Patriots Country

PatriotMaven giveaway winner, Q&A with Matt Sharpe

We share our giveaway winner and our Q&A with Matt Sharpe.
Devon Clements|
PatriotMaven giveaway winner, Q&A with Matt Sharpe
PatriotMaven giveaway winner, Q&A with Matt Sharpe

In case you missed it, the PatriotMaven did a giveaway on it's official Twitter account in which we gave away an 8x10 poster of New England Patriots QB Tom Brady, which was made by Matt Sharpe. To enter, you had to follow both the PM Twitter account and Sharpe's Twitter account (and be a resident in the US or Canada).

The winner of the contest was Tyler Sylvester (@tylersylvester2). If you haven't noticed that we already tweeted at you and you're just now realizing that you won the giveaway...congrats to you!

With that being said, we want to thank everyone that entered themselves into the giveaway. We appreciate the likes, retweets, and comments on the giveaway post and hope that you all continue to follow and share the PatriotMaven content that we have in store for the 2019 season.

Many comments on the Twitter giveaway were about how amazing the 8x10 poster looked. That is in part the reason why we teamed up with Sharpe, because he is an amazing graphic designer, so we wanted to give away an amazing piece of artwork in return for your support of each of our Twitter accounts.

We took the time to speak with Sharpe, who is the Director of Content, playable ads at Zynga. You can follow him on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn (@daringsharpe). 

Below is our Q&A with him, where we dive into his experience as a GD along with some NFL-based questions.

What kind of impact has sports had on your life to the point where you have dedicated a lot of your time to creating sports-based art?

I love professional sports for the same cliched reasons others will touch on; it's an escapist drama that positions the best of the best in a particular discipline against one another to see who will emerge victorious (often with unpredictable results).

It's theater, really, and depicting the personalities that compose it is a ton of fun. :)

Who in your eyes is the greatest quarterback of all-time? (Be careful how you answer...)

It's Tom Brady. Sorry, but there's no carefulness, hesitation, or pause needed; it's Tom Brady.

What he's done from a competitive standpoint - and the length at with which he's done it for - is just obscene. He's peerless, at this point.

Are you where you want to be in your career as a graphic designer, or do you have an end-goal in the field that hasn't been reached yet?

Geez, that's a great question. You know, I'm not where I want to be.

While I'm exceptionally grateful to have the audience and opportunities in play at the moment, I genuinely see this thing going much further with respect to production of my art across commercial products, expansion of audience, etc.

Sportscard and memorabilia key art are a big focus for me in 2019 - alongside the production of more video content diving into my passion behind it - and I'm hoping that represents a key step in the fulfillment of that vision.

What typically motivates you to make a design of a certain player?

I would say 20% of the time it's me electing to feature a certain player, or group of players, that are of personal interest to me at that moment (perhaps they've touched base via DM/email/etc, or I'm just a fan) and the other 80% is me producing work based on the feedback + engagement received from my audience.

One thing I'm not short on is suggestions on who to feature next, so there's always work to be done in terms of featuring follower-suggested athletes in compositions. :)

How has social media helped evolve your brand as a graphic designer?

It's been everything.

From an audience-building standpoint: it's allowed me to reach thousands of people and connect with some incredibly gracious and supportive folks.

From an industry standpoint: it's put me in touch with leagues, teams, and players like I never could have imagined. Simply put: the gatekeepers have been removed from the equation.

Whereas earlier you'd have to go through select channels to speak with a player or high-profile team executive, now it's near-frictionless with the use of DM's on Twitter/Instagram.

As an example: the other night I was doing an Instagram live stream, chatting with amazing people across the country + beyond, when I started receiving DM's from a top NFL cornerback. I said to my wife after, "How crazy is this?!" It's incredible the opportunities social media affords people with such little cost for entry.

What advice would you give to other GDs who want to get their work out on social media, but don't have a following like you?

Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. Make something new every day and share it with others... even if it feels like there's no one watching.

If you can do that - and pair it with self-education alongside a bevy of online resources, such as YouTube tutorials - you'll not only improve tenfold as a designer as the week's progress, but an audience will slowly start to assemble alongside your developing skillset.

Do you have a favorite NFL team? If so, who and how do you expect them to perform in 2019?

I sure do. From watching Bledsoe and Parcells in the '90s to the incredible run of Belichick and Brady, I'm another in a long line of exceptionally-spoiled New England Patriots fans.

As for 2019? If they can repeat the incredibly good fortune they had with player health last year, there's no reason to think that Brady can't be shaking his head while receiving Lombardi number 7 come February 2, 2020.

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Devon Clements
DEVON CLEMENTS

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