Meet Marlon Bennett | Graphic Designer & Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marlon Bennett and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marlon, how do you think about risk?
I think risk is necessary to achieve greatness. Complacency and comfortability is an enemy to achieving success. I’ve maintained this mindset throughout my young career. Risk taking is essential both professionally and personally for me.

As a creative, I constantly challenge myself to strengthen areas where I am not the strongest or most comfortable. I am constantly pushing myself to try new things and add new abilities to my creative skillset. I wanted to really grow more as a creative beyond graphic designing and illustrating. I was very interested in learning more about photography, so a few years ago I invested in a camera. I bought a Nikon D3500 which is a great starter camera and was able to give me strong foundation to build off of going forward. I will look to embrace similar opportunities in my future.

From a personal aspect, after graduating college I decided to take a huge step and move to Atlanta where I had essentially no connections. No family, no friends, or network system. The thought of moving to the south was daunting but living in Atlanta has presented me with an amazing job opportunity working with the Atlanta Hawks and helped cultivate a strong support system and business network that I would’ve not got the chance to experience if I never took that first step of getting out of my comfort zone.

Risk is key to success.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a graphic designer and have had the opportunity to work in the sports industry at both the collegiate and professional level. I have a passion for sports so naturally I gravitated to working in that specific industry. During my freshman year of college (Liberty University), I was able to connect with a few of the basketball coaches who offered me the opportunity to gain my first true experience working as a sports creative. Over the course of the next few years I would really start to develop my skillset enough to land a paid internship with Liberty’s football program my senior year. I feel like these two opportunities are my core foundation for starting a career in sports design.

Once I graduated in 2020, I moved back home to New Jersey where I would apply for full time positions over the course of months. Being that 2020 was the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the economy was taking a hit which ultimately forced a lot of organizations to go into a hiring freeze. This was the first tough obstacle for me. I applied to over 80 jobs over the course of a year to where I received the one iteration of the same response. “We are very interested in your portfolio but due to the current climate, our team is not able to offer a position”. I tried everything from LinkedIn, Glassdoor, to even cold-emailing companies. It was really discouraging to not gain any career traction after spending the last 4 years paying for college.

All this being said, I never stopped applying. I was fortunate to land an interview with the Atlanta Hawks in the summer of 2021. After a series of interviews they offered me a position to join the team for the 2021 season. This was my first real opportunity to get my foot in the door working in pro sports so I just took the opportunity and ran with it. I was able to learn the inner workings of a NBA organization and marketing team within my first few months and apply my skillset and knowledge of graphic design to help build and support the strong brand already set in the Hawks. Working in pro sports is much different than any prior collegiate experience I had working doing design. There are stricter brand guidelines and the marketing graphics you create are a lot more promotional and advertisement like than they are artsy. Learning to adapt to the new atmosphere was a learning curve but was one that I was so thrilled to grow from and develop as a professional.

I want people to understand that attitude and personality is just as important as your portfolio and design background. A lot of times in college they tell you that a strong resume or portfolio is what gets you hired. I couldn’t disagree with that statement more. A strong resume and portfolio get you an interview. YOU-your personality, your attitude, and your willingness to learn from team members around you are the traits that are ultimately going to land you a position.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There is a TON to do in Atlanta. The city is huge and so diverse and I think there is a bunch of different options depending on what activities your friend likes to do. There’s a little bit for everyone in Atlanta. The way I approach it, is if I have young friends who enjoy nightlife and summer activities, I’d bring them to Midtown. Midtown has a lot of great options for bars, clubs, restaurants and summer events. Although a bit outside the perimeter, The Battery is also a great spot to bring my friends who love nightlife. For relatives or friends that love nature, I bring them to the Botanical Gardens. They can pull out they’re phone and take tons of photos of the beautiful scene and just soak in that environment. For friends that are more into street fashion, I bring them to the Beltline and stop at Krog Street Tunnel and do a photoshoot for them. So to answer the question there is not one specific itinerary when you come to Atlanta and I think that is the beauty of it. If you go to other big cities there is a clear itinerary and sometimes it hit or miss. Maybe the main tourists spots aren’t appealing to some visitors. With Atlanta, there is without a doubt something that my guests would love and I make sure to cater their trips to those specific places.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to give a shoutout to my professors at Liberty University. The Graphic Design program Liberty offered paired with their incredible staff was essential to my development into a young professional in this industry. The not only taught me the basic principles of design, but they went above and beyond to provide opportunities for you to experiment with world class equipment and work on portfolio building work. I will forever be grateful for my time at Liberty University.

Website: https://www.behance.net/msbennett14334

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/appointed.arts/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlon-bennett-23a799200

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/appointedarts