Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis Flores
Alexis, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Alexis Flores, born and raised in Houston, Texas to Mexican parents. My graphic design journey began before I even imagined, this was when I was 18 in 2018 when I taught myself how to screen print. At the time I fell in love with the process of screen printing through working a summer job at a printing company my aunt and mom worked at. I was no graphic designer, but I knew I wanted to use this screen printing knowledge to print on clothing items. That same year I launched my brand ‘Vindicare Studios’ with hand drawn designs that were vectorized by someone else for me to be able to print them on blank t-shirts. By the end of high school before graduation I had my first pop-up shop at lo-fi in Westheimer and it was all sold out. After that I wanted to make better designs, but I didn’t want to pay a graphic designer, so I decided to teach myself. I started off with GIMP and later moved on to Photoshop and Illustrator. My dedication for my brand later faded away, but I still enjoyed designing random stuff for friends or just for fun. At some point I was doing graphics for some people for free before I found out I could make money off of this. I made album covers, t-shirt graphics, and a lot more for friends of friends. Throughout the years and specially after the covid pandemic I made more connections and spread my work a lot more. A couple years ago I became a marathon runner, and being around the another new community opened up a lot more opportunities for my work. This year my business took a bigger leap as I launched my own running club in Houston called ‘Strider Department’ which is based off of the image of the Houston slabs and every marketing aspect is managed by me and the cool graphics I get to design. This year I have been blessed to be able to work with Asics on various projects and JD Sports as well and I am very excited to take this to the next level as I am a Marketing student at Texas Southern University and look forward to use my creativity in the business world.
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?
It is never a smooth road when having your own business. There are ups and downs with managing your own business. In graphic design you have to be consistent, and not only stand out from other designers but also have versatility in style of work. Sometimes clients want something simple, and sometimes they want something complex and I have to be able to work on both sides of the creative spectrum. There are months where there isn’t a lot of work, but you have to be patient and still work on personal projects because you never know who is watching online. I have learned that no matter how small your business or instagram account is, people are always watching and looking for creative gems in the city.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in graphic design, I believe I am known for my versatility in art style. I am always open to work with anyone, even if there are looking to get something done I have never done before. I am proud of the connections I have made along the way and im proud of being patient in my craft. What sets me apart from others is my dedication, I am a man of word and enjoy meeting deadlines no matter what crosses my path, and I understand graphic designers can charge a pretty penny, but something else that sets me apart is that im always open to work with any reasonable budget.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
If I could go back I would tell myself to value my work a lot more. Don’t do work for free just because you are just starting. Instead of doing work for free, invest that time in learning more in your craft. Try to learn something new in every single project you start. I don’t even want to imagine how much time I lost working on paid projects that I didn’t learn anything from. Knowledge in your craft one day will be a lot more valuable than money that you’ll spend pretty quickly, it will always pay off to wait and value your work right from the start.
Pricing:
- graphic logos $200-$500
- Graphic tees $250-$400
- Digital flyers $100-$200
- Open to work with any reasonable budget
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vindicarestudios/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-flores-4892611a8/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/striderdepartment/
