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Today’s Shout Out is going to be a little out of the box from what I normally do, because those two guys you see up there are the very definition of out-of-the-box thinkers. On the left you have Gavin: lover of type, photographer, board sport fiend, PC user, not bearded. On the right you have Martin: illustrator, music dude, beer lover, Mac user, bearded. And together you have Drifting Creative the first and only design firm on wheels. Together Martin and Gavin travel the country looking for small companies to design for and all of their work (including printing) is done form their office – a not so spacious 2003 Honda Element, that they firmly declare does not come equipped with a shower.

I stumbled on to their website a week or two ago and was instantly impressed. I knew right away I wanted to promote these two drifting creatives but I had so many questions about what they were doing that I decided to shoot them a bunch of interview type questions and see what they had to say.

Here’s how that went…

Firgs: Tell me a little bit about you both.

Martin & Gavin: We both draw monsters. We both love 89¢ chicken burritos from Taco Bell. We both love to design.

Firgs: How do you two know each other?

Martin:We met one day in line at the bank, we both opened new accounts and got free mini-fridges. Gavin helped me carry mine to my car
Gavin: In all seriousness, we went to school together at Texas A&M and we both graduated with a degree in Environmental Design.

Firgs: What made you decide to take design on the road?

Gavin: Lack of jobs, the drive to help small businesses, and a general sense of adventure.
Martin: We didn’t have anything holding us back. It was kinda a eureka moment, we started the site and left 2 days later.

Firgs: What’s a typical day like for you guys?

Martin: That really depends, some days we wake up in our car, take a shower at a carwash and then cold call people all day from inside a Starbucks. Other days we wake up in swanky hotels in downtown St Louis and get to work in amazing studios. We’ve been extremely lucky some days.

Firgs: What happens when you run out of battery power?

Gavin: We used one of our first paying jobs to buy a power inverter for our car. Problem Solved!

Firgs: What’s the most challenging thing about "creative drifting"?

Martin: Cold calling, I personally hate cold calling.
Gavin: Keeping my phone charged, even with the inverter.

Firgs: How long do you plan on doing this?

Martin: The first round is ending soon, but round two starts August 1st, we’re planning our route now and we plan to travel for a much longer amount of time. We have a map up on our site and we’re letting people place their own markers of where they would like us to travel.

Firgs: What’s the craziest thing that has happened to you while being on the road?

Martin: I think the craziest thing is not knowing what is ahead.  We’ve been able to see more in the past month than I thought was possible.  Tonight we ate a picnic dinner on an island on the Gulf of Mexico.  A month ago that would have never seemed a possibility.
Gavin: Oh, and the beat-boxing dude in St Louis.

Firgs: Is it working? Are you selling your designs?

Martin: Sure.
Gavin: We’re getting by, we’ve learned we need to plan better.  It comes in waves. We’ll be broke one day and luck out the next. Hopefully by next round we’ll have set places planned out beforehand.

Firgs: Would you recommend this to other creatives that are now graduating with design degrees but are finding no jobs to go to?

Martin: Well, if everyone started doing this they would put us out of a job. So no… find your own thing. Haha!
Gavin: It takes a special kind of person to be able to do this I think, and a special kind of friendship as well. We’ve been within 50 feet of each other for about a month now. So if you can not shower for days and sleep with a guy that snores, you are more than welcome to try.  Just know we’re gonna be better at it.

Firgs: Why do you love doing what you do?

Martin: I feel I’ve grown more in one month as a designer and person than ever before.  I’ve been able to meet amazing people and see amazing things that never would have been possible without this.
Gavin: I love the feedback from people, I love creating something that other people can enjoy whether that’s a brand identity or a blog about two dudes traveling the country.

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There you have it. Two dudes traveling the country bringing brand identity to whomever they find along the way. That and the new feature they have added to their schedule – interviewing other designers and turning it into a podcast on Fuel TV so that we can all learn from the pros is why I love Martin and Gavin. Their passion and commitment to design is outstanding and any client or future employer would be lucky to have them. So, today’s Shout Out goes out to the Drifting Creatives! Drive on, fellow freelancers – YOU ROCK!

To learn more about Martin and Gavin, click the pic or go to http://www.driftingcreatives.com/