2019 Gumbo final - Book - Page 32
Creative Engineer
Left and Right Sides Merging
ith the stress of school, many students ignore their natural talents and
choose a more secure route. Instead of covering up his talents, Luke
Dugas covers art.
Environmental engineering student Luke Dugas is striving to prove the
divide between left-brained and right-brained people can be merged
through shared skills. Though he is a STEM major, he makes a business for himself
by creating album cover designs for up-and-coming musicians.
It all began when Dugas started making mixes of his favorite music on SoundCloud.
He wanted to have a graphic to entice people to listen to his mixes, so he decided to
make his own. Once he was in high school and his friends started rapping, he agreed
to do their cover art.
Dugas now uses Adobe Photoshop and pays over $25 a month to use it, unlike in
the past when he used free editors like Google Drive and Microsoft Paint. Thankfully, Dugas said the money he invested in Photoshop to waste — he has made quite
the name for himself in the local music scene and local rappers are willing to pay for
his work.
“I look back on my old stuff and I just see how much I’ve grown as an artist,” Dugas
said. “The industry’s standard for cover art is really low and hopefully in my career
I [can] see that change.”
Art in the music industry is only getting more intense as people find more ways to
show the world their sound. Now that people can upload music whenever they want
through SoundCloud or Spotify, the need for cover artists is through the roof. As
music spreads like wildfire, Dugas said he has to work harder than ever to come up
with original ideas.
Dugas has created over 50 cover arts for clients, and over the past two months alone
he has created over 25 pieces. He said he tries to do two to three pieces a week and
likes to post them on his Instagram account so his work grows in recognition and
popularity.
He posts his work daily so that he can be featured on one of his favorite Instagram
pages, @Coverartmatters. The page features several artists who are just as motivated
as Dugas to create and work with local musicians.
Dugas works with many musicians, but he said he prefers to have consistent clients
so he can develop a working artistic style and relationship. One of his clients he has
worked the most with is Joe Scott, an up-and-coming rapper. Dugas has made all of
Scott’s singles covers so far, and they see a working relationship continuing long into
the future. Their most recent collaboration was on Scott’s new songs, “We Litty”
and “1717.”
“The relationship that I have with artists is very important to me,” Dugas said. “Just
like any business, the relationship has to be beneficial to both sides.”
Dugas said he makes sure the artists he works with know that his art for their music
will get them as many clicks as possible, and the artists know that by working with
him, other musicians will see his work and want to collaborate with him too.
Though it’s hard to juggle school work and his art, Dugas said he plans on continuing his art work, finishing school and then growing his business. His dream collaboration is with the rapper Future, but what he really wants to do is make artists’
dreams become realities.
“One of the most satisfying moments of my life is knowing that people see my art
and that it means something to them,” Dugas said.
Story // Kelly Swift
Photo // Reveille Photographer
Design // Catherine Carpenter
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