About the Artist
What drives you to make the things you’re selling on Real Mart?
Real Mart falls in an interesting place between client work and personal work, where you want to make something for someone else, but the medium, subject matter and vision are all yours. That’s a unique angle to work from.
What creative project are you currently brainstorming?
I’d like to film a music video. I’d love to develop a video game. I’d love to make myself a new portfolio site. The list is endless…
Who has been your greatest inspiration(s)—professionally or creatively (or both)?
I’m in awe of the huge amount of amazing designers and firms that share their work over the internet, from individuals like Mike Orduña (Fatoe), Chuck Anderson (NoPattern) and Mike Young (WeWorkForThem) to the organizations who introduced me to Flash when I was in college, like 2Advanced and One9ine.
What music do you like to listen to when you’re working?
I don’t even know where to start, but I do think I’ll throw a shameless plug for my favorite streaming radio, SomaFM.
Favorite book(s):
Sadly, I rarely read anything other than technical manuals, but I’m partial to The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil.
Favorite movie(s):
Commando, Back to the Future, Spirited Away, Star Trek 2, any Borne movie, any Pixar flick…
Favorite video game(s):
The Halo series, the Zelda series, the Mario series, Mass Effect, Mega Man 2, Dragon Warrior, Brave Fencer Musashi, oldschool Sierra adventures, StarCraft…
Television show you can’t miss:
Lost.
If you could only eat one thing for a month, what would it be:
Mac ‘n Cheese, and then I would die.
Celebrity you’d love to meet (living or dead):
Damon Lindelof
Favorite destination you’ve traveled to:
Hawaii
Favorite font:
Used to be Franklin Gothic.
Blog(s) you visit daily:
A million.
Social networking tool of choice:
Twitter
Andy Nick
I studied Visual Communication at the University of Dayton, where I currently teach Design for the Internet. During my senior year, I became the lead designer for Rook Interactive (now defunct), a very small web design firm here in Dayton. I cut my chops there for two years, and when that bubble burst, I began doing personal work under the name nickAD with the purpose of stepping up my game before returning to the workforce. Half a year later, I jumped back in with the big boys, taking a job with Real Art’s young new media team. Five years later, our team here at Real Art continues to grow in all kinds of amazing directions, and I still find time to produce personal work as nickAD at home.
On a non-professional level, I live in Kettering, Ohio, where I enjoy the adventures of an overgrown backyard, being an avid gamer, designer and step-pepper.
When I'm at Real Art, I am a new media designer, specializing in web design, flash coding and video post-production. And when I’m not, I love a good time, especially set to good music.
