Brace yourself... This one is going to bless your eardrums. I had the pleasure of chatting with George Nowack, who is a Motion & Graphics Designer for the 100 Thieves organization. If you know me, you know I love this brand, so it was an absolute treat to have him on to share his story of how he got there, and what his day to day looks like.
On TOP of being a part of this incredible brand, George also works for an Esports Graphic Design company called Paper Crowns, which won Esports Design Agency of the year for 2020!
He's not done yet, this man also runs a personal brand where he uses his platform to educate people on the principles of Design to aspiring artists.
Lastly, he is a Co-Owner of a streetwear brand called Dang, which has its own Record label.
Hang on tight, you're going to enjoy this one!
George's Socials:
Twitter → https://twitter.com/nowackdesign
Website → http://nowack.design
YouTube → http://youtube.com/c/nowackdesign
Discord → http://discord.gg/26vFcJ4
Brand Assets → http://bit.ly/nowack-brand
100 Thieves:
Website → https://100thieves.com/
YouTube→ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnrX2_FoKieobtw19PiphDw
Twitter → https://twitter.com/100Thieves
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/100thieves/
Paper Crowns:
Twitter →https://twitter.com/papercrowns
Instagram →https://www.instagram.com/papercrowns/
Website → https://papercrowns.com/
Brace yourself... This one is going to bless your eardrums. I had the pleasure of chatting with George Nowack, who is a Motion & Graphics Designer for the 100 Thieves organization. If you know me, you know I love this brand, so it was an absolute treat to have him on to share his story of how he got there, and what his day to day looks like.
On TOP of being a part of this incredible brand, George also works for an Esports Graphic Design company called Paper Crowns, which won Esports Design Agency of the year for 2020!
He's not done yet, this man also runs a personal brand where he uses his platform to educate people on the principles of Design to aspiring artists.
Lastly, he is a Co-Owner of a streetwear brand called Dang, which has its own Record label.
Hang on tight, you're going to enjoy this one!
George's Socials:
Twitter → https://twitter.com/nowackdesign
Website → http://nowack.design
YouTube → http://youtube.com/c/nowackdesign
Discord → http://discord.gg/26vFcJ4
Brand Assets → http://bit.ly/nowack-brand
100 Thieves:
Website → https://100thieves.com/
YouTube→ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnrX2_FoKieobtw19PiphDw
Twitter → https://twitter.com/100Thieves
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/100thieves/
Paper Crowns:
Twitter →https://twitter.com/papercrowns
Instagram →https://www.instagram.com/papercrowns/
Website → https://papercrowns.com/
Good morning, and welcome to the Boonafide Experience Podcast. I am your host, Kyle, as many of you know me as buena. And if you follow me on social media, it's at Boonafide Gaming. Feels good to be back, took about two weeks off to get a little rest and relaxation. But I'm back better than ever, and have some absolute bangers lined up for you guys for the next couple weeks. This is going to be Episode Number 38 of the podcast. But before we get into this, I'd like to share a little love and appreciation to you all who've listened to the show and supported up to this point. We had 22 episodes that were dropped listeners in five countries. And we dropped over 1100 minutes of content. This is all since March of this year really since the pandemic hit. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to do this and for the support that you provided up to this point. And I'm so happy that this podcast does provide value for the people that are listening. But that being said, I'd like to introduce to you Mr. George noack. Many of you probably know him from his work with the prestigious organization 100 thieves. But don't let that just be the main thing that you see there is a lot of depth to this man. He works for another design agency as his own personal brand, and is the founder of two additional companies. I'm gonna let him tell you a little bit more about that in this episode. So let's go ahead and hop right in. Good afternoon, George. How are you?
George Nowack:I'm doing great. How are you?
Kyle Warren:Doing fantastic. It's, you know, here in Texas or Hi, today is 52 degrees. So we're all acting like it's the end of the world here. So yeah.
George Nowack:Yeah. Nice and Sacramento. After that we had the fires going on for a while and in Northern California. And that was really heating everything up. You know, it was pretty much over 100 every day, which I mean, if you're from Texas, that's I don't know if that's really a big deal. But it was for us. So it's calming down a little bit, right?
Kyle Warren:It is man. I mean, I grew up so I live in Austin, but I grew up in grew up in Houston. And so I'm no stranger to you know, that type of that type of weather. That's horrendous. I mean, it just seemed like y'all were not. It seemed like the moment it got better. It got infinitely worse, you know?
George Nowack:Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was it was pretty intense. It was like, for a while you'd go outside, and it smelled kind of like smoky. But kind of like, like barbecue. Like, it's like, oh, this is super unhealthy. But it doesn't like smell bad. And then I think a week or two passed by and things just started smelling like burnt plastic and rubber and like, going outside was just not it was not a tree. I'll tell you.
Kyle Warren:I'll tell you there was the and I thought it was photoshopped. And for for a minute, but that picture of the sky in California or is either in California or Oregon versus the sky? And like I think it was either how runner Blade Runner. Like, oh, yeah, that was such a. I mean, I for I mean, just from an art, like from an art perspective, like it was insane how it matched that so identically. But like, obviously was tragic. But I mean, like, it was just incredible to see
George Nowack:Oh, yeah. I mean, I think that photo was from San something like that. Francisco, which is a little bit further down from where I'm from. But what's crazy to me is, if you've ever been to San Francisco, this guy is always just nice blue because it's by the ocean. Like there's, there's like a bluish haze. If you see photographs of San Francisco, it always has like a bluish kind of tint to it. Because it's just so close to the ocean. So that's like, seeing that photo is like completely, completely new world for that place.
Kyle Warren:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I went once a long time ago. And I remember we didn't get it. We got a few days that what you were talking about, like that blue, kind of that blue haze. It was pretty rainy when we went there. But it was still a it was still a very fascinating town. You know, like, it's just there's a lot of, I mean, even even when it was dug, sometimes kind of dull and dreary, like you just walk five minutes the opposite way. And then you could see the ocean then you could see. I mean, you know, we went to Alcatraz and we did the whole touristy kind of thing there. But yeah, yeah, dude. Yeah, man now, but I remember the one thing I do you remember San Francisco is that when we went to go at the end of the day, we went to go buy. We just got done walking the entire day. We went to go buy a 12 pack. It was $36 for a 12 pack of beer in San Francisco. Oh, yeah. Coming from Texas.
George Nowack:Everything's expensive. It's just how it is, right?
Kyle Warren:Yeah, dude. Well, cool, man. Well, I'm glad glad things are glad things have settled down. And thank you again for coming on. So why don't you tell everyone a little bit about who you are and what you do today.
George Nowack:Sure, so my name is George. And I would just sum it up, I think the main points about me would be currently I'm working with 100 Thieves I've been working there for. And this might sound kind of unbelievable, but it's been almost half a year now. So I'm coming up on six months, I'm also working at Paper Crowns. If any of you are in the esports, we just recently won an Esports award for creative Team of the Year for 2022. We're very excited about paper crowns is only been around since 2018. And I joined I think, in February of this year, so it's been really crazy ride. Other than that, I have my personal brand, I do a lot of teaching. So I love teaching the psychology of design, specifically to creatives, making sure people know how to communicate the work, understand their work, and hopefully get paid really well for doing that. So those are the main points. Otherwise, I co found a company called Dang, which is a streetwear brand. And we haven't done too much lately, but we've been working a lot with specifically street culture. And we've been doing a lot with something that we're calling nightwalker Records, which is a record label for our brand. We're working with a lot of really great people, a lot of dancers, so dang and nightwalker Records is more centered towards and this is something that people probably don't know as much about me, compared to paper crowns and hundred thieves. But nightwalkers and Dang, is more focused towards street culture, and specifically dancers, street dancers. So break dancers, Crump, if you're into that type of stuff, that's kind of our audience. I do that as well. Wow, dude, I actually didn't know that about you. And you know, because we see obviously, hundred thieves is got a pretty big presence on the internet. And, you know, paper crowns. I stumbled upon that after I stumbled upon you as well. But I think I think it's a pretty fascinating thing that you can have, you're doing so many things, but yet they all have, they all connect to each other in some kind of, you know, strange way, like, you know, you have the street where you're with 100 thieves, like, you know, you're doing your design agency with paper crowns, like, it seems like, you don't have anything, any shortage of things to do. But it sounds like they all kind of work in unison with each other. Yeah, that's that's kind of what I love about the creative culture is, and this is what I learned working with dancers, since I'm the only one on the team that doesn't know how to dance myself. They'll make fun of me for it. But it's what we've kind of found is it doesn't really matter what type of passion you're into, as long as you have that passion, it's really easy to resonate with other creatives. So I'll be able to relate a lot to designers, painters, you know, hip hop artists, or, or DJs, and stuff like that, just through that shared passion of being creative. Right? Yeah. And I think I think it's kind of hard to explain what that what that means or what that is to someone who doesn't enjoy the creative side, you know, who doesn't enjoy that? Like, there's, it's like, it's like an unspoken like, understanding, you know, what I mean? No matter what you're doing, whether it's creating movies, or creating, you know, designs, or what is creating, you know, music, it's all, there's this kind of like, the shared energy that I think is a lot allows people to really kind of connect with one another in a way that not many other people can. Yeah, yeah, I agree. It's, it's really awesome. At least if you are into that kind of creative community, the creative side of things. And even so, like, it doesn't have to be necessarily creative at all. I always say that. If people have the right passion, they have the right energy towards things. I think that doctors I consider doctors, creatives, I consider engineers, creatives, you know, people in marketing are creatives. If you just have that energy, I would even go as far as to call those people artists, if they really feel that passionate about what they do. Right.
Kyle Warren:Exactly. Exactly. You know, and so want to highlight this for for everyone here is like I mean, this This podcast is designed to kind of help people in that spot where they either don't have the support that they that they need to to actually take a take that next like leap of faith into their creative journey, whether that's through gaming, whether it's through design, whether it's through whatever it is that they're doing. You know, so kind of tell people I want to I want to highlight like, how old are you?
George Nowack:I'm 22. I just turned 22, nine days ago. Yeah. Happy, Happy late birthday, man. Thank you so much. Appreciate that.
Kyle Warren:Yeah, I just I think that's part of what fascinated me about seeing you not only are you with a brand that I enjoy, but you know, the fact that you've, you've already accomplished so much and are continuing to do so much at you know, barely 22 you know, and that's just to me, honestly, like that's, that's impressive. So,yeah, I just wanted to highlight that for the audience now.
George Nowack:Thank you. I mean, I feel the same way towards a lot of people in our community. I actually just had someone on my stream recently Aria, and he's a creative who got hired to his first eSports organization, I think was, he said was la gladiators. And that was when he was 16.
Kyle Warren:Woww.
George Nowack:So there, it seems like you know, that's what I love about design and our industry specifically is it really doesn't matter what age you are, as long as you have that knowledge, you know, you could be 15 1620 3040 It doesn't really matter. I mean, shoot, if anyone watched the phase five top 20 say, who's the guy that got it? I think he's like six rowdy? Yeah, yeah, rowdy. Yeah. Yeah, that's just how it is. You just have that passion, that talent and it'll it'll pay off. You know..
Kyle Warren:When he when he first kind of came to the scene. For those of you don't know, like, He's, uh, he kind of broke into the scene with playing a lot of Call of Duty Warzone. And just being like, this is naturally gifted, incredible player and the whole internet thought it was a fake, you know,
George Nowack:Yeah, it's amazing. It's It's seriously so but they literally had cameras going on at the same time with his hands in the screen. And the kid was just absolutely disgusting at the game. His dad runs a Twitter account. I mean, that's just cool. watching that. Yeah.
Kyle Warren:Yeah, absolutely, man. So wanna want to kind of take a few steps back, you know, before all this happened, like what you're doing now? Like, you know, growing up like, What got you? I guess what, what kind of first sparked your interest in the design world of like, knowing that you wanted to be a creative?
George Nowack:Oh, yeah, that goes quite a bit far back. So I still have my my copy of Photoshop CS five. I remember asking for it for Christmas when I was I think 11 or 12. So this was in middle school, I was just starting Middle School, sixth grade. And I guess kind of what sparked it was, I would go around, or when I when I was in the car, like when my parents were driving me around in places, I'd always be fascinated. And this might be kind of weird, but I would see billboards. And because I was so young, I was like, how do they make those things? Like how do they have these billboards? Like these people are in like surreal kind of locations, like photography, or like, how do they piece those things together. And that's when I started looking into Photoshop. And it before that it was I think it was called GIMP was the it was like the free version of Photoshop. So I started off with that. And basically, I just kind of made whatever I felt like making, I watched a lot of videos, like tutorials and stuff. And moving into high school is kind of when I found out that it could be more of a career. And I had a graphic design class, I had a media class in high school that showed me like, this is how you can make it a profession and the things you can do with it. From that point in high school is kind of when I started getting into video games, I actually wasn't allowed to play video games as a kid that were Wow. You know, so that's why seeing like rowdy, you know, yeah, is a super cool for me, because I wasn't able to do that I started playing video games in my freshman year of high school. And because the two things of design and gaming kind of just happened near the same timeframe, they ended up just kind of blending together. As I went through learning about the gaming community and eSports. I also went through learning about design as a profession into going into college and stuff like that. And that's kind of went through college. That's where I'm at right now. You know, that's a sick man. Yeah. Where did you Where did you go to college, Sacramento State University. So it was a, that's where I'm from Sacramento. And what I really enjoyed about it was it's very close by and the program the design program is phenomenal. I mean, even going through it myself, like I heard great things about it before getting into it, it's a program that you have to apply to. So you spend two years building up your your kind of like application, you apply and then they pick 40 people for the year. It's two classes of 20. So if you're lucky enough to be in those 40 people, you get to go through a really great two year program that just teaches you basically everything you need to know about design.
Kyle Warren:That's incredible, man. That's incredible. And you know what I wanna I want to highlight something or I want to ask you a question. Like, you know, I I remember seeing a bit of your story where it was like, you know, you would you were like a heist like you were like a fast food restaurant worker or like, you basically quit and became like where you're at today. Like, kind of tell me a little bit about that.
George Nowack:Yeah, so I work. My first job was at JC Penney, so it wasn't fast food. It wasn't okay. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of similar story. But that was like, JC Penney, one of my greatest fears is like getting stuck in a job like that. But because I was in high school, it was just something that you had to do to make enough money to like, get around and you know, whatever. So yeah, I started working there. I had. In knowing thatI wasn't planning to stay in a minimum wage job, I never really left, I think I worked there for three or four years. Just knowing that, like, I'm just gonna do what I have to do, there's no point in me trying to find another minimum wage job somewhere else, you know, like, I could be like a pretty dangerous trap, you keep getting stuck applying for jobs that are around the same level of opportunity, right? So I just bided my time, got through it on the side, I was freelancing, going through college, stuff like that, and eventually got to the point where I was making enough doing design to where I was able to make that leap. And I decided, you know, I'm going to stop working here, I think the time is, right, I've prepared enough, I'm going to quit working at this minimum wage job and just do freelance. And that's pretty much what I did while I was going through the design program, just to make just enough money to survive, basically, since the program itself was so demanding, and I'd spend maybe 60 to 80 hours a week just doing like, work for assignments and stuff like that, right? Not a lot of time, you know, yeah, I got to ask, like, as a, you know, while you were working that job at JC Penney, like what, like, I guess a good question for someone like me is like, how did designers make money? Like on the side, like when you're when you're doing that, like what, like, what isn't just like a smorgasbord of different products? Or like, you know, like, what does that look like? Well, this is how it worked for me. And man, so this was, it wasn't too far away. I don't know how long ago was exactly. But I was basically just freelancing in eSports. And I would take on projects, just one at a time, I would do like animation specifically. So that's kind of how I started. It's a little bit unusual. But I obviously am a graphic designer, but most of my clients were through motion design and animation. Just because I started in eSports. Technically, editing montage is in 2012. Ah, and what ended up happening is I was learning graphic design in school I was doing in eSports, I was doing montage editing, and then to blended together. And that's how I found out about motion design, I found out there was a greater demand for it. So I was able to get paid slightly more and buy more I'm like talking like $50 for an animation, I would spend a week on you know, yeah, yeah. So I would just start with that, normally, what would happen is I would create an animation, and then that person, if they're super happy with it, they would show it to their friends, one of those people would hit me up. So it kind of just created this, this momentum. And it It definitely taught me about how powerful the this small community can be when it comes to making connections with people and essentially how to get consistent freelance work is to make sure that your clients are happy with what you give them, right? Um, it kind of just snowballed into that to the point where I'm able to charge much, much more, if I do ever feel like taking on freelance projects, right? When it's about the experience, you know, I mean, and you, you seem pretty keen on that. And it's if you if you put out quality work, like it's as simple as that if you put out quality work, if you take your time, people are gonna appreciate that. You know,
Kyle Warren:like, I know, there's a greater demand for motion, because every project that I throw at my designer for my channel, like like the the animate anything animated anything, motion is like double to triple the price of something, what he would normally charge, you know,it takes that much time out of his day to sit down and actually do that.
George Nowack:Yeah, and I was very fortunate at the time, because motion design is, I would say the newest development in eSports. As far as like its own category, or its own like sub industry, because there was always a demand for graphic design, editing. And motion design was something when I had started doing it, I think back in 2015, there wasn't a lot of people doing it. And there was a lot of people that wanted it. As far as like creators. They wanted intros and stuff for their videos. And it was a great opportunity for me because that's how I got into my first big organization, which was Obey. I got in as a motion designer. And it was essentially because I saw an opportunity. I thought to myself, hey, I really love doing this. There's not a lot of people doing this. And it seems like people enjoy it enough to where I could probably just do motion design and make a career out of it if I wanted to. Right? Yeah. Yeah, I think I think that's impressive. I gotta ask, when when you're editing montages back in 2012. Like, what games were you mainly making montages for? And what like, were they for pro players? Was it for amateur players kind of just curious to know like, what those were? Yeah, so it was all for fun. I think anyone back in the day 2012 2013. If you were an Esports, you probably weren't doing it for the money. Yeah, I started doing my first game that I was like allowed to play as a kid was black ops two. So I would play that with my friends in high school and stuff just for fun. And I would eventually end up editing those videos, you can still find my old channel, if you look up kmG edits, it'll pop up. And you can see some of my videos, I did tutorials as well, on how to edit montage is and I had built a decent following. Which is another point in my life when I had to make that switch from, okay, I'm not going to be an editor anymore, I'm going to switch to graphic and motion design is very scary, another kind of leap that I had to make, because I had already built a following. I think a lot of people in eSports can probably relate to this. Or creatives, especially where you've been doing something for so long, like you've been designing for so long, and then you suddenly discover that you have a passion for something else. Yeah. And it's like you already have those followers, you've already built up your name under that category. And it's like, Is it even possible for me to make a switch into something else. And it was, it was very scary.
Kyle Warren:I can imagine I'm kind of at that I'm at that literally at that exact point that you're talking about with like, I've done twitch streaming for two years. And now I'm realizing that I really enjoy, you know, the editing process of making, you know, vlogs and gaming gaming clips and like stuff like that. So it's just like, it's, it's such a weird thing to like, leave, you know, in nowadays, I don't have to leave it, but it's just like, there's a huge area of understand that I have no clue. I don't evenknow. So I mean, so you're so you're in obey. You know, how long did you work there for? Oh, man. So this is I like staying committed to things. So when I said I was working at JC Penney for three to four years, I was in a bay for I think three years as well. And I basically, unless I have a reason or like a greater opportunity somewhere else, I'm I don't really like leaving organizations or teams or there's like, you know, team hoppers in the community. They just like being a part of everything, which is great. But I just love building that relationship that obey. So it was it was about three or four years, I think something like that. That's awesome. And and was there any? So was it from is it was a straight from obey to 100 thieves? Or was it? Was there something in between?
George Nowack:Yeah, that's basically what it was. So when I got hit up by sesso for 100 Thieves, and that was kind of my moment to say like, all right, I've, I've had a great time at obey, I'm ready to move on and experience new opportunities and stuff like that. So it was just a straight jump. Yeah, so I mean, I gotta like, This isn't like a knock on the door. But like, what's what has been kind of the coolest thing since joining 100 Thieves that was different from Obey? Like, is there any? Is there anything culturally that was different? Or is it kind of the same kind of what's been the difference between the two? Right? Well, the main difference, especially for creatives is the difference between pays specifically. So that's the immediate change as you go from obey was just commission based and 100 Thieves is obviously just a salary position. And the things that come with that is 100, Thieves, obviously, it takes more of your time, and you have to be more dedicated towards that position that role, it can't just be making work whenever you feel like it. There's always stuff to do. The organizational system. Inside hundred thieves is much more managed, you know, there's a team of people that just focus on managing how things are organized. So when it comes to getting tasks done, there's very specific deadlines. And the whole position feels a lot more put together. So it's such a, it's making this there, I've always found that there's kind of a divide in eSports currently, where there's people who are doing it for fun, which is fine. It's they're just not looking to have like a career in it. And then there's people who do it for business. So that's like, the big organizations like, you know, hundred thieves Dignitas, where they they pay their people full time salaries to get NVR. Yeah, yeah. And like, grow their brand, right. Yeah. So that was the main jump was that switch from a bunch of people that are just having a good time, just really loving what they do. And switching over to more professional side, like the this is the industry, you know, this is where we're business and we're brand we're trying to make the we're trying to make our brand as good as it can be. Right?
Kyle Warren:Well, I think that's what's so appealing to it is that, like, there's a reason why people will spend between$45 and $55 on something that literally just has the logo on it, you know, just one thing on it. I mean, it's because of that, you know, the brand, building the culture, the just the the structure of it, it's, it's like where it's like you have the best minds and the creative and the best minds in business like colliding together. You know what I mean? And that's why I think it's just so impactful. You know, and you look at You know, NadeShot like his history and like there's there's a there's a strong tie to eSports community, I think, as from a viewer and from like a fan, you know, just as a fan and a viewer and a creative as this, like I did. eSports is still the wild wild west, you know, there's just, you mentioned, like team hoppers like, you know, people not paying fair salaries, or like people holding withholding money or like, you know, team switching and like, contracts. Like, there's just so many things that we still have to learn. I think y'all have been the first that have, at least not I wouldn't say mastered it, but like, you guys are probably the farthest ahead out of anyone I've seen. You know,
George Nowack:I appreciate that. Yeah, this is, by far, I'm very, very grateful for the opportunities that have been given. And I could not imagine myself working anywhere else for those those exact reasons, you know, 100 Thieves is a family. Everyone is very, very motivated, dedicated, everyone is deserving of being paid salaries. So it's, it's, you know, everybody that works there deserves that spot. And what's especially nice is that we're all really in the same boat of trying to help each other build the brand, you know, yeah, one of the cool things about hundred thieves is taking days off, you technically, you can take days off whenever you feel like, but everybody is so motivated to build the brand that it's not likely to happen anyways, you know, just because everyone's passion for really making this thing as good as it can be.
Kyle Warren:That's incredible, man, you know, so I mean, you know, that you, like I saw that we talked about a little bit earlier, but it's like, you know, your graphics emotions designer. So, in 100, thieves, like, what do what is the typical project for you look like? What's your role in some of these pieces of content? Right, so generally, the way our tasks work is we'll have things split up into two categories, we'll have the long term in the short term projects.
George Nowack:So generally, we'll know if there's like a big project coming up. So obviously, like the apparel drop, like we knew about that way in advance la thieves, we knew way in advance. And then there's those projects where it's like, Hey, we need this in an hour or, you know, by the end of the day, or Hey, can you get this in 15 minutes, you know, so, our will have a calendar with all of our tasks lined up. And we'll know when those long term ones, when the deadlines are, they're normally divided into like sub deadlines like this, this and this, you know, and at the same time, just throughout the day, throughout a typical workday, we'll just get tasked kind of just thrown in that calendar, like, Okay, this is end of the day, if you can get this tomorrow, stuff like that, right.
Kyle Warren:Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess, like, talk me through, like, when it when a when something like a merch drop happens, you know, like, who's first, you know, like, what is the process of like, creating this, this drop between, you know, the design of the apparel, the the content that's pushed out, you know, like, what is kind of that? I mean, that, to me is fascinating. So it's kind of a selfish question, but I think it'd be really valuable for a lot of other people to know.
George Nowack:Right. So maybe, maybe apparel was not the the best example for long term projects, because normally happens is, it's hidden from a lot of people, they try to hide it as much as possible. So realistically, the only reason why myself or cessa would know about anything regarding our apparel is because we need to make a graphic for it, like it's a requirement for the marketing, but like, yeah, if there's any opportunity to where it can be hidden from everyone else in the organization until, like, you know, a couple days before launch, that's generally what they'll do. Same with Li thieves. Most people didn't even know that it was being announced until like that same week, you know, so they pretty much keep it closed off until they need that person in the project. God. So when it comes to the, the, I guess, tasks that happened before the design process, I'm actually like, not filming, you know, this top secret, and then all of those things happen. And then they say, all right, George, we need a graphic for this right. Now, but we need this from you right.
Kyle Warren:Now, that's I mean, and I think that, that makes sense. Because I think with, you know, there there is an art to that there is a there is like a sense of, I don't know, organization that comes with that. Because like the less people and like the less kind of hands you have in the cookie jar in the beginning, you know, they have a vision, like they have the people working on that. And it's just kind of like a conveyor belt, you know, and it works. It seems like that works really well. And I don't know, it seemed like that could like confuse like, even someone like you like knowing about it, like prior to the beginning and knowing what you want to do. And then by the time it's done, then it's something completely different than what you even thought it was.
George Nowack:Yeah, you know, yeah. And they, they make sure those types of projects they take so much attention to detail, they take really good care of how they market it. So normally those projects even though if there's like only, let's say five or 10 graphics, That I need to make for it, those five or 10 graphics will stretch on because they're, they're very close to detail about how can we change this word? Can we move this over here? You know, stuff like that they want it to be exactly as they envisioned it since they spent so much time beforehand, making it right. You know,
Kyle Warren:Rightfully so. You know? I mean, because all the all the jobs have been incredible. You know, there's not been one that has not sold out completely, you know?
George Nowack:Yeah, my closet is hundred thieves stuff now. So, yeah, it's definitely been nice. That's, that's a good benefit of working with the team. Definitely.
Kyle Warren:I could imagine I can imagine I Lowkey get a little jealous every time someone joins hundred thieves than they post the picture of all the drops that they get. I'm just like, what an opportunity that is, man.
George Nowack:Yeah, just piles up.
Kyle Warren:That's cool, man. So, you know, I like I've watched a few of Seso's, you know, videos is like is a live stream to some of his YouTube videos. So when it comes to yalls relationship as designers like, who does what, like, what's the main difference between what you do and what he does?
George Nowack:Right. So Seso is technically, I don't think he's been promoted to the official role yet, but he's now the senior designer, in a sense. So he's the one managing the projects that I work on, I've saved the main difference beyond that is since I also do motion design, I'm working closely with the content team. So a lot of the motion graphics on YouTube that you see now are done by me, which takes a lot of stress off of Logan's back or like any of the the producers, you know, who have to actually spend the time shooting and clipping the video together. Now, they don't have to worry about making those, those intro sequences and stuff like that. So that's probably the main difference otherwise, so he's working on a lot of the big projects. So, like big announcements, and I would just say like longer term projects, he's usually on those more, I'll take one every once in a while, if, depending on how busy he is, but otherwise, I'm working more on eSports getting those announcements out for like matches and stuff like that. And I would say probably more of the shorter term projects.
Kyle Warren:Gotcha. Gotcha. I mean, well, it's like the way y'all are set up, there's so many different legs to mean. And I think that's one of the coolest things that you have, like some of the top creators in the world, you know, like courage, Val, a, you know, a broken enade. And, but then you have like, to me, it's like then then that fuels all the esports things. And I think that's such a very well balanced, like a very well balanced, like, I don't even know what the right word is. But it's very well balanced. Between the two, you know, so do you mainly, what is it all eSports that you work on? Is it just League of Legends? Like what is it that you kind of mainly do?
George Nowack:Um, yeah, so it couldn't really stretch into anything. So I would say, for the most part, it's going to be eSports. And that would be everything. As far as when we had CSGO, Fortnite, League of legends, Valorant. And... I don't think I'm missing anything else. But that's most part what I'm going to be working on most of the things that are on the 100, Thieves live Twitter, but every once in a while, if there's a lot of stuff going on, like I remember when we did the Mischeif collaboration, that's like some, I think, my first big project that I was able to get my hands on, you know, just because there was also other long term announcements that had to be done, that Seso was handling at the same time.
Kyle Warren:Got it Got it. Want to want to switch gears, man, because I mean, that's, that's obviously, this is the like, your I would say, this is probably one of your main positions. But you mentioned I want to talk a little about Paper Crowns. You know, so kind of what, what started that, you know, like, what, what started, like what motivated you to start Paper Crowns? Kind of? How did that all work?
George Nowack:Yeah, so paper crowns was a, a blessing when it happened. Again, I always say that I'm very grateful for these opportunities that I've been given. And they all happened really fast. I mean, considering I've been in eSports, since 2012. And I started working for both these organizations in 2020. The whole time, I've just been waiting for that big opportunity. And then in the same year, two of them showed up to my front door, right. So as soon as I finished college Am I finished the design program that I was in, my main focus was okay, I've just freed up 60 to 80 hours a week of my time, I just don't have to spend on doing assignments and stuff. So I'm going to go all in on my personal brand and eSports and I'm just going to focus purely on this industry and see what I can do in a year. And it pretty much immediately after the program and and when I maybe even during the program, but towards the end of it, I got offered the position at paper crowns. Essentially through my friend john, who is currently working at Dignitas. He kind of introduced me to everyone. I knew a few people who were in the team already like Lucas who are presenting at a university with tomorrow. I had already known him in advance, I got to meet Skyler and everyone else. And we just hit it off. I mean, the whole process went by really quickly, I just kind of showed them what I was about the things that I was interested in. This is the work I've done in my universities since before that I didn't have a lot of professional design experience, it was mostly just what I've done in eSports. And then, you know, my university assignments and stuff like that. And they we just hit it off really well, I felt like a really great connection with everyone in the team pretty much immediately. And from that point, I was just initially doing just motion graphics, they found out I could do more about branding. So I started working on like logo design, and typographic Lee brand books, layout, stuff like that. And at this point, what I really love doing with them is more of the art direction. So I do correction for for projects. I'll still do animations once in a while, but for the most part, I'm kind of just working on anything. Cool. That is, you know, brought table right now. That's cool, man. That's cool. And so you've been there for two years. And so is that mainly just so what's the what is the, I guess?
Kyle Warren:What's the the main product that you'll offer? Y
George Nowack:ou know, when it comes to paper crowns? Right, I would say we work on everything. Technically, we've we've done web design, UI, photography, videography, really anything creative, that you could think of, but if I had to specify on something, in particular would probably be web. So we've done a lot of web development, web design for most of what you see in eSports today. And I have to give a shout out to Ali, who's one of the hardest workers I've ever met. He's constantly he's our main web developer, we have a couple more, but he's the guy who's working on like, when we worked with CDL, and we did the the brackets, Overwatch all that stuff, has a main guy working on on those brackets, and it was really incredible seeing the hours he put into those. But I think that because there's not a lot of web developers and web designers in eSports. In general, that's kind of where we thrive in, because we just have experience in it already. And in our team is ready to go on that on that front, you know,
Kyle Warren:Yeah, yeah. And that's what I was thinking of when you mentioned that because you there's been a, you mentioned this a couple times, like, you know, it's like, since we were related to eSports. This gave us the competitive advantage. Like when it comes to like building a website. What's the difference between like, someone who builds like a, like web designer for a normal website, I guess a normal website would be like, you know, ecommerce or something like that, versus like an Esports. website? Like what is, you know, in layman's terms, your what's kind of the primary difference between the two? Or why is, you know, what makes it different? What, what more do you have to do that's different than a normal website,
George Nowack:I would actually say it might even be less in use, because websites are so underdeveloped in this industry. You know, there's not like, a lot of people when they think of like websites for their brand, or their organization, there's not really a lot to put on it, you know, like, like people, people scores, they just don't know what to do. Like, I don't know what to put on my website. I don't even know if we should one. So I would say that it's a lot of it is mostly just functional. So like when we worked on the bracket, I'm gonna say like, the bracket was a prior biggest project that we worked on, that had a functional purpose, they needed a bracket for their competition. So we were like, Hey, we know how to do that. You know, we'll figure it out for you guys. Otherwise, we'd still do a lot of e commerce, a lot of just like about me websites and things like that. It's really just, I would say that there isn't a huge difference. Because a lot of people, they're just trying to create a website that fits what they need, right? Most of the time, they at least know what that is, like, I know what I want to sell or what I want to showcase, but I don't know how to do it. And we comment like, hey, we'll figure it out for you and figure out how to showcase whatever it is you want. Right?
Kyle Warren:Cool. na, that no thanks for kind of summing that up, because it's, uh, I remember when I bought, like, all the tools to build my website, I just looked at it. I'm like, What do I even put there? You know,
George Nowack:that's the same thing. It's like, where do you start? You know, you can pile up like, Oh, I want to sell this. I want to show this off. And then you actually get to the website builder or whatever you're using. It's like, what do I do first? Yeah. What the first thing I'm going to put on this page, right?
Kyle Warren:Yeah. Because it because you know, I like I like, I'm not gonna lie, you know, with me, I'm a sucker for good marketing. And so like, I see, you know, like, I see these website companies and like, it's like, it's so easy to do it and all these tools and yet I'm like, okay, but that doesn't help me figure out like what I need to put there. You know, this is...
George Nowack:actually, that's the main issue. So the the fact that we're able to clear that up for people that has a lot of value, and that's, that's why web design and user experience design, it's like, it pays a lot for that reason is your your only goal is to solve those people's problems. Yeah, right.
Kyle Warren:Yeah, I mean, it's why most businesses, at least I like are created are says they should be created. Because, you know, like, I'm not just gonna go send, and someone $5,000 because I think they're nice. Like, if they're gonna solve a problem for me, then it's worth every penny, you know what I mean?
George Nowack:Yeah.
Kyle Warren:So wanna want to hop yours? Again, can you get a bunch of different legs, I want to make sure we cover everything here is, you know, your personal brand. I actually got to catch one of your streams. And I know a little bit about what you do. You know, watched, some of it last night in about a month or two ago, you know, so what is, you know, what is your personal brand centered around what I guess what problem are you trying to solve through your personal brand?
George Nowack:Right. So, my personal brand is centered around education and teaching, when I'm thinking about my long term goals, and it's always been this way, but I've always loved teaching. And my goal, very long term, like when I retire is to be a teacher. And just something that I kind of made a connection with on that front was that there's a lot of tutorials, there's a lot of stuff on YouTube that you can find for specifics on, here's how you make this effect in Illustrator or how you this. But I was really interested in showcasing the psychology of design to people and more about the thinking process, the mentality, how you communicate, and things like that, which I've noticed have helped me, especially in selling my work. I mean, I would imagine I only got hired 200 thieves, because the way I communicate myself and my work, just because there's so many talented people in eSports, who are maybe just younger or less experienced, and don't know how to sell their work the way they showed which it's incredible work. I mean, I think you'll agree with me, most of the creatives in eSports are far beyond other industries when it comes to raw talent, right? And I just figured, like, hey, I want to be a teacher in the long run. So maybe I can just start here in eSports. Because I think a lot of people could benefit from understanding how to sell their work and understand why they do things a certain way, and analyze their projects and make them better stuff like that. So I just started there streaming. And teaching people like going through critiques, showing them basically, everything that I was taught in design school, that's one of my goals is Hey, design school costs a lot. And a lot of people can't afford it. And that shouldn't be something that that dampers, like, yeah, DEP is their career path. Right? So I'm just going to make it my job to teach people everything that I learned in school, and they can take whatever they want from it and just do their own thing, right. I think it's fantastic, man. You know, do you also do do you Sorry, you do that on twitch? Right. So do you also upload anything to YouTube? Is there another avenue there? Yeah, I've been uploading very, very slowly to youtube so that I'm still kind of overcoming this hurdle, where streaming is super easy for me cuz I can just, you know, chill out with a couple people in chat and it's just very chill vibes. Right? And when I get recording on YouTube, and I have to, like come up with a script, you know, I don't like doing things live because I'm I ramble very easily. So normally, I spend way more time trying to perfect YouTube videos, and I probably should. And to answer your question briefly. Yes, I do have a YouTube but I'm still trying to upload to it. I have 15 video ideas. And I've only recorded two of them. So
Kyle Warren:Oh, it takes a long time, man. I mean, because it's like what you said it's live his life is so much easier because it's live and you just kind of roll with the punches as they happen. And you you know, you your creativity just kind of happens like that. It just goes wherever it needs to go. But with YouTube is just, it's sitting out in planning. You know, like it's how long do you want the video to be? What type of thumbnail Should I put here? Like, what's the main goal of this? What is like, it's a whole lot of extra work that a lot of people don't realize, exactly. There's a lot more room for for doubt, like self doubt.
George Nowack:Like, well, I should change this maybe I should rerecord this part. I don't like how I said this. I think I should talk about something else, you know, and those things pile up. So instead of a, you know, this video is gonna take me a day now it's like, Alright, I'm two weeks in. I still don't know. I still don't like how this looks. You know? It's a struggle, it really is
Kyle Warren:Yeah, man, I'm going through the same thing because like with me, I obviously have the podcast, which is its own thing. But then I'm like, okay, as far as a personal brand, like what I want this to be? And, you know, like, I've been really hitting it hard with cod lately with with cold war and I've been doing a lot of you know, with quarantine, I've been buying a lot of things. I'm like, Cool, let's do some unboxings you know, and like, you know, it's so it's, I'm also I have a story that I share about my drug addiction pass. And so there's a whole bunch of different things to do. But I like with just very similar to you, the idealist just comes piling and piling and pie like,
George Nowack:Yeah, I get it. And you're just like, Hey, man, these ideas are great, but I just, I need to record one of these eventually, right?[laughter]
Kyle Warren:[laughter] And with me, someone missing this the other day is like, you know, it's hard to see it because a lot of the YouTube creators that I watch, it's like, they're so they're so poised at this point, it's so fine tuned. It's just, it's such a good production, you know, and you're just like, at least for me, I'm just like, man, like, how long is it gonna take for me to get there? You know, I'm just, it's a grind.
George Nowack:Yeah. And that's I think part of the process, too, is it's difficult at first. But the reason why these big YouTubers, they're able to get videos out so quickly and have them be very, very high quality is because they just kept doing it. And at this point, it's just natural, you know, they can knock it out something that would take me two weeks, they could have done in like two hours. Right. And it was the same for streaming. When I first started streaming, I was severely underprepared. The story of my very first stream was I was on Seso's live stream as a guest, and we were going through critiques. And he eventually got a little bit tired. And he was like, you know, I'm going to end the stream. But there's still a lot of portfolios left, George, download OBS right now, and take over on your own. So pull up my very first stream ever on Twitch. I think I averaged like 55 viewers, and the chat was just constantly going through it was very overwhelming at first. Yeah. And I stuttered, I paused, I, you know, I was not prepared or used to the experience. And now, you know, a few months, and I think I'm on my fourth month of streaming. I've just, it's, like I said earlier, we get all feels very natural to just go through that process at this point.
Kyle Warren:Yeah, yeah, I think I think the challenge with you too, though, is like kind of we were talking about earlier is there's so much to learn. And like there's so much more that can be done and you have to deal with the self doubt of Once you've created it, then fine tuning it. And I think that all that just combined together is what makes YouTube such a challenge. Or, you know, and that once people break through that, then it's just, you know, video to video for video. I can look at look at someone even like Jake lucky you don't mean that guy does that eSports talk, that dude cranks out videos and thumbnails quicker than I've ever seen. And it's incredible to see. Absolutely. Yeah, he's killing it. Yeah, yeah. No, it's it's cool to see. Yeah, man. So I want to want to talk a little bit more, kind of wrap things up here. You know, on your on your personal brand. I got to ask, What is with the angry look on social media?
George Nowack:You know, I I just love. Something that I love about brands is like the, like this stupid repeated, like gags that they do over and over again. So like, I think I just I remember taking a photo of myself and I just looked kind of serious. And then people seem to enjoy it. So I did it again and again. And it's like, this contrast between when I'm streaming I'm normally just very relaxed. I'm smiling, just doing my thing. And then on Twitter when I upload these photos, it's just like complete opposite. Yeah. Really, no explanation. I read behind it. I just thought it was kind of goofy. So I'm just gonna keep doing it. You know?
Kyle Warren:Because it makes me smile. Because it's because I've seen your live streams and I've seen you like even with a recent podcast you do with Seso Jess, and Xplosive and and and I'm just like that just it's so opposite of what you know, I see here and it just I don't know, sticks out.
George Nowack:Yeah, it's I'm just gonna keep it off. I guess I yeah, it was just completely random. I'm definitely not that type of person. But it's just, I'm just gonna get gradually more and more angry in those photos, and we'll see what happens.
Kyle Warren:I like them. And I like that. So, you know, want to you mentioned one of the questions I always ask you kind of already answered but you know, when it comes to your dream goal that's being being a professor, is it like you want to be a teacher? Is that like a professor? Or is it a like, what what does that look like for you, man? And like, you know, when do you want to do what do you want to like actually start doing that? Yeah, I mean,
George Nowack:I guess technically at this point. It doesn't have to be a professor specifically, but any position where I can just make teaching my full time thing. It doesn't really matter how that happens if it's if it's the same if I'm still streaming when I'm 65. And that's working out for me, you know, I'm chilling, I'll just do that, you know, any opportunity, I can just have to teach people what I know. And what I've learned over the years, I would be happy to do that. And as far as the age, just whenever I feel like, you know, I love design, but I'm ready to, to push that aside and just focus on the teaching for now, it doesn't no specific age, when that happens, but just whenever I feel like teaching has become more important to me than the design itself.
Kyle Warren:Got it. I mean, at 22, I imagine you have a long way to go because I like you already know so much. But there's obviously a lot more to learn, especially as technology advances, it's great. These brands grow as eSports grows, you know, like, it's not getting any smaller, you know, the window for opportunity, the knowledge that that people can possess. It's not going anywhere. No, so it's absolutely incredible man, you know, because one might argue when I was thinking when you were saying that, it's just like your art, like, half your job, you're already doing what you want to do it, you know, whatever that age is when you want to push a completely aside.
George Nowack:Hmm, I appreciate that. Yeah, I'm gonna just keep keep it up and hopefully goes in the right direction right now. It's like, my path is, to me very uncertain still, but I'm, I love what I'm doing now. So I'll just keep it up while I can. It's incredible, man.
Kyle Warren:Well, dude, there's thank you so much for coming on, man. It's been a pleasure getting to know you getting to learn about everything you're doing, you know, and I got to ask, you know, if you're, you could give one piece of advice to someone who's either a creative or wanting to break into the scene of whether it's eSports or design work, you know, what would that? What would that be?
George Nowack:Hmm, definitely my my number one piece of advice I ALWAYS give to people, especially in eSports, is that you need to reach out and show people that you you're desirable, you know, so a lot of Esports creatives expect things to come to them, you know, like, Oh, hey, if I'm posting really great work, eventually one of these organizations is going to hit me up. And unfortunately, the industry doesn't work that way. Because there's so many go getters in eSports that are going to be pushing to get the job just as much as you are. And the people who actually reach out themselves show that they can solve problems specifically. So if you're a designer, you're doing more than just making decorations, you're actually solving a problem for their marketing strategy for their brand. And just prove to these people that if they want to hire you or work with you, you are better than the competition because you can actually solve their problems for them.
Kyle Warren:I like that, man. I like that, because it's a little bit of what I said earlier, it's like people don't just pay you because they want to just because they want to I mean, unless you're Mr. Beast, you know, but you got to be solving a problem for him. So I like that man. Well, George, where where can Where can we where can my audience find your where in your audience find you. Where are you the most active? Where do you want people to go?
George Nowack:I'm definitely the most active on Twitter so you can find me @nowackdesign. Y uTube is the same @nowackd sign Instagrams, the same nowa kdesign, twitch has the same no ackdesign, so it's all @nowa kdesign. Alright. I'm strea ing every Saturday at 2pm Pac fic Standard Time. Otherwise, I' on Twitter basically every ay.
Kyle Warren:Sick man sick. Well, I'll go ahead and link I'll link all your socials up in the show notes below. link up the brands you work with, you know that you're part of that way people can find you and your work in your organization. So I guess I guess that's it, man. I really appreciate you coming on. You have a great rest your day George.
George Nowack:You too, Thank you.
Kyle Warren:All right. Bye, y'all. If you made it to this point in the episode, that means I really hope this means that this gave you a lot of value. Please let me know what parts of it the most in the comment sections below. If you've not done so already, please go ahead and follow in or subscribe depending on what platform you are listening on. Also, I am trying to grow our YouTube my YouTube channel. So if you like video, whether you just want to see the beard, these dazzling eyes or the amazing guests that I have on, please go ahead and type into Boonafide experience o YouTube or and I will also put link in the description below reason why I don't have an ad i because we are five subscriber away from hitting the 10 subscriber mark which will giv me a custom URL to your suppor is greatly appreciated. And will see you back next week same time Friday 9am I hope yo all have a fantastic day an even better week. I'll see yo then