat. And I sent it in the group chat. I wasn't even going to post it on Instagram, but I did. Danny McBride reposted it. HBO called me, wanted to buy it. They bought it from me. And like four hours after I posted it, they bought it from me. And then they're like, do you want to do the rest? It's like, of course I want to draw the rest of the characters.

31:53
Probably took two years of lawyers and all kinds of stuff to get it so I could draw the rest of those characters. Wow. And they just dropped like a few weeks ago, right? Just, yeah, just last week. But I did them. We went to the beach earlier this year. And I worked from the beach. And I drew them there. And everything was fine. And I've just been sitting there waiting and waiting. And they're like, don't tell anybody. A lot of the stuff, they're like, don't tell anybody until we do.

32:20
And I'm just sitting there and you don't want to be like, hey, is it cool if I tell people about this? Because I'd really like to get more work. Because that's how I get more work, is by people seeing the work that I did. Yeah, you're a consummate professional. You work exemplary. I'm not exactly sure why you agreed to do my logo, but I mean, I appreciate it. That's the thing. That's the thing is like those things that I did for the Righteous Gemstones for HBO, I did the same thing for Carol Fabrics for the people that retire.

32:50
And see, that's the thing is that the work is the work. And sometimes the client is just different. So I had a blast last year. Carol Fabrics, most people don't even know about it, but it's a big company here in Augusta. And when they would have somebody retire, I would draw one of those caricatures for them. And it was one of the most fulfilling things that I do. And it doesn't get as much play on social media. But.

33:17
It's a lot of fun to find out about a person and what makes them tick and their interests and then get to turn them into like a caricature. And I mean, that's something, that's like a great cool thing. And to be able to do that for people that really, really appreciate it is a lot of fun because you do something for a big company and it's fun and it's great, but they've got a lot of that. They just throw it on the pile with the rest.

33:41
But you do a one-off thing for somebody who's having a special day or starting a podcast, and it just hits different. It's very fulfilling, and it's nice to be able to do that.

33:58
This is the time in the show I like to kind of dive a little bit deeper. We're going to get a little bit, get a little bit more real. Not that you haven't been real. You've been very real. So they're like to get a little bit more real, uh, to speak on things that we as humans, we all deal with, we all deal with down days, uh, in some way, shape or form, uh, whether you want to call it depression, uh, just being sad or whatever. Um, I personally deal with that stuff and I try to stay positive though. I try to stay upbeat.

34:27
because I know those days aren't going to last. But for you, how do you stay positive? What do you do to keep the dark at bay? So for me, I've struggled with anxiety, especially, and then it seems like that kind of rebounds with some depression type stuff. But my biggest thing is I get this like imposter syndrome, and it sounds cliched, but

34:55
I don't know how many times I fire up my computer, I get a pencil out for an idea, and my first thought is, I suck at what I do. I'm gonna get found out at any moment, and it's just gonna be over. I'm gonna be piling up bricks somewhere. And by the way, I didn't mean to laugh at you saying that, because it's...

35:19
To me, it's funny to hear you say that, because I definitely do not think that you suck at what you do. But I definitely understand that imposter syndrome as well. It's amazing. And I'm always looking forward to this day where I think that I'm good at something. But it's one of those things where I've tried several different drastic approaches to changing the way that I feel about things. And I failed miserably at a lot of them. And I realized that you just really

35:48
today better than yesterday and just do the best you can. And it's kind of like the, it's not going to be perfect. You're not going to have a perfect day. And for me, it's about changing up routine a little bit. It's about kind of stopping to appreciate the good stuff and not moving right onto the next thing. And that's a big thing too, is that you do something that's worth recognition or getting a pat on the back and you just kind of like, okay, well let's just move past that, move to the next thing.

36:17
But then you dwell on things that are beating you up or getting you down. And so I think that we all do that. And we're just kind of built in to try to not be too proud of something or not celebrate too much. But we should. We should stop and reflect. And I was walking to a baseball game the other day. I live right by the stadium. And I was halfway there. And I just kind of stopped and looked around. And I was like, this is the best I've ever been. And I was like, I've never been able to acknowledge that.

36:47
I mean, I'm sure at some point when I was 16 years old in high school playing football or something, I was like, this is the best I've ever been. But since then, that was the moment. And I was like, man, I have really come a long way just in the past few years of as far as having a good attitude about things, not getting caught up in the kind of drama and hype that happens whenever you're a creative. And people expect a lot from you or whatever it might be. Or just living up to an image.

37:16
And that's a big thing with social media. And if you notice, a lot of times, I will be real hot on social media. I'll post a lot, and then I'll just dim it back down. And a lot of times, if you don't see a lot from me, it's because I'm actually doing a lot. And so that can weigh on you to keep up with that, to try to feel like you've got to stay relevant, or people are going to forget about you, or whatever. And it sounds silly, but it's real.

37:45
And I know a lot of people, if you don't text them, they think you hate them or something. And you can get to feel them that way, too. And sometimes it just reach out to people, communicate, and try to make days good. And that's what I do. And some days it's easier than others. Some days I'd just rather not do anything. And other times, it's like you're just fired up and just wish it would never end. And so that's kind of it. It's just, to me, I think the biggest thing is small adjustments.

38:15
I learned that you can't drink your problems away. I figured that out. Yeah. You can numb them a little while, but they'll be there whenever it's gone. Right. That's definitely something that I try to avoid. But really, it's all about appreciating the things that you have that, if you take for granted, could go away. And then you thought you had it bad, but then you find out it can be worse. Right. Right. Yeah.

38:44
Sharanda who was on one of the previous episodes, she mentioned that same thing, just being grateful, just even if it's just, hey, my eyes opened up today. Yeah. You know, I was able to, you know, take a nice hot shower. I was, you know, able to take this walk to the ballpark. Exactly, exactly. You know, just those little things. It's kind of that stop and smell the roses type thing. Right. And if you don't take that time, they pass by you. I know you're a father.

39:12
I'm a father and that's one of the things that I think about now. How many times did I not stop to smell the roses of time with my children? Right. Because I was trying to do the work of providing. Because I was like, oh well I need to have this job. And I remember working three or four jobs at one time. Yeah. Because I was like, this is what I have to do to be able to provide the best so that they can have.

39:39
you know, the video game that they want or this, that, or the other. Whereas I would, you know, at this point, trade it all to have been able to slow down a moment and just sit and read a book with them or, you know, push them on a swing in a park or something. I mean, they're 27 and 24. I guess I can still push them on a swing. I mean, it's going to look a little weird, but, um, I think, uh, we've become such a society of gotta go, gotta go, gotta go, gotta go. Right.

40:09
Um, you know, and being able to slow it down just a moment. Of course we in Augusta and in the South, we have a small fraction of a, an advantage in that life moves at just a touch slower pace for us. I can't imagine the pace of like folks that are in New York, those type of cities. Um, but even at that, still slowing it down, taking a breath, just

40:38
Breathing in the moment, enjoying being in the atmosphere of a very creative friend while you do a podcast. You know, I think that's something that... Well, like, you're right. And like this morning, I live right by the brick ponds in North Augusta, and I took a friend that came over and we walked down there just to find alligators swimming around and saw six of them. Wow. And it's kind of cool just to walk around and...

41:06
do something like that, that's right there. I've driven over the 13th Street Bridge almost every day for 20 years. I've lived under it for six months, and I have experienced more in six months than I did the previous 20 years. And that's the kind of thing, I wasn't ready to experience that stuff. It was just the thing I drove over. Now it's something that I sit and appreciate. And you just have to be in that point in your life where things kind of change perspective, you get a little bit of clarity on some certain things.

41:35
you're not so worried about slowing it down. Because you realize that all that crap and the bullshit will be there waiting for you, whether you're stressing it or not. It'll be there. And some of it will take care of itself. Some of it you just have to figure out. And it's life. It's a part of life that you have to deal with. And yeah, we have an advantage that we are in Augusta. We have beautiful weather most of the time.

42:05
and we have all this stuff that we can do. It's amazing, this place that we live and the opportunities that we have that other people don't. Like you said, if we lived in New York, you'd really have to find the small victories of the day because you would be just hustling, you would be running around, and then when would you breathe? It doesn't even seem possible. Here, we can go sit outside at a restaurant for four hours and have brunch, and pretty much that's your day. Yeah. So.

42:33
You just gotta appreciate it when you can do it.

42:40
All right, Jason, we're in the final segment of the show. This is the time for the Fast Five, Fast Five. Blah, blah, blah, fast five. I don't have a theme song. I'm still working on it. So I'm just workshopping some options with the Fast Five. Maybe I can find somebody that can write me a Fast Five theme song or something like that. But anyway, so this is questions from an app called Poddex. So Fast Five is powered by Poddex from a friend of mine, Travis Brown.

43:08
It's a great tool for podcasters, just interview questions for you, but they're also great ice breakers. So if you just have a meeting, I know you do speaking engagements and stuff like that. I mean, you can check out PodDeck's, might be some good ice breaker questions and stuff like that. So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna just hit the randomizer button here. We're gonna do five questions with the Fast Five.

43:36
Do you bite your nails? I do not. I don't bite my nails. I go to CT Nails and get them done. Wow, really? Okay. All of them. Wow, toenails too then? Toenails too, yeah, I get my toenails painted. Nice. They're hot. Nice. That's awesome. Now see, that's one of those things of self care that I've never, I've always wanted to do, but have never, we talked about having time, never taken the time to do. So maybe I need to work that into my...

44:06
Maybe I need to work that into my schedules. Get a pedicure, get a manicure, something like that. Because I am, I'm terrible. I mean, you look at my nails right now, I bite my nails. And it used to be like a nervous thing. Now it's just become a habit. And I'm just like, eh, eh, eh. Oh, you gotta pamper yourself. Yeah, yeah. Because I think that's also, if I put that kind of monetary commitment into it, I'm not gonna wanna chew them to mess them up. That's true. Because I don't wanna mess up the investment. All right, question number two.

44:33
What do you need more of in your life? Besides coffee and money, time, I need more of myself. I need to figure out how I can clone myself so one of me can be working and one can be playing MLB the show on PlayStation. No, I would say I need more baseball in my life because that is a very centering thing for me and I love baseball. So if I could get more baseball, that would be a good answer for that.

45:03
Do you, is it mostly Major League Baseball? Do you do any college baseball? No college. Green Jackets, I got season tickets, so I'm all about that. And then Cubs, baseball, and Braves. Okay, so I assume Cubs come from where you grew up in Chicago, that like that, so, and then, of course, you know, I think it's cool that the Green Jackets now are a foreign team for the Braves. Yeah, it's incredible, yeah. That they were able to make that connection. You know, as someone from...

45:30
two hours away from Atlanta, I always thought, why aren't they the farm team? But now that they are, I think that's so cool. That's so cool. All right, question number three. What is the most important thing that you've ever done in your life? And what is the most important thing that you've ever done in your life? And what is the most important thing that you've ever done in your life? And what is the most important thing that you've ever done in your life? And what is the most important thing that you've ever done in your life? And what is the most important thing that you've ever done in your life? And what is the most important thing that you've ever done in your life? And what is the most important thing that you've ever done in your life? And what is the most important thing that you

45:42
Name one thing on your bucket list. One thing on my bucket list. I love to travel. I think I need to go to Washington DC. I think if I didn't go to, I've never been to DC. And I think that if I found out that I wasn't going, that I never would, I'd be disappointed. So I think, I think that specifically I've never been to Washington DC. What's the, what's the specific attraction for DC? I, it's, I, I

46:09
I just feel like I've failed by not being there. Okay. And I'm too old to go to space camp. So I think DC would be something very, I think it'd be important for me to go. All right. Number four.

46:23
This is great. What is the worst superhero logo? Oh, wow. The worst superhero logo. Well, why'd you have to ask me a question like that? I mean, I know you don't want to like disparage any other graphic designers or things like that, but I mean. No, I don't mind that. I hate that. I don't know if this counts, but that DC logo that's like the DC like curled down, I've always hated that.

46:50
The worst superhero logo though, I would say is I'll just say hot take Punisher logo. Hmm. Okay, that skull is been ruined by people in squatted trucks So I'm just gonna All right Punisher logo, all right gotcha. All right and final question

47:17
What was your first job? My first job? So my first job, which I got the day I turned 14 years old and got a work permit on my birthday, got assigned by the guidance counselor, and I went to work at a nursing home. Really? I worked at a nursing home all through high school. What did you do? I did everything. I started out working in the kitchen, washing dishes, all the way up to being a nurse's aide. I did everything. Wow. And I.

47:45
got a legit employee of the month at the nursing home. Nice. Yeah, I was there forever. That was one of my favorite jobs I've ever done. It's the only job I've ever done that was not creative. Wow. Now, what do you think about it that has made it one of your favorite jobs? I mean, because maybe there's some romanticism in the fact that it was your first job, your first thing that gave you money, but there had to be something else if you have that kind of fond memory. What was it about the job? The people. There's just so many interesting people, so many interesting stories to tell.

48:14
And it was their connections to the past. It was just so interesting. And there was about 100 residents there. And each one of them had just done so much living. And they were kind of too. I have this theory that once you get to a certain age, you just kind of revert to whoever you were in middle school. Because you're not worried about money anymore, similar to a middle schooler. It's just kind of set. And so you just kind of go back to those instincts where you're just sort of like a.

48:42
You either go back to being like Mean Girls or whatever it was. You were in seventh, eighth grade. And so it was a lot like that. And so I could relate to them. And it was just fun because they had so many cool stories. They'd been to so many places. And they were old. I mean, these people were around when everything happened. So it was just interesting. And I just enjoyed it. And then on top of that, it was really good money for a

49:08
for a teenager to have. All my friends went to work at a pizza place and they didn't make jack. And I was working like every weekend and I would just go spend the money at like, I'd go buy like silk shirts and CDs and that was pretty much it. Nice. That's awesome. Well, thank you, Jason, for coming on today. That's it, that's the Fast Five, that's the show. Remind folks where we can, if they wanna become a VIP for the Augusta Poster Show, what's the website?

49:37
It's AugustaPosterShow.com, and then you can find my stuff at JasonThe29th.com or follow me on Instagram. I meant to ask you, what's with The 29th? It's a long story, but it's a... I can stop the music. We can go into the story. Okay, I'll tell it super fast. Whenever I was in high school, they showed us this thing called the internet, and they showed us how we could set up our email address, and they told everybody, use your name, use your name. And I was like, man, my name might be... I might want to use that someday.

50:04
And so it was a combination of Friday the 13th, Jason, my number in sports, my lucky number is 29. And so rather than use and waste Jason Craig, I use Jason the 29th only to find out that jasoncraig.com would be a wedding singer in New York. And I've been using Jason 29th since 1994. Wow. I would have to say that I think your, uh, your choice is better than becoming a wedding singer.

50:29
I don't know, time will tell. I guess, but I mean, I love what you do. I love what you do for a city. I love your art. Again, he did the logo for the show. I try to put you in the show notes on every one because I'm so appreciative of what you did for me. And I appreciate your friendship, too. Thank you, Jason. I know I can reach out to you and just be like, hey, what's up? I had this crazy idea. What are you doing? Blah, blah, blah. And I know you're not going to be like me.

50:57
I think left that on red or something like that. Yeah, I'm working for HBO now. Which you are. You gotta check out those Righteous Gemstone stickers. That stuff is great. And the fact that you put the pickle in the mouth of Baby Billy, that's hilarious to me. Hilarious to me. We'll put the links in the show notes. I mean, you got so much stuff going on.

51:21
and again, AugustaPosterShow.com. You need to come on out, support local, support Augusta, get some cool art, even if you don't buy any posters, come out and take a look at them, because it's gonna be a great time. First time anything like this has ever happened in Augusta, and it's all because of this man right here, Jason Craig. Thank you again for coming on the show, man. Thank you so much. If you'd like to support this show, you can check out my website, ChewingTheFatBR.com.

51:49
You can buy me a coffee on there. Also all the links again. I've got more of Jason's bio on there and I just appreciate you tuning in. We'll see you next time. We chew the fat.