Meet De’Quan Green-Gause: Owner of DesignsTooGood, Graphic Designer & Custom Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with De’Quan Green-Gause and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi De’Quan, putting aside the decision to work for yourself, what other decisions were critical to your success?
Being obedient to God and a faithful servant. To give you some context, in college, I was a graphic design major with a minor in marketing. Throughout school, I was always looking for ways I could use my gift to serve the Kingdom first. I knew once I graduated I wanted to continue serving God, but to be honest, I didn’t have a plan on how I was going to do that. After graduating in December of 2018 from Radford University, I decided to take a leap of faith move to Atlanta, GA. After getting settled, I began looking for jobs. My search came to an end after I decided to take a position at Victory Church in Norcross as a Graphic Design Temp. I honestly started to lose faith after working hard for 5-6 months as a temp on the design team hoping to get a full-time position. So I started looking for other jobs just in case. During that time, God checked me and said to me “Serve me and I will take care of the rest.” That moment was the first time of my life that I heard God so clearly. So I decided to be obedient and stopped looking for other jobs. After 9 months of being a temp, I was offered a full-time position as a Graphic Designer starting January 1st, 2020. Now let’s fast forward to August of 2020, I was asked by my Art Director to create some custom shoes for our Pastors for a sermon series we were doing called “The Way.” Before this, I’ve been doing customs since college, but didn’t really take it serious. To me, it was more like a hobby or just something to do to make a little money on the side. So I will admit, I was nervous, but my Art Director and my team had full confidence in me and they helped me every step of them way. The shoes for the series turned out great and everyone loved them. After that series, I was getting a lot of request to do more customs once my Senior pastor gave me a shoutout on social media. Due to the amount of request coming in, I decided to finally buckle down and pursue my entrepreneurship journey and get my LLC.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Expressing emotion through art is one of the main goals of everything that I create. I am deeply influenced by street art and minimalism. I enjoy the challenge of making these two distinct styles coexist. Using minimalism as a framework allows me to focus on the layout and structure of my designs. Incorporating elements of street art allows me to “think outside the box” and creatively integrate emotion and other unique components into my work. For me, combining these styles results in the production of eye-catching, thought-provoking, inspirational works of art. I’m focused on making art accessible and aesthetically pleasing. I want the viewer to be pleased and surprised by what I’ve created while inspiring others to explore their own creativity as well. When it comes to art, I’m always willing to take risks by exploring different mediums, techniques, and styles. Doing this has led to where I am professionally because it has opened so many doors for me. It was definitely challenging because through my exploration, I had some setbacks, but I was able to grow and learn from them. To me, that’s what being successful is all about.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
The first spots that come to mind are the Krog Street and/or Ponce City Market. They both have a diverse selection of restaurants with some great food. Some other foods spots I would consider are Juicy Crab, Papadeaux, bartaco and Hattie Marie’s BBQ. As an artist, I have an appreciation for street art and huge murals so I’m always down to take a walk on the belt line to see if there’s any new pieces along the way. For some fun during the day or night, the Painted Duck for some miniature bowling is always a dope experience. In addition, Top Golf, K1 Speed, and Skyline Park are some fun spots as well. Sometimes, I get that late night sweet tooth so Sublime Doughnuts or Insomnia Cookie would definitely be a go to. The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
It’s so hard for me to shoutout just one person. So I’ll have to give a shoutout to a few people that have had an impact on my life which has led to my success. My parents always encouraged me and taught me the importance of leaving a legacy behind. They challenge me to take risk and make decisions, to not only benefit myself, but also my future family. My girlfriend definitely deserves some credit. She was there for me throughout college and still is today. She’s always speaking life into me, encouraging me, and praying with me. We are always pushing each other to be better personally, professionally and spiritually. Also, I’m so thankful to be apart of the creative team at Victory Church. I especially want to thank Chad Price who was always encouraging me to dig deeper creatively and has helped me develop as an artist. Aside from work, he also gave me some mental nuggets keep in mind about both my personal and spiritual life.

Website: www.designstoogood.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designstoogood/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/de-quan-green-gause-636b33117/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dggause25

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/designstoogood/