Who is this guy?
I’m Brad Ellis and I’ve been making things for years … Pretty much since I was a kid.* I’ve always been curious, which I believe leads to creative exploration. That’s the nature side of things, now for the nurture side. In my younger years, my parents were frugal out of necessity. My mom made clothes for us and we did a lot of DIY crafty type stuff. My dad was always fixing things as best he could. Our GE electric stove served us for years beyond its life expectancy, even if the last few were with a single burner. Out of all that, you end up with me: I like to make things and I like to fix things. And I like to try to make things out of things that can’t be fixed.
* I think, as kids, all of us are makers. We play make believe and we make stuff up. We make lightsabers out of cardboard tubes. We make dollhouses out of shoe boxes. We make up games and we make up the rules. Push aside adulthood for a bit and reconnect with that judgement-free childlike maker mindset and see what happens.
Do you sell plans?
At this time, I do not plan to sell plans, but if those plans should change, I’ll mention it in a video. And here. If I start selling plans, you’ll hear about it. That’s a good plan, right? Besides, I am hesitant to call myself an expert and committing to paper step-by-step instructions for the things I build feels like a strong statement of authority. That said, I would be pleased as punch if my projects INSPIRE you create your own projects.
Full disclosure: I took a stab at making plans for a project years ago. You can check it out here on Instructables.
Why does it take forever for a new video to come out?
A few reasons … First, my main job is as a graphic designer and some days I’m just tapped after 8 hours of being creative for someone else. Second, I’m still very much a rookie with video and I’m often not happy with picture quality or sound or how I framed a shot and I struggle with sharing that content. Third, I have a long list of projects and recording a 2-day project can turn it into a 2-week project. These are all excuses, but at least I’m being transparent.
What’s up with the name “I’m Gonna Make”?
We see something we like and I’ll say “I’m gonna make that” and my wife rolls her eyes and we laugh. Sometimes I actually do make.
Can you explain your logo?
I had a few early logo variations – you can see them in my earliest videos – that never really felt right, but I wanted to get the video out, so now those ugly things live on forever. Then I hit the pause button and forced myself to think through this whole banding thing. I know I wanted my colors to be dark yellow, deep red, and shades of black. Ok, yellow … pine. Many of us start with pine when we first dip our toe in the woodworking pool. It’s affordable and forgiving and easy to find. The first element of my logo is now pine, a pine block. A nail! That’s a universal building item. I bet a lot of folks picked up a hammer at an early age and pounded way too many nails into a board. Now we’re getting somewhere: a nail in a block of wood. But I make mistakes, so I bend that nail. And that’s it. The more I live with it, the more I like it.
So, what do you do?
When I’m not in the shop, I like to be outdoors. I love backpacking, hiking, and camping. I like planting trees. I like sitting by a fire, alone or with a group. I love spending time with my wife traveling, going to concerts, or just watching dumb movies. She also recently got me into watching women’s college basketball … didn’t see that coming.
No, I mean what do you do?
Oh, for a job? Right now I am a full-time graphic designer. Prior to that I was freelance graphic designer and stay-at-home dad. Before that, I was a features page designer and food editor for a daily newspaper. And before that … I did a lot of stuff. I’ve been working since I was 11 when I delivered newspapers in the morning and then fished floating baseballs, softballs, and golf balls out of a lake at a driving range/batting cage in the afternoon.