Brent Galloway: A Designer Who Makes Merch That Moves

Clothes are far more than a mere necessity these days – we use our favorite graphic tees to express ourselves, our beliefs, attitudes, and core values. In fact, we use clothes to send a particular message to all of those willing to listen. To do so, we first need to find a design that tells a story. Not any story – our story. And that’s where designer Brent Galloway comes in.

Who is Brent Galloway?

Brent Galloway is a graphic designer from Ohio who specializes in designing merchandise for some of the coolest brands and bands from all over the world. He believes that his mission is to design merch that can bring fans even closer to their favorite bands and enable them to truly “wear their hearts on their sleeves”. 

And that’s exactly what he does – his design perfectly embodies the unique message each band is trying to get across to their audience.  

Brent’s love for product design dates back to his childhood. A music and skateboard lover to the core, Brent fell in love with shapes, colors, and elements bands and brands used to design their merchandise. This love quickly turned to passion, and before he knew it, Brent started designing killer merch himself. He was lucky enough to find a calling that combines all of his artistic and creative interests, allowing him to enjoy his work to the fullest and make a name for himself in the designing world. 

According to him, if you are by any chance a fellow designer looking to get ahead, you should “first find out what type of design work you obsess over, then find out how you can make a living out of that obsession. At the end of the day, your entire career will thrive off your ability to create, so you have to love doing it.”

What does he do?

Brent loves to design stuff like t-shirts, skateboards, mugs, hats, posters, keychains, socks and other memorabilia that’ll take you straight back to the night you saw your favorite band on the stage for the very first time, or tell the world exactly what you’re passionate about, what you love, support, and stand for.

Besides being insanely talented and creative, Brent is very determined, efficient, diligent, professional, reliable, and ambitious; no wonder that he manages to come up with design solutions powerful enough to move your audience to the core. 

What does his design process look like?

Every successful designer has his own results-driven design process and Brent is no exception. 

Discovery Phase

The first thing Brent does after being contacted by a possible client is to schedule a meeting with them, so they can discuss the general direction of the project in question, brainstorm potential design solutions that the client thinks work best at capturing the brand’s essence, as well as develop a strategy that is sure to deliver desired results. Basically, both Brent and the client use this meeting, called discovery, to see whether they see eye to eye – if they click, they enter the next phase known as creative. 

Creative phase

During the creative phase, Brent unleashes his creative energy and shifts his focus onto coming up with a design solution that suits both the client and the audience. He notes all of his ideas down, exploring the myriad of shapes, patterns, colors, styles, concepts, and elements until he finds the right combination.  

Feedback Stage

Once he is satisfied with the end result, he moves on to the so-called feedback stage. He provides the client with the merchandise design(s) proposal so as to hear their opinion, based on which the final version is created. Working together with a client, exchanging thoughts, concepts, and ideas is crucial since it allows a designer to come up with the best possible solution created with a specific client and their audience in mind.

Approval and Execution Stage

Following this is the approval stage, where Brent is given the thumbs up to start working on the artwork. Once finished, the project enters its final phase called the execution during which the client is free to print and deliver their merch as they see fit.

Brent makes sure that his Process page is clearly visible on his site, as much as his About Me page is – “the most neglected, but very important part of a personal website has to be the about and process page. As someone who runs their entire business online, showing the face behind the work helps instantly establish trust with potential clients. And having a strong, thorough process page can help show your level of expertise. Those two pages alongside a curated portfolio are my secret to landing more client work through my website.”

How did Brent Galloway manage to create a strong online presence?

As a freelance graphic designer, Brent needed to find a space that’ll enable his potential clients to see what he is all about – an online home designed to showcase his talents, skillset, and all the projects he’s worked on so far, while at the same time allowing him to develop his unique voice and build his very own personal brand.

The logical choice was to launch a personal website that’ll show the world who Brent Galloway truly is, and in the online world, a personalized .ME domain is as unique as a person can get. Having an awesoME personal website enables you to build a strong online presence and a killer portfolio. There, you can feature your work, tell your story and share your knowledge with others with the help of amazing content and blog posts. Not only that but get contacted by those looking to hire somebody like you. This is crucial when you work as a freelancer. 

As Brent said it himself: “My personal website is the foundation of my freelance business. I built my website to work for me—It helps attract new clients and is how I stand out online in such a saturated market. The way it works is that my blog posts drive traffic to my website, then with well-placed calls-to-action and a strong, curated portfolio, that traffic is turned into clients reaching out to hire me.”

What’s more, Brent is pretty active on social media as well and has his own YouTube channel he uses to share his experience as a designer in order to inspire, educate and motivate others looking to start their own freelance adventure. 

Final thoughts

Although the competition is fierce if you want to get ahead as a designer, especially a freelance one, you have to find a way to make yourself and your work seen, which is exactly what Brent did.

On top of being talented, enthusiastic, hardworking, and innovative, he took control of his digital footprint and created an online portfolio that is sure to impress anyone who sees it.

Keep on rocking the designer world, Brent!