I owe it all to Calculus III ironically enough. It was after we had taken a quiz that I knew I had bombed and then immediately started learning about partial derivatives (don’t even think about googling them you will be traumatized) that my tolerance snapped. I got up out of the classroom, and took my phone with me to “use the bathroom”. I then proceeded to walk outside and call my mom to cry about what on Earth I was doing taking Calculus III?? How did I even get here?? I remember sitting in my Calculus I class in senior year of high school thinking “Thank God I don’t have to take any more math classes after this”. Yet there I was, eye to eye with vectors and partial integrations, wondering how on Earth I possibly talked myself into this one.
At the time I was double minoring in Math and Computer Science, I was focused on becoming a Data Scientist after college. My presumed schedule for the next 3 semesters would be packed with Java, Linear Algebra, R and CSS as I tried to jam everything I thought was necessary for grad school applications into my last waking breaths of undergrad.
I did not anticipate, of course, my distain for some of the classes I was taking. Over the past 2 1/2 years I had grown accustomed to taking courses that I didn’t love, that I didn’t find captivating, or particularly exciting. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve learned as an Economics major and it has been incredibly useful and insightful to understand what actually goes on in the government— but that doesn’t mean I wanted to be up late with Adam Smith.
Therefore the idea of taking a class I would enjoy, a class of interest never crossed my mind until that day, when my Mom said “why don’t you pick a class for fun next semester, take a break from these hard ones”? Part of me just looked to suffer through those classes of distaste to get through them an accomplish what I had originally planned to do, the other part of me had wondered what it was like to be back in class that truly was just for fun. Nothing ever seemed like it was just for fun anymore.
I went on to take “Introduction to Digital Art” instead of “Probability and Statistics” and did not regret the decision for a single second. I spent the rest of my semester wondering why I ran away from the things I was good at, the things I loved the most, the things I was meant to do.
643 became the artist name I go by a couple of years ago when I was rebranding my Redbubble shop. Its a nod to a how you mark your scorecard for a double play in baseball. Every position in baseball has number, 6 is shortstop, 4 is second base, 3 is first base. Ball hit to short, thrown to second, thrown to first, is, in fact, a 6-4-3 double play. My Dad came up with it and proudly takes takes full credit. Theres also this great shirt I saw when I was up in Cooperstown that only cool baseball people will get— and theres really nothing I love more than a (semi) niche reference.
So what are we doing here. 643 was born from creating digital art of pro sports players using Procreate. But over time I’ve shifted to mostly graphic design using Adobe Creative Suite— unfortunately, I’ve succumb to the masses. You’ll now find graphic design and photography content that I produce using Photoshop, Illustrator (once I figure out how to use it) and Lightroom.
I hope to learn more about video as well, but I need a bigger external hard drive for that…
From subscribing, you can expect posts breaking down my graphics, the techniques I’ve used, and the inspiration behind them. You will also get “behind the shot” posts from photography and other random thoughts or ideas about design / content along the way.
If you become a paid subscriber, you will get access to bonus articles, and most importantly, the PSD files to my projects. This will give you access to learn and play around with whatever assets I've used to create that graphic. In the future, I look to create Adobe Lightroom Presets that will be included in paid subscriber packages as well.
I am so excited to have you along for my design journey, thanks for hopping on the ride! :)
P.S. I write another Substack (sometimes) its called
, its emotional commentary on sports. If you like passionate, slightly overdramatic sports writing, make sure to check that out as well!
I love seeing more sports designers! As an SID/Photographer/Graphic Designer/whatever else the athletic department needs, having some other people in the business to follow along and learn from is going to be great!
I’m at my limit for paid subs at the moment, but I wanted to chime in to say that offering PSD files is such a cool perk! Looking around another designer’s file is so fun. You learn a little bit about how their brain works.
I got started in graphic design by making graphics for nba.com forum signatures, of all things. Excited to follow along!