Connect
To Top

Meet Alexander Schreer

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexander Schreer.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
The son of a graphic designer and elementary school teacher, my life has always been about communicating expression and exploration. I was handed a 35mm Minolta camera at a very early age, one that I still own to this day. It was through this camera I discovered an unrivaled passion for telling stories through images. The tactile interaction with a camera is what captivated me, this idea of making things with your hands. Whenever I wasn’t out shooting with my camera, I was hanging out at my father’s graphic design studio learning the ins and outs of design from a very early age. I would go onto spending summer there working on branding and packaging projects, until it was time for me to attend design school.

However, I would not pursue graphic design, opting to attend Arizona State University’s Industrial Design program which at the time was ranked top ten in the nation. During my four years at university is when I would expand on my skillset of design, now working on physical products, and researching new topics such as user experience. A fellow classmate would teach me an important opinion on design, “At its core design is about finding a balance between empathy and delight”, you must be empathetical for your end user, interacting with your creations needs to remain delightful.

Throughout my college career I never lost touch with my roots in photography and graphic design, I would strive to create wholistic design languages and aesthetics for my studio projects, everything from the branding down to the studio photography. After many sleepless nights in the studio I would graduate from ASU with a few design awards and a portfolio of projects I was extremely proud of, some even challenging the standards of the university.

During my final semester I had applied for a unique design residency with a globally renowned advertising agency in Los Angeles, the program was called 72U and was hosted by 72andSunny. 72U is a Creative Residency that explores the intersection of art, technology, and culture. Comprised of a diverse group of talent made up of the best and the brightest creatives hand selected from over 800 applicants. The 72U experience is about thinking big, taking creative risks and making things that matter in culture. Beginning in the summer of 2016 I was selected to join a team of 8 creatives derived from a variety of backgrounds and nationalities living in Los Angeles to work on a series of projects at the Agency. It was an extremely formative experience for me, and offered me insight into the idea of becoming a creative hybrid, championing a mentality of always pushing boundaries and learning new techniques to communicate ideas.

After my time in Los Angeles I returned home to Phoenix, eager to start my own creative agency focusing on media and advertising. I would not see it come to fruition until almost a year later. After working freelance design, photography, and other small jobs I would eventually pair up with a group of friends from college to form what is now known as Reelbros Media. Reelbros Media is a full-service production/creative media house born with the intention of offering clients both production and creative development. We strive to tell stories that are just as unique as the people behind them, in ways that create a lasting impression on your audience. Recognized for our ability to go beyond the creative brief bringing clever and unique insight to stories about brands, people, and products. Founded with my two partners John Hebrank and Brandon Main, we have spent the last year working to secure our niche in commercial media, working with global clients such as Razor Scooters, the Peace Corps, and our alma mater Arizona State University.

So, for the time being most of my time is dedicate to building our brand and working with our clients closely to develop their vision for communicating their idea and bringing empathy and delight to their customers.

Please tell us about your art.
Defining myself as a creative hybrid has allowed me to create art that spans not only genres but mediums. At my core I am a designer and photographer with a love for using photography to document the process of creating ideas. However, over the course of my career so far, I have worked in commercial film, short film, cooking, painting, product design, furniture design, experiential design, graphic design, branding and many more mediums. One of the things I value most is the idea of not holding yourself to limitation when it comes to expression, each form of art has its strengths and disadvantages, part of our jobs as creatives is finding the best form to communicate what we are trying to say. At the end of the day we are all story tellers, it’s what makes us human, and there are endless tools that have been created to help us tell these stories. For the time being I find most of my time working within the mediums of film and photography, as I have found it the best way for my work to captivate people.

I draw a lot of my inspiration from famous photographers and the people they have photographed. I have an obsessive nature with this idea of Iconism, something that in split second can represent a movement, a person, and idea for eternity. I don’t think it is something you can strive for in your own work as it happens naturally, if something is meant to transcend culture and remain timeless that is not up to the creator to decide, we can simply pursue it.

Through my work I am trying to find my own voice, a lot of what I do can be categorized as exploration of ideas, some of my greatest ideas have been a split second of thought followed by obsessive pursuit. Through this pursuit I seek to tell the most genuine story possible, and want to create things of substance that can ride the line between empathy and delight.

Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
The best advice I can give to anyone pursuing a creative career, or lifestyle is failing often and fail hard, and don’t be afraid to be discouraged about what you are doing. I’ve learned that most things in your life worth attaining will not come easy, and just after you think you’ve hit your greatest failure is when things start to fall in place. A lot of people are very fearful of failure, and it keeps them from pursuing things, I believe where you have passion you should create pursuit. It will take time to develop your own creative language or medium, but you can only discover it through trial, which is why I recommend dabbling in many different mediums until you find the ones that stand out the most to your own needs as a story teller.

Also, something I learned when I moved out to Los Angeles, for my creative residency was every-time you get comfortable in your life or career, do something that is scary to you, it’s the only way to promote growth in yourself. We all become a culmination of our past experiences, so whenever an opportunity presents itself to you, always go, you never know who you will meet and what you will learn. Some of my greatest insights into life have been from people I’ve met at the most random of times in my life, and I hold a high value on the idea of “always go”

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People will be able to view my work on my personal website and Instagram accounts at

https://www.schreeralexanderdesign.com/

Instagram: @Schreerluck or portraits @schreer.alexander

All of reelbros work is available on our website or Instagram at

https://www.reelbrosmedia.com/

Instagram @reelbros.media

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
All my own photographs

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in