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If you're you thinking about making a career change but have no idea where to start? Thomas Rohlfs has been through this, and you’ll be happy to hear he made it out just fine on the other side.
Hear Thomas’ story as he explains why he ditched Graphic Design for a career in Illustration, how he got over imposter syndrome, and the challenges faced through the career transition. Drawing on his own story, Thomas reveals that while making a drastic career change is quite frankly terrifying, it’s also the best decision he’s ever made.
I’m Thomas Rohlfs, an illustrator from The Netherlands. I grew up in a small village close to Amsterdam, and have been living and working in Amsterdam for about 15 years now. I love the city because there’s so much inspiration to be found, so many different people, cultures and lifestyles.
In the summer of 2018, I sent an email to all of my clients saying I was no longer a freelance designer.
I’ve always been drawing in one way or another. I remember as a kid I had a big pile of drawings that I just kept adding new ones to. The bigger the pile became, the prouder I was. I drew mostly faces and portraits (and maybe a dragon or two). When I grew a bit older, I became more and more insecure about my work and style. I saw the work of a lot of great artists online and felt that I wasn’t on their level and could’t compete. When I was in my twenties, I basically quit drawing and slowly drifted toward Graphic Design which I found to be much easier.
I became a freelance designer when I was 26 years old. Finding work and new clients was never a problem, so as far as that was concerned it was smooth sailing. But in the back of my mind I knew that my real passion was illustration and if I didn’t follow that path, I might regret it later on.
Coming to terms with my true passion
I think it’s important to find a sense of meaning in your work—a reason for getting up in the morning and feeling proud about the work you do. I had lost that feeling as a freelance graphic designer. Of course, this doesn’t happen overnight, but I slowly realized that I didn’t find much gratification in the work I was doing. I knew I couldn’t continue like that forever.
I moved into a new studio a couple of years ago and this really changed my mindset. We’ve slowly built up an awesome group of illustrators and designers like Jeroen Krielaars, Timo Kuilder, Frederique Matti and Karan Singh. I noticed how everyone was passionate about the work they created and also how they declined projects not well suited for them—a real eye-opener for me.
I started to wonder how I could achieve this as well, and found illustrating to be the only real option. I knew then that it’s where my heart lies, but I had been ignoring it for years. This whole process took me about three years and I can’t tell you the exact point when I decided to go for it, but in the summer of 2018, I sent an email to all of my clients saying I was no longer a freelance designer.
Getting back into the illustration game
The gap between me and illustrators I admired only got bigger because I hadn’t been illustrating for a long time. Getting back on the saddle became more daunting each month. I would still create personal illustrations every now and then, but I was never quite happy with the results. I had to get back in the game, and there was only one way to accomplish this: illustrating a lot. I started to draw every day. In the beginning this was hard. I was confronted with the fact that my skills weren’t where I wanted them to be, and I felt like I wasted many years not drawing at all. But somehow, while complaining to everyone in my studio, I regained my joy in drawing much quicker than I expected, and a new style started to evolve. I used to do a lot of digital painting in a more traditional way, but now I was focussing on very crisp and modern looking line-work, which I loved doing.