All Aces at Kings Wild Project
SCOTCH PARLOR PODCAST #31
All Aces At Kings Wild Project
Jackson Robinson: Illustrator & Founder of Kings Wild Project
Jackson Robinson is the illustrator we never knew we needed in our lives. His wit, sarcasm, and the ability to create a beautifully detailed deck of cards is the reason why people are drawn to who he is as a whole. Robinson, who is the illustrator and founder of Kings Wild Project, a luxury playing cards company that produces creatively illustrated playing cards, has only one message to deliver his audience around the world, and it's to… learn to like "the suck." Robinson, who was born in Canyon, Texas, has been a professional illustrator for 15 years. He doesn't attribute his success to his education at the University of North Texas. In fact, he sees that it's his dedication to beat the competition out and his efforts to experiment and put forth every idea he had onto the table that he got where he is today. Movies like Toy Story and Gladiator were influential in developing his interests in graphic design and special effects, and after going to the university where he was a 2D and 2D illustrator, he went on to land a job as an illustrator. One of the most defining moments in his life was the day his wife went into labor. The night his wife gave birth to their first baby, his mother and father sat him down and told him his mother had stage 3 breast cancer. In the next moment, he found out the place he was working at folded. Jackson stated, "Through really crappy situations comes the greatest leaps forward." This was when he decided to pack the family bags and move to California to become an illustrator for a video game studio in Los Angeles, CA.
Get To Know Jackson:
HOBBIES? Building LEGOs and taking ideas from my head to make into a business.
BUCKET LIST? Build a Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe Kit Car.
BOOZE OF CHOICE? Mead (It's honey and water fermented by yeast. It's like beer and not like beer: it's like wine and not like wine.)
After a couple of years of establishing himself in the video games industry, he felt the endless rat race that can come with living in a place like Los Angeles. Realizing that he and his family needed to move back to Texas, it was that moment that shifted Robinson's perspective on life and made him see opportunities to make extra money. The platform that helped him was at that time a was just a new website and concept called Kickstarter. He first started doing t-shirts and had raised some decent money. It was until he came across another participant's Kickstarter campaign, which had raised $144,000 with a deck of cards, that Robinson's creative direction would change. With Jackson being competitive and wanting to earn more money to get back to Texas, he knew he could create a better-designed playing card. So he did a deck of cards campaign, and his final product earned him over $154,000. The seed of Kings Wild Project had been planted. Kings Wild Project launched in 2013 and has seen success ever since. His motto is simple, don't ever strive for perfection, and make sure you learn to love "the suck." Changing your perspective around the hard times and challenging moments and understanding that a better version of you is on the other side will make "the suck" bearable and something you see as an opportunity for growth and change. Robinson also believes there's no such thing as talent. The only thing that separates you from your dream is doing the extraordinary, accepting in the grind, and embracing that challenging period.
Since he opened his business, Robinson has created over 300 deck designs. His deck sets are widely popular, and he's just getting started with his successful playing card subscription, new shirts, and even a Kings Wild Project Coffee.Robinson loves taking as many ideas out of his head, implementing them, and sharing a story about them. At the end of the day, Robinson believes, "what people really want is a really good story, and there are many different ways of telling yours." His beautiful handmade playing cards are available at KingsWildProject.com. In this episode, we talk about how it all started for Jackson as an illustrator, how Kickstarter helped him start and grow Kings Wild Project, what "the suck" is, what he thinks of perfectionism, his booze of choice being Mead, what he really does beyond just selling decks of cards, plus a whole lot more. Enjoy getting to know Jackson Robinson and his journey as a creator. Cheers, and go create.
"What’s crazy about life is how everything is just connected and how one choice leads to another and how it leads to the next thing."
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
- How were you as a kid growing up - were you the creative type, the athlete, the kid with a lemonade stand, etc...
- How did your illustration backgorund start for you?
- What's your personal inspiration of why you do what you do?
- What is your “secret sauce?”
- How did Kings Wild Project start?
- Plus More
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
- What is "the suck."
- What drives Jackson.
- How sharing stories about his deck of cards is what he really does.
- How he feels about perfectionism.
- How kickstarter helped Kings Wild Project launch.
- Plus More
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You have to get through ‘the suck’ [challenging times]..and you need to love ‘the suck’ because I know on the other side of ‘the suck’, I’ll be better.
Connect with
Kings Wild Project:
