Editor’s Note: At Work With is a weekly feature highlighting different professions.
Jason Craig didn’t want to follow the path people expected of him.
“I grew up in the Midwest,” he said. “You were either a farmer or worked in a factory.”
Neither of them appealed to Craig, a graphic designer and illustrator.
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He knew he wanted to do something with art, but people around him didn’t understand that passion. His father moved to the Augusta area in the late 90s. Craig was already living on his own, but he accepted an invite to the city. It was love at first sight. He packed up and moved almost as soon as he returned from his visit.
“I came down and saw Artists Row and met a lot of great people,” he said.
He’s worked for several Augusta businesses including “The Metro Spirit,” Wier/Stewart and Westobou before launching his own self-named company in 2019.
His business portfolio is diverse, helping clients develop their brands as well as doing illustrations. During the pandemic, he kept himself and area restaurants going by creating t-shirts the businesses sold. About one-third of his business comes from painting murals.
Many of his current murals are inside businesses, but he’s made a name for himself with the public murals he’s painted. He was the inaugural winner of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s Kath Girdler Engler Award for Public Art. His “respect” mural was recently featured in the Community Arts Typography Annual.
He also likes doing smaller art projects. In 2019, he was part of an Atlanta Braves art project, creating a poster through the baseball team’s Art In the Park poster series. During each homestand, fans took home a specially created poster.
Craig likes the poster concept and is working to put together an art show this summer in Augusta featuring 20 to 30 artists with poster designs. He’s been part of several similar events in Atlanta.
Craig likes to work with other artists. Before the pandemic, he had a studio called Pink Slips where artists could gather and create their works.
He was president of the local American Advertising Federation (AAF) and had the highest increase in membership a couple of years ago. He won a trip to Chicago. Also, in the most recent AAF Addy Awards on Feb. 20, he brought home five awards for his work.
He’s a member of the Greater Augusta Arts Council and serves as co-chair of its aspirations committee.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
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