The USMF has grown over the past two years. With growth there are more job responsibilities and duties. After accepting the role as Chief Brand Officer of the USMF I understood that I needed help to make progress.
Finding volunteers that have the same passion, work ethic, and quality of work that I do can be difficult. Finding good quality people is difficult, but it is not impossible. I feel that the USMF Media Team contains extremely talented writers, artists, designers, and photographers that were sourced directly from the Muaythai community. Among those talented artists is Dustin Bolinger from Colorado.
I have been working with Dustin for the majority of 2020. Together we have been able to streamline the USA Muaythai brand, website, and so much more. Dustin takes great initiative, meets deadlines, and provides input and feedback to further advance the federation. I interviewed Dustin about his Muaythai Journey and his career as an artists.
How did you fall in love with MuayThai?
– Like a lot of us who got into MuayThai I got into it because I was going through a hard time in my life. I was in college and completely stress out about it and of course a girl too. I knew knew my first coach for 5 years before I started training at his gym. I kick myself for not starting MuayThai when I met him. I trained for 3 months and loved it. It helped me release a lot of the stress and anxiety I was dealing with. Then I moved to Colorado in 2009 and didn’t train for 3 years. In 2012 I took a class at Easton Training Center in Denver and remember why I started training to begin with. It’s been 8 years since then and I haven’t stopped. Except for injury breaks. MuayThai has given me a way to deal with my metal state and become a better person.
Where did you go to art school?
– I graduated from Northern Michigan University School of Art and Design in 2008 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Electronic Imaging.
Initially I went to art school to make snowboard movies, but I wasn’t very good at making art school films. I was failing my digital cinema classes so I had to switch degrees. I changed to electronic imaging which involved graphic design, 3d imaging, web design, animation, and digital photography. I really enjoyed the graphic design portion of the program and ended up putting most of my focus on it.
What are some of your favorite projects you have done outside of MuayThai?
– I had the privilege of working on projects for Sony and their video game properties. I had the chance to design a snowboard based on the original play station. It is one of the projects that I am most proud of. It was amazing for me to be able to combine two things I love, snowboarding and video games.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/61228751/Original-Playstation-Snowboard
– Another opportunity I had was to design a set of PC gaming peripherals for Fallout. It was one of the first projects that I got to work with developing color ways for actual products. I used to go on the Nike site and design color ways for Air Max’s and not be able to afford them. With this project I was able design a color way for real.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/30809909/Fallout-4-SteelSeries-Siberia-Vault-111-Headset
https://www.behance.net/gallery/30809795/Fallout-4-SteelSeries-Rival-Vault-111-Mouse
https://www.behance.net/gallery/30809741/Fallout-4-SteelSeries-Vault-111-Mouse-Pad-Packaging
– The Last Of Us is one of my favorite games. I was fortunate enough to get the chance to design a couple of shirts for the game. It was really cool to me to be able to contribute something to a game that I play for endless hours and really connected with.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/24926669/The-Last-Of-Us
What are some of your favorite projects you have done with the USMF?
– At the end of 2019 I was given a great opportunity to join the USMF as a graphic designer and work with Jeff Dojillo and Bob Khairy. It’s been a great opportunity and I’ve been able to work on some fun projects. The most recent project was for the 2020 MuayThai Summit. I worked on developing the social media imagery for the event.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/103694469/USMF-2020-MuayThai-Summit
– One of my first projects was to design new athlete cards for the USA MuayThai Team. The cards were originally designed by Jeff Dojillo and then adapted by other federations around the world. It was fun to be able to work with Jeff on the cards and add my own style to them. I enjoyed having the opportunity to use my design skills to acknowledge the athletes and coaches for all the hard work they put in.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/92285863/USMF-Pan-American-Championship-Athletes
– I’ve always enjoyed designing apparel graphics, so when I was asked to do it for the USMF I jumped on the opportunity. I was tasked with designing a graphic for the Pan Am team. This project was fun because I was able to combine two things I really enjoy, apparel graphics and MuayThai.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/103700039/USMF-Pan-American-Championships-T-Shirt
What is your dream project? Doesn’t have to be MuayThai related.
A dream project for me would be to design an apparel line for One Championship and Fairtex. They are two of the largest MuayThai entities in the world that are doing amazing things. I would love to be able to work with their creative teams and come up with an apparel line. It would be awesome to see the One Championship athletes run my gear during their walk outs.
Check out more of Dustin’s work here.
https://www.dcbolingerdesign.com
https://www.behance.net/dcbolinger