Dare to be honest about the life behind the work - May Voyce

9.059 - 24.786 Mat Voyce

Yeah, it was unreal. And I had no idea how even some of my closest design friends have struggled with anxiety. And I've had to try medication to see if it helps them and to improve them. It was eye-opening because, again, you don't see that top level on Instagram and socials.

24.806 - 45.37 Mat Voyce

And it is like that Instagram versus reality, but not even in the sense of someone might be doing great work for great clients, but... Yeah, you don't know what goes on behind the scenes and you don't know what the reality of it is. And if people keep posting out like the good stuff and the positivity, then that's great. But you don't necessarily know that someone struggles with something.

45.39 - 57.983 Mat Voyce

And you can open up these conversations and these dialogues with people that you might have known for years, but you just never touched on that subject or that side of life. And it's eye opening and it's reassuring and it's a really good thing. I think it really is.

100.985 - 129.099 Radim Malinic

Let me begin this episode with a question. Are you ready to discover what happens when you dare to create? My guest today is Mark Boyce, a type animator who trained in graphic design, taught himself motion, and built a career most freelancers only dream about. He built it entirely in the hours nobody was watching.

129.86 - 147.685 Radim Malinic

One evening at a time, he gave letters, personalities, emotions, and lives of their own until the brand started finding him. Six years in, his work was instantly recognizable, his personal projects outperformed his client commissions for reach, and he's become one of the most honest voices talking about mental health in the creative industry.

148.326 - 160.822 Radim Malinic

In this conversation, we talk about the long game of sampling everything, knowing which job to turn down, while one public post about his anxiety gave him more real answers than years of therapy ever had.

183.786 - 203.833 Radim Malinic

You're someone who really stands out in their own corner of the internet with what you do, how you do it. I did promise myself that I won't be grinding a certain quote to death on this podcast. It seems it's an episode of 100 and plus. The market is only saturated if you look and sound like everybody else. I don't think you have that problem.

203.813 - 208.861 Radim Malinic

For those who may have not heard of you and know your work and know what I'm talking about, how would you introduce yourself?

208.981 - 230.074 Mat Voyce

What do you do? I'm a type animator who started out as a graphic designer who trained in illustration but has combined all of those experiences to lead into moving type and to give typography and words and letters personalities and characters and to make them feel relatable and human.

259.761 - 278.44 Radim Malinic

Where is the future? Whereas the future I see in the way that you do or the future that has become in what you do has not actually lent itself to combine all of these things together. So in my habit of taking things back, how do we trace back the interest into graphic design, into illustration, into you beginning to do what you do now?

278.68 - 297.527 Mat Voyce

In school, graphic design was my best subject and my best region of learning. And that went through to like art college and then to university and college. Throughout university, I was very middle ground. I didn't really excel in anything apart from just being middle of the crowd. And that kind of followed through to when I left university as well. Nothing really jumped out.

297.627 - 315.664 Mat Voyce

I didn't really focus on anything in particular. I used to describe myself as a jack of all trades in terms of design because I experienced advertising. I love to illustrate. I knew general graphic design layout. And then as time progressed, motion soon became part of that like mass toolkit of mine. And yeah,

315.644 - 338.314 Mat Voyce

As I got into the industry and got myself into design roles within teams and started learning more about the programs, I always felt like I would put my all into those kind of day jobs and to really apply myself, to put myself forward and to try and do the very best each day. But then I'd get home after doing like a full day's worth of work and I just would feel there was more to get.

338.334 - 362.793 Mat Voyce

There was more to have. So I would just sit on the sofa next to my girlfriend, who's my wife now, and just start making something. It started off as just like single letter designs and that then progressed into words and phrases, which I would essentially try and sell online to fund like a side hustle. So trying to use... those day skills, but then make something of it for myself.

363.234 - 379.688 Mat Voyce

And I don't know, I've never really fully known why type was the thing that I chose in those first instances. I think it felt like it was the most organic thing for me to create. And I loved putting the words together and designing the letter forms. And it just felt very natural. And that kind of then...

398.636 - 411.292 Radim Malinic

And the way you portray these experiments and these ways of doing this, the limitation is so vast. but the expression's even bigger because you can do so many things with it. I want to ask you about when you said, I was a middle ground.

411.992 - 433.755 Radim Malinic

And I think what I'm getting from this is that there was a time of patience that you can be the middle ground and you realize there's time to learn and there's time to step it up because being a jack-of-all-trades, some people can say there's a negative, but when you look back on it, that's exactly the toolkit that you've been collecting together because ultimately that's got you where you are now.

433.735 - 449.871 Mat Voyce

because I say like middle ground when I was doing sports in schools and when I was growing up like I would try every sport for a couple of weeks or a month and then move on to something new so like I kept sampling all these different things until I found something that I really really enjoyed making and

506.011 - 523.53 Radim Malinic

lost because you either are aloof, antisocial, don't really want to be part of it, or you are really hard driven. Okay, I need to be as good as possible. You blame university for not teaching you about everything because the job market's different. The freelancing is different. The world out there is the world on steroids.

523.791 - 535.984 Radim Malinic

Basically, you're jumping on a really fast train that's moving faster than ever before. And there is almost no time to dither in a way. You can choose to dither or you can perceive it that there is absolutely no time to dither.

535.964 - 553.54 Radim Malinic

But in your way, it was like when you said I wasn't exactly standing out or like my own space, looking back, you can be like, oh, maybe I should have potentially done something different or maybe I, whereas it all turned out absolutely fine because it's a compounding effect of all of those days and minutes and inspirations and the two week lacrosse.

591.644 - 609.63 Mat Voyce

I remember people that were on my course and who really, really applied themselves throughout the three years. And some have done amazing things and some people have dropped design completely. So I think it was really meant to be. And I almost felt like at times I was playing catch-up when I started to find the stuff that I like making.

610.311 - 631.144 Mat Voyce

I would do it every evening and that felt like the catch-up period. And I don't think even if I'd applied myself to university... It definitely wouldn't have ended up how I am now because when I started to release things, a lot of things were tied around Instagram releasing videos and it wouldn't have aligned if I'd not done motion or had done motion in a different way.

631.765 - 637.494 Mat Voyce

Yeah, it was like a catch up, but I'm glad I enjoyed university how I did because it was great.