Burgers, Big Rings, & Hanging Dry | Giovanni G. Gutierrez

UNC Charlotte

I didn’t start college thinking, "Hey, I’m totally going to make a career out of this." I started out trying to make things that, you know, didn’t quite... for a lack of a better word... suck.

While I was attending UNC Charlotte, I worked as a Graphic Designer for the Student Union. On paper, the job was creating posters, digital signage, and web content for the art gallery, movie theater, and student events. In reality, it was my first time designing for people I didn’t know, at a scale that, actually mattered. I’d walk across campus and see my work taped to walls or transitioning through big screens, and it was equal parts awesome and terrifying. You have to learn very fast when your work lives right in the public eye.

Weekly design meetings pushed me to explain my thinking, take feedback without getting defensive, and stay aware of trends without being too trendy. It was also the moment I think I realized I liked designing for real use, not just for bad class critiques. People were actually showing up to the events and meetups because of what I made. That felt kind of cool... and important.

Charlotte Burger Blog

During that same time, a friend and I started the Charlotte Burger Blog. It was supposed to be only a small side project (ok, it was my year-end project), but mostly it was just an excuse to eat more burgers and justify carrying a camera (and scale, and measuring tape) everywhere. I didn’t overthink it at first, but I did take it seriously. I had a hand in everything: the brand, the writing (as the pseudonym ‘Angus’), the photography, the site, and how it spread online. I wasn’t trying to build a media company, in fact, just the opposite. We were just two guys eating burgers and telling people about them. But, I knew I wanted it to be honest, consistent, funny, and of course, worth coming back to.

Turns out, that approach actually worked. The blog grew into one of the most recognized food sites in the region during that time and picked up features from The Travel Channel, Charlotte Magazine, Creative Loafing, local news stations, and many others. The strangest and most validating moment was landing an exclusive partnership with Google’s Field Trip app. What started as something to do on nights and weekends with a friend turned into something real, with reach, expectations, and an audience that noticed when we got lazy. Seriously, people would call us out when they didn’t know what burger to try that week.

That project taught me more about the audience than any job ever could. When people don’t care, they leave immediately. When they do, they stick around and tell their friends. No lame pitch deck required. Extra fries, please.

Big Ring Interactive

My first agency role came right after college at a start-up called Big Ring Interactive. It was fast-paced, decisive, and pushed me to grow quickly, which was exactly what I needed. I worked as an Interactive Designer and Video Producer, bouncing between design, front-end development, and video production depending on the project and the deadline. I designed and built brand-focused websites and helped produce video content that actually worked in the real world, not just on a nice monitor in a conference room.

A lot of my time was spent in the messy middle, translating brand goals into interactive experiences. I made sure what we designed could actually be built. I often fixed things late at night because the poor WiFi doesn’t care about timelines. Over time, I became someone who could design it, build it, and explain why it worked, which made me useful in ways I didn’t fully appreciate at the time.

Big Ring taught me a big lesson: looking good is only the beginning. If something is slow, confusing, or fragile, people won’t stick around long enough to admire it, let alone care about it.

Hang Dry Clothing

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I found the time to launch Hang Dry Clothing. That one came from a very specific obsession: I like cool t-shirts, and I hate ruining them in the wash. Wash cold. Hang dry. That’s it. That idea turned into a small clothing brand I designed and built end-to-end. I created the identity, designed every shirt, built the site, and handled the front end myself.

The shirts were tagless, custom-screen printed, made from ringspun cotton, produced in the U.S., and printed on American Apparel blanks. None of that was accidental. Working on a physical product changes how you think. There’s no undo button, and it's not as simple as a ‘rinse+spin’. You either care about the details or you don't, and the shirt will tell on you. They’re jerks like that.

Looking back, none of these roles were about padding a resume. They were about building what grew into my base instincts: learning when to simplify, when to push, and when to stop. Each project shaped how I think about the audience, ownership, and the craft. Together, they set the foundation for how I work now: hands-on, thoughtful, and grounded in how things I create are actually used.