Meet McCall Moore | Artist & Graphic Designer

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

Hi McCall, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I’d love to say I had a lightbulb moment that inspired me to start a business, but it was just a circuitous, roundabout path of following a feeling that I was onto something. I’m a firm believer that passion is something you cultivate over time, not something you arrive at. I realized in 2019 that I had a massive interest in Graphic Design so I went back to school at the Pratt Institute in New York for a Graphic Design Certificate. I poured myself into that for about two years, then realized I wanted to give drawing a try. I made an Instagram account where I could keep photos of my drawings — really as a reference for myself more than anything else. I never imagined people would actually follow it. From there, I started posting photos whenever I was working on a drawing and would get DM’s from people asking if it was for sale. After that, it all just slowly came together over time. You could technically say the idea started back in 2019 when I couldn’t stop asking the Graphic Designer at my company if I could shadow him, but it formally started in July of 2022 when I incorporated my business as an LLC and started to host pop-ups in Denver to sell my art.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is 100% hand drawn. I started off making drawings of buildings my friends loved when everyone was missing their favorite places during lockdown. Everything is made with colored pencil and I’ve been all in on that style of art since. I think what sets my art apart is the attention to detail — nothing makes me happier than spending hours on the final details and shading to make sure each individual brick or blade of grass looks perfect.

I got to where I am from just pushing myself towards the opportunities that made my imposter syndrome go crazy. The first few drawings I made for strangers who paid for them, I always got to a point in the creative process where I thought “this is such a waste of their money. They’re going to be so disappointed!”. Whenever I hear that voice, I just let it fuel me to focus even more on my art and make it as detailed as possible.

I got into merchandise when two good friends of mine, Kara and Dawn, the owners of Lekker Coffee in RiNo, saw my art and suggested I do a pop-up to sell some of it in the store. I wanted to take a risk and put some of my designs on shirts and hats. It was a long and hard road to find suppliers to make everything, get mockups and see it all come to life, but it was so rewarding to see people react to my art in real life and connect with people over it.

After that, I still felt a weird twinge of imposter syndrome — probably 85% of the sales I made that day were friends who showed up to support me (which is amazing!) but I felt this weird guilt that if my art was *really* good then more strangers would’ve bought it. I opened up to a friend of mine about that and she said “McCall, every company you love had a friends and family round to get where they are today”. I think about that all the time to this day.

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?
First things first, I would take them STRAIGHT to Lekker Coffee in RiNo to get some amazing cold brew and even better energy from the owners, Kara and Dawn. That place is soul fuel.

I get so much inspiration and peace from being in nature, so I’d use that coffee high to hop in the car and go on a hike — probably Silver Dollar Lake off Guanella Pass, but make a pit stop at bonfire burritos in Golden first for some much needed fuel. We’d take our sweet time on the hike and have a nice, long chat about life and all the beautiful sights around us.

Once we’re back in town, we’d head over to Zuni Street Brewing to sip on some much deserved beers and hear some live music. If I planned it perfectly, it’d be when Southdown String Band was playing. After that, I’d probably rinse and repeat the same itinerary for a week; changing up the hike and brewery we end the night at every day, but definitely stopping at Lekker and Bonfire Burritos every day.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I read Jedidiah Jenkins book To Shake The Sleeping Self for the first time right around when I was starting to draw. In his acknowledgements he wrote:

Thank you to these friends, family, and heroes for giving me the wings to write. You didn’t even know what the book would be, and you said, “Write it.” That is brave and beautiful. Thank you.

That perfectly sums up how I feel looking in the rearview mirror. My confidence was so fragile and opinions were so malleable when I was first starting out. I can’t imagine where I would be if I was surrounded by people who said anything other than “That’s amazing, keep doing it.” So, my shoutout is definitely for my friends and family, who have been with me since the beginning of all of this, and Jedidiah Jenkins – for writing so damn beautifully that it made me believe I could do all of this.

Website: https://www.mccallmoore.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mccall.psd

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mccall-moore/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mccall__moore