Welcome to another installment of our student-propelled success stories.
Each installment highlights a current or past Stukent student and the cool things he, she, or they are doing online. We hope this motivates you to see how other students from around the world are using their entrepreneurial and marketing skills to grow a company.
Meet Caelan Stokkermans
Caelan has been a freelance artist of four years and is based out of Cleveland, Ohio. He works primarily with musicians in the metal industry illustrating album artwork and designing logos, apparel, album layouts, and promotional graphics. Over the years Caelan has had the opportunity to work with hundreds of talented bands and artist. He’s worked alongside a variety of record labels and music promotion companies including Vicious Instinct Records, Transcending Records, EvilEye Records, Pure Metal Collective, and Chugcore. He is the head of graphic design and co-owner of the record label LifeOver Records. He has had extensive experience in digital marketing and grew his business entirely through social media.
We asked Calelan some questions about his story to learn more about his experience of becoming a freelance artist. You can read his interview below:
Hey, Calelan. Let’s start off with you telling us a little about yourself.
{Q} Where are you from?
Cleveland, Ohio
{Q} What university do you attend?
Baldwin Wallace University
{Q} What are you studying?
Business admin and Web Design
{Q} Why did you want to study Business admin and Web Design?
It’s applicable to a variety of things and gives me the flexibility to do different things in my career.
{Q} What are some of your hobbies?
Traveling, Photography, Music, Reading.
Tell us about your cool venture
{Q} Why did you start?
I love creating art and music so designing and creating artwork for bands was a natural fit for my interests.
{Q} What’s unique about what you do?
I create album artwork digitally for bands primarily in the metal industry. It’s unique because it’s a very niche market and not a typical job option for people my age.
{Q} What has been the hardest part working with your business?
Learning to stay organized and managing my freelance work with all my other responsibilities.
{Q} How are you marketing your business?
Primarily through social media and art sites such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Artstation, and Behance.
{Q} What advice would you give to a college student looking to start down a similar path as yours?
Just do it. So many people make excuses as to why they aren’t good enough or can’t because they don’t have time. Find something that you enjoy and make time to get better at it. Then just start promoting your work and make connections. It’s not that hard you just have to go out there and do it.
{Q} Do you have a favorite book, website, online tool/service that you’d like to recommend to Stukent nation?
For artists, I highly recommend Artstation and Behance. Great places to connect with other artists and become inspired.
{Q} What Stukent product did you use, and how did your experience using it help you with this new venture?
I used Mimic Pro which greatly helped me learn the value of marketing through google ads and optimizing your website. I used what I learned to create cleaner more attractive content that I then promoted through email advertising and Google search ads.
Rock on! I’d like to thank Caelan for letting us learn more about what he does. Check out some of his work on his website, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Behance, or Artstation.
