Turning experiments into a creative career

“I wanted to become the marketing director of Coca-Cola.”

Grayson smiles wryly as he shares his childhood dream with us.

“It came from the Share a Coke campaign. I thought it was the coolest marketing campaign I’d ever seen. Ironically, I ended up dropping out of college, which probably isn’t the route you’d recommend if your goal is to become Coca-Cola’s marketing director. 

“Instead, I found a job at a small architecture firm. Their website and photography needed work, and I thought, I can help. So I basically crowned myself marketing director. I changed my business card. I updated the website. For a while, I got to live out that dream in this tiny architecture firm. But then I realized something. The dream sounded much better than the reality. 

“That’s when I started asking myself a different question: if I wasn’t working for somebody else, what would I actually want to make?”

That question has shaped everything Grayson has built since. Today, it’s the philosophy behind Grayson’s Graphics: a place where design trends, playful experiments, and strategic thinking collide. 

We caught up with Grayson to talk about creative obsession, why shipping beats perfection, and what happens when you stop chasing trends and start playing with them.

From aspiring marketing director to creative entrepreneur

Envato: Tell us a little about how you found your way into design, filmmaking, and YouTube.

Grayson: Everything started in high school when I picked up a camera for the first time. I got into photography through our yearbook, and around the same time, I discovered Photoshop. Between those two things, I was hooked.

From there, I started freelancing. I filmed weddings — which are brutal — and eventually moved into corporate videography. I’d also pick up random design jobs. I remember designing a map for a nature sanctuary, even though I’d never designed one before. Looking back, it’s probably the worst work I’ve ever made.

Eventually, I’d built up a range of skills across photography, video, design, and marketing. I realized that if I combined them, I could probably make something interesting on YouTube.

That really started when I went to Brisbane. I decided to make a Casey Neistat-style travel vlog because, well, I was in Australia. Nobody watched it. When I came home, I stopped making videos. Then one of my friends asked, “Why did you stop?” I was watching them. 

“You looked like you were having the time of your life.”

It completely changed my perspective. I realized I wasn’t making videos because people were watching. I was making them because I genuinely enjoyed the process.

So I started experimenting. I tied a bunch of Apple AirTags to helium balloons just to see where they’d end up. I built a garden in the back of my Jeep. I wrote an AI children’s book. None of the projects had anything to do with each other, but they were all creative. Eventually, I stepped back and realized there actually was a common thread.

Design. That’s what became Grayson’s Graphics.

It’s becoming clear that there seem to be two really distinct sides to the way you think. There’s this exploratory side where you’ll follow any idea that’s exciting. Then there’s this really strategic side that probably comes from that marketing background. Is creative obsession, for you, a mix of those two things?

I think “creative obsession” is a really good way of putting it. There’s this obsession — or maybe passion — with the things you genuinely love making. When I find something that genuinely excites me, I just want to throw myself into it. Then, because I care about it so much, I become really strategic. I want to figure out how to make it work. I think that’s probably how my brain processes creativity. 

Why shipping beats perfection

Let’s dive into the process a little bit. What’s the one thing that’s completely non-negotiable for you? 

It’s shipping the work. One thing many creatives struggle with is knowing when something is actually finished. Whether it’s a video, a painting, or a design project, it’s really hard to draw the line and say, “I’m done.”

I’m actually the opposite of a perfectionist.

For a long time, I thought that was a weakness because I’m not naturally detail-oriented. Now I think it’s one of my biggest advantages. When something reaches the point where I’m happy with it, I publish it. Then I move on.

How AI is changing the creative process

You’ve talked about how AI is changing design and creativity. Where does AI sit in your own practice now? Has it changed the way you generate ideas and ship them?

Definitely both. I think every major leap in technology has ultimately improved creativity.

I’ve made this comparison a lot, but AI reminds me of what Photoshop must have felt like when it first came along. Before Photoshop, people were designing everything by hand. Then Photoshop arrived and completely changed creative work. It made everything faster, but it was still very technical. You had to spend years learning all the tools before you could really use them.

AI feels like the next version of that. It’s removing a lot of the technical friction. Instead of spending all your energy figuring out how to do something, you can spend more time thinking about what you’re trying to communicate. Composition. Ideas. Storytelling.

That’s the exciting part for me. I think AI is empowering creatives to become more like creative directors. I’ve embraced it throughout my workflow. Video editing. Design. Even the music I’ve been making. I’m still making the same things I would’ve made before. I’m just getting there faster, and usually with better results.

Let’s dive into the video you made for us. For anyone who hasn’t watched it yet, can you explain the premise?

The idea was to take some of the biggest — and honestly some of the weirdest — design trends happening right now and apply them to my own brands. So I basically rebranded them using trends like ASCII art, Liquid Glass, Renaissance-inspired design, and Frutiger Aero, then judged each one on how well it actually worked.

Which trend surprised you the most?

Liquid Glass surprised me most. Once you start digging into how it actually works, it’s incredibly technical. From the outside, it looks simple. Once you peel back the layers, though, you realize it’s a really complicated, code-based design system. That one definitely humbled me.

Frutiger Aero was always going to be difficult. I knew that before I even started. That’s actually the one where I used the Envato AI tools because I knew I wasn’t going to spend a week figuring out how to recreate that style by hand.

Putting viral design trends to the test

Talk us through that process. What changed once AI became part of the workflow instead of building everything by hand?

With something like Frutiger Aero, recreating it properly could’ve taken me a week. I really just wanted to understand what it might look like applied to my brand. Being able to generate a concept with the AI image generator almost instantly was incredibly helpful. I could react to it straight away.

I think that’s one of AI’s biggest strengths. It gives you immediate feedback. You can look at an idea, decide whether it’s working, and then choose whether it’s worth investing more time into.

Even if you don’t end up using exactly what AI gives you, it’s a really fast way to explore different creative directions before committing to one.

Across all four redesigns, you kept coming back to the same three questions: looks, usability, and longevity. For people working in the creative industry, give me the power rankings. Which one matters most in real client work?

Probably longevity. That’s an easy one. At the end of the day, you want your brand to be timeless. That’s what’s funny about this project.

None of the trends I explored are really timeless. Even Liquid Glass and Frutiger Aero feel like they’re part of the same cycle, just from different eras. They’re exciting because they’re trends, but eventually they’ll fade, and something else will replace them.

The brands that really stand the test of time — Apple, Nike, those kinds of companies — have identities that are simple enough to adapt to different eras without losing who they are. That’s what I think great branding should aim for.

At the end of the video, you talked about how trends force you to experiment in ways you normally wouldn’t. Now that you’ve finished the project, has it changed how you’ll think about trends going forward?

Definitely. I think trends are supposed to be fun. Once you accept that they’re trends, they’re actually even more enjoyable because there’s less pressure.

I’ve made videos before about timeless design trends — the kinds of ideas I think will still work years from now. This project was almost the opposite. It was about embracing things that are temporary.

Design tends to move in waves. Sometimes everything becomes really decorative. Then it swings back towards minimalism. In between those shifts, there’s so much room to experiment.

I think that’s the exciting part. Play with trends. Push things further than you normally would. Break your own brand guidelines occasionally.

You never know what you’ll discover.

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Watch Grayson’s video – I Became OBSESSED with Design Trends… Here’s What I Learned

You can find Grayson on:

• YouTube: Grayson’s Graphics
• Spotify: GREY
• Newsletter: The Creative Brief
• Website: paintfactory.shop