TRAINER'S EYE #89 - "Drawing With Quills from Ho-oh" ft. pogoDomz

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by pogoDomz, a Pokemon Trainer from Florida who interest in art and branding led him to creating PvP content with Pokemon GO.

pogoDomz Pokemon journey started with Pokemon Yellow where he would play that game for a long time before transition into Pokemon Stadium where he was heavily involved in completing the Pokemon Battles for that game.

pogoDomz returned to his Pokemon roots with Pokemon GO he started participating in Pokemon GO PvP and the battling aspect. Eventually, pogoDomz saw an opportunity to utilize his experience in branding and combine it with his interest in battling Pokemon to create show clips showcasing the Pokemon Battles to an audience.

Finally, pogoDomz talks about the importance of developing a brand and how he was able to help PvPoke create his now brand logo and takes us behind the scenes of what work went into creating the logo.

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Connect with pogoDomz: Linktree

Transcript

David Hernandez: 0:00

My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns. Our journey takes us to Florida, where we meet a Pokémon trainer whose interest in art led him into the world of content creation. He is most known for his fast paced TikTok videos he makes for Pokémon GO PvP, but when you dive a bit deeper, you find a person who is well knowledgeable when it comes to branding. And in this episode, we hear how this knowledge has helped to create content within Pokémon GO, and even help a well known resource called PvPoke create the logo that is well known today. Here's his origin story into the world of Pokemon. This is PogoDoms. today. I'm joined by Pogo Doms. Doms, welcome to the show.

PoGoDomz: 1:26

Thanks, David.

David Hernandez: 1:27

I appreciate you taking the time to come on the podcast because people may know you from different ways. They may know you from your art, but a lot of people know you from your shorts at PVP. And one question I need to ask is like, you know, how did you start becoming an artist? You know, how'd you start drawing and be as creative as you are?

PoGoDomz: 1:41

Well, being an artist was something that just, developed when I was just growing up as a kid. I mean, it was just one of the first things that I just had an affinity for, or less, you know, my parents were an artist. My mom was a oil painter and a 2d pencil drawer. And my dad was more into architect and drafting and things along those lines. And I don't know, I guess it was just something that was just within the family and I just started picking up a pencil and just started drawing. And next thing you know, I just started drawing my favorite sharks and ocean, animals and things along those lines. And it just never stopped. and then it just progressed into other random things. I mean, everyone loved like anime growing up. I mean, I don't know who wouldn't like it. I mean, I was drawn like Dragon Ball Z and Cowboy Bebop, Tenji Muyo, and all that fun stuff. And it just never left. It was just one of those things I always proceeded up to today. And it's just one of those things that I just enjoy doing. and Drawing was one of those things that just kind of like stepped aside because I usually say When it comes in the creative process, it's more of a seasonal thing. There's just other things I dabbled into, you know photography painting printing and Graphic design and you know, we'll get into a little bit later But the editing as well too was something that came about through pokemon go so yeah, I mean, it just never left, but it was just kind of nice that once I started building a community and I was like, man, I want to do something a little bit different. I just started doing some drawing on the good old iPad, because that's what I used to play, GBL for most, most cases. And yeah, it's just being one of those things that just kind of developed in the community too.

David Hernandez: 3:13

What made you want to build a community around, the game? Oh,

PoGoDomz: 3:17

where. Pokemon Go, as much as some people would complain, like, the game is not perfect and, you know, I can see some of the nuances that we all, like, can agree on, but at the end of the day, Pokemon Go was just one of those things where, when I first started playing, I got introduced to my local community at a park. it was my sisters that got me into the game. They persuaded me, like, for months on end. It was like, when I first seen Pokemon Go for what it was, it was just collecting things. And it just seemed like, eh, you know, it's just another thing to collect. Like, what do you do with Pokemon once you catch them? Like, nothing, eh. But once like the whole GBL thing came to play, I was like, all right, there's some like strategic aspect to this game. Now, now I see the purpose and the motivation that I want to really get into this game. And my cousin at the time was playing and he introduced me to one of our local parks that I still use to grind up to this day. It's been like three years now. And, you know, the amount of people that I met there was just, it was amazing. I mean, we, you know. You know, during community days, even up to this day, we can have 30 to 50 people. And yeah, and it's, it's still pretty strong in our local area and it's, it's amazing. And, you know, right when the pandemic happens, I was trying to mess around a little bit with online streaming and I wanted to bring that presence onto, you know, social media And at that point, I wasn't really messing around with YouTube and TikTok, but eventually that became another form of platforms that I entertained as well, too. but just to bring that sense of community because it's just so nice to see all walks of life playing this game. You know playing a game with someone that's like 75 years old that's walking around the park and they have their stories and then you know i bumped into a mom with a kid that maybe he was like Seven years old like really enthusiastic about Pokemon and when I told him about streaming and everything else And he just really got into it and like every time we have an event Once in a while, he pops up and he's like, hey Dante and it's just you know, it's just having that sense of yeah Community. Yeah, the community is just really really nice to have it's just the share the memories the joy of Something that we're all just interested in and not feeling like weirded out about Pokemon, you know

David Hernandez: 5:21

I think that's the fun part about seeing this game because whenever I go to parks for community day sometimes, I always see the families playing. Like you got the kid with the big iPad that's protected, and you got the mom and the dad just like walking. It's almost like a walking kind of game night, if you so will.

PoGoDomz: 5:35

yeah, yeah, we, we, there's, there's a couple, couple of that too in, in our, in our community as well. There's, there's two kids in particular that have the huge iPad with the case and everything. And they're like, Oh my God, I got the shiny Snorlax for the first time. And I was just like, Whoa, like I'm like the odds of just seeing that, it's just crazy. But yeah, just the joy, you know, it's just, you know, it's a good reminder even as adults to, to see the youth. Yeah. And just to have like that joy and excitement because sometimes you tend to lose that a little bit in our day to day life, you know

David Hernandez: 6:04

Domz, what's interesting about what you talked about is how your sisters had to drag you into Pokemon Go. So was it just the fact that battling was introduced or was the fact that there wasn't any particular use for these Pokemon that kind of turned you away initially?

PoGoDomz: 6:15

Yeah, it was just one of those things that At the time when pokemon go was first introduced or was first released was 2016. I was actually working in another country and that was China, yep. so with my, graphic design and photography skills, it got me from, Working in China and other countries for almost three years, so I never had the leisure And even hear the news really about Pokemon go. I mean, I think someone mentioned about it But I'm like, oh that's kind of cool like Pokemon go the concept that you can catch Pokemon anywhere, but just Nothing kind of transpired after that. And then coming back to the states around 2018 give or take You know, my sisters were talking about it, and, they were always needing to add a new friend for a specific research task, and I'm like, nah, I'm not gonna install this game, I'm not gonna install it, no, no, no, no, it's just like, you're just catching, and that's it, so. like I mentioned earlier just didn't feel like there was much value into it besides collecting And I feel like at my age at that point I'm just like, you know the collecting kind of gameplay stuff was back in the youth days when growing up and Collecting Pokemon, you know and battling them through Game Boy and you know, the other games at the time through Nintendo 64 but once I heard about the whole GBL and competitiveness to it, that's, yeah, it was one of those things like growing up, I also loved playing chess, you know, that just play the tournaments and, competitions. And I was a math nerd at the time. Went to math clubs and competitions with that too. So when I start hearing and like there's counting involved, typings and, everything else that has happening live in the moment, it was just like, now this is pretty cool. It's very different, you know, and that's what just piqued my interest.

David Hernandez: 7:44

So the competition's always been what's interesting to you when it comes to Pokemon because, you know, outside of the main series, there is kind of a little bit of a chess match. I don't know how competitive you got within the main series games, but, you know, you always have to watch for types. You have to watch for move sets. Just similar to how Pokemon Go PVP is nowadays.

PoGoDomz: 7:57

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm not like so heavy, heavy into the competitive gameplay, but just to have the strategy behind it. It just always kept my interest and I always think like keeping your mind sharp and always thinking as you're doing things is Keeps you young as well. You know, I think it was during that time where you know Nothing was really crazy going on in my life. in terms of just keeping my mind sharp and I thought like okay grinding, um, you're meeting out and new people and experiencing new things after coming back from Working in another country for so many years and just kind of all fell to Pokemon Go.

David Hernandez: 8:30

When it comes to the main series, what was your first exposure to it?

PoGoDomz: 8:34

It was Pokemon Yellow, with the Game Boy Color, the Pikachu edition. that brings back memories.

David Hernandez: 8:42

Ooh, the fancy

PoGoDomz: 8:43

yeah, the fancy one. I don't know if that was like a Either a Christmas gift or a birthday gift, but that was like the first of the first experience with Pokemon And I love that game to death and then eventually it my cousin's I think he had like Pokemon blue and I started playing that and Eventually, I kind of like died off with Pokemon. I don't know what really happened I maybe it was just high school and or middle school in high school I would say like there was just other games that were just more interesting. Actually. No, you know what it was It was actually the super nintendo. It was like the whole donkey kong country 2 games and then it went to super nintendo Or no, i'm, sorry Nintendo 64 And yeah, it just kind of died off with pokemon a little bit I mean, the last of the last experience I had was probably Ninte Actually, yeah, it was Nintendo 64, where you had Pokemon Stadium. I never really played Pokemon Snap, I think it was, but it was Pokemon Stadium where you were able to use your Game Boy Color, and I remember that's what it was, where you were able to use your Pokemon from the cartridges then. And I spent some hours into that game and I think it was really cool just to see that like live right on the screen Battling amends, uh your friends and your cousins and then afterwards like things kind of died down got into like counter strike and hitman a few other like odd strategic games and then like gaming in itself kind of just phased out a little bit. So At some point, I had to what game boy micro and I ended up selling it and I had like a weird, I had like a really weird rare edition, whatever it was, model. I was able to sell it for like a hundred bucks, and I don't know if it was like Facebook or OfferUp, I managed to find 3DXXL for like a hundred bucks, and it had the Pokemon Sun and Moon in it, and that was like coming back into playing Pokemon, the main series again, and yeah, it was, it was pretty interesting. so that I missed so many generations of it, and then jumping into Go is just Like who's this Pokemon? What's that Pokemon? It's like the dual typing and everything else was Kind of odd for me in a sense, you know, like the extra typings I don't know if like, you know seeing like the fairies and the normals together and all this other stuff It was it was it was interesting to see all that stuff

David Hernandez: 10:46

now you said you came back with Pokemon Sun and Moon. What brought you back at that point?

PoGoDomz: 10:50

at that point it was just, It's only had a couple games. I remember I had Sun and Moon, I had, Samus, uh, what was it, like, Return, I think it was? cause I was always been a die hard Metroid fan. And I think that was the reason why I wanted to buy the 3DS, and it came with Pokemon was like, okay, just give it a shot and see what's really different. And, I mean, I only played the story mode once and that was it. I remember, uh, Nihiligo and so, yeah, it was like, cool. Like, I didn't even experience the other forms of the Ultra Beast in the game until Pokemon Go. I'm like, oh, this was actually in Sun and Moon? And people were like, yeah, like you never got to it? I'm like, nope, nope, did not. So, just wanted to, I guess, bring back some nostalgic feelings. I guess playing the main series game and didn't really put too much time and effort into it. But, yeah.

David Hernandez: 11:42

What's your favorite Pokemon?

PoGoDomz: 11:44

My favorite Pokemon, I mean, growing up, you know, loving the TV series and everything. At first it was like the Raichu and the Hunter. And, yeah, afterwards, like now coming back to Pokemon Go, I was drawing more attention and having more favorites towards, Surfetch. still love Hunter. Electivire was, was a Pokemon I did not know, but I was growing appreciation for him because that was like what all my shorts like blow up into like our community now that knowing what I do as far as shorts like Electivire was one of those first Pokemon that I just enjoyed using so it became a favorite, but because it's so difficult to use, I haven't been using it as much and it was now recently more Ho Oh, so I think Ho Oh has been now like my favorite, favorite Pokemon up to this date.

David Hernandez: 12:32

You've been listening to As the Pokeball Turns. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. You talk about, you know, the shorts and we're about to dive into that. what made you want to start streaming on Twitch? First off.

PoGoDomz: 14:15

it was a very, I think like timing is everything. so I started playing Pokemon Go mid December 2019, coming into 2020 basically. And that was right when the pandemic was supposed to happen like I was mentioning, I came back from working from China and a few other countries, and, during that year, 2019, I was in Shanghai and I was visiting some friends that I was networking, so I was actually supposed to go back and work in China to teach photography and English. I had the contract and everything ready to go. But long story short, everything, the borders, everything was cut. And I was then, working with some of the clients that I had and everyone, you know, with the pandemic actually happening, everyone just video content and streaming. So when I was playing around, you know, streaming a little bit on Twitch, that was my opportunity to practice everything that I need to be very efficient in. Because at the end of the day, for most of the clients that I had, I just want to be just sharp on my toes, be agile and, just be great at what I do. So I just use the Pokemon go platform as my form of failure in terms of editing, streaming, really dialing down how to use OBS because people are wanting to stream stuff online. And, that's how, how everything transformed into what I do now. The funny part is, is that during the pandemic. well, we had like that off season, I think it was season 10, I believe. where we did not have any raiding or elo for like those couple months. And I remember content creators freaking out like, oh, you know, my, battles, my shoutcast battles that I usually do as far as what's the best team for the week or two. Usually I think it was like two weeks at that point for the rotations. You know, people were freaking out. They were like, oh man, it's like, it's, there's no, no reason to really create content like this is bad. I'm like, well, for me, this is an opportunity, you know, and during that moment, as everything else was kind of unraveling, I think there was like new moves being introduced into the game and they didn't really have much animation. And at the time, a certain event that was going on, I was still, uh, hanging out with a couple of my friends and. One of my friends was telling me like, Oh, it would be so cool if we had these type of, Innovations in the game, and I don't know, like, everything just kind of Connected, like, from one dot to the other to the other. Like, I didn't want to watch, YouTube content really as much anymore, Because, again, like, What's the point of watching something that doesn't make Any sense at this point, as far as gaining Elo, when it wasn't relevant. I wanted to find something that was a little bit more short and entertaining. I wanted to throw in some animation stuff, but I didn't really know how to do like animation to the fullest extent with the amount of work that I had to do for my clients. So I started picking like clips from TV series. I'll search up the Pokemon, and I'll see like if I can find a certain move or something that's close enough to designate to that Pokemon. I throw it right into the clip, and I just really focus and dial down on one battle and try to throw some memes and other things in there to make it funny and That's like that. Kind of how all started and I and for me when it comes to the arts and anything in life I tell people as long as you're consistent you're learning little things day by day and build that library of stuff Eventually, you'll just have something that you're so good at second nature, and that's what happens

David Hernandez: 17:16

And is that kind of how eventually you progressed into doing the trainer clips? To where you're on one side and then the other trainer comes on the other?

PoGoDomz: 17:22

So that was kind of interesting as a As an artist and you know with all the work that i've done in the past is being more in a marketing position You would always do research So again in our pogo community You at that time, I just really felt like a lot of, creators would just kind of copy things that would trend or things that would just kind of work, you know, King IV, when I first introduced into the game and watching everyone, you know, yeah, King IV, Rise, Henry at the time, you know, a lot of people were just kind of using that, standard template, a platform, and I wanted to branch out and see like, what are things that I can do differently that would, kind of put me at an edge or make me stand out a little bit in in the community. You know, I was playing valorant at the time. So I would watch valorant clips and A few other gamers on tiktok. and there was an amazing content creator Through Valorant that played a certain player that I love, Yoru, and he was so good in the game with it and everyone despises Yoru, I don't know why, but he would start creating, like, these, Perspective, kind of videos where he shows his cam, he's, his gameplay and everything, and he would take other people's streams and their reactions to their, gameplay when he was in the game, and he kind of mixed and matched it around, and I was like, oh, this is actually, like, Pretty cool. Like you're actually getting genuine reactions from someone that either loves or hate what you're doing and Getting like the camera on top and the gameplay on the bottom That was almost a little bit of a trends that I found from other gamers with a variety of different games and I'm like, okay. I haven't seen that either like the vertical Aspect of camera on top and gameplay on the bottom and I just started, you know, mixing and matching the two. So this, this whole short thing became a whole experiment of like, what can I do to amplify my editing to make things more interesting? Because nowadays everyone's attention span is just very short. So you want to keep doing things that keep people. You know, I wanted to make a battle that could be very, simple and just like amplify the mood and make it more intense or find things that was just funny or silly

David Hernandez: 19:19

I think it's really good because there's not, I don't think there's anybody else still doing what you're doing. Like I check out your, uh, some of the clips you post sometimes on Twitter and it really keeps me engaged. And it's a quick battle and you just really kind of add emotion to it and makes it feel like. Oh, what's gonna happen kind of thing, you know, you add tension to the moment that would otherwise be Not as identifiable, I guess from the outsider

PoGoDomz: 19:38

Right, right. and I think it's because what most content creators would put into like the time that they invest into, like, for example, shout casting a battle, like two sets. Yeah. I would spend the same amount of time into that one battle and sometimes it could be even more than that yeah So like you're saying with the perspective videos in the very beginning it took I mean still takes a lot of time But it would take hours I mean just to make sure like you're cutting things up and kind of tell a story and I could spend like Two and a half to five hours on that Two and a half minute video could be even less depending on where splice it up and put on the platform But, there's times where it's like, okay, you're, you're grabbing my footage, my camera, my gameplay, the opponent's stream, which I then take their footage, and you gotta like sync up the battle, sync up the audio, you have so many layers, and, and then with my editing style, it's like, I'm trying to compose and put everything all together, and, then I rewatch it so many times, because, you know, you want to see if everything kind of flows, and then it's, How you simplify the process and what things make sense and doesn't make sense and cut these things out and keep this stuff in here or maybe tweak and move around. So yeah, it's becoming a new interest because I hated for the longest time editing video editing I hated it and the weirdest part now It's like i'm actually finding joy and excitement actually doing it And I would never expect pokemon go to be that source of outlet for me to enjoy editing

David Hernandez: 21:00

think it's just because it's pokemon go is why you enjoy it or just you've learned to kind of enjoy the uh Pain that comes with it

PoGoDomz: 21:08

also the excitement in doing something that's still different that the community still hasn't really capitalized on. like I said, it's just, it's the time at the end of the day to put into it. But if people are actually enjoying it and you know, getting still responses till this day, it's like, Oh, I'm, you know, because of your videos, it's, given me interest to get in GBL or I just love how this like happens or. You know, I just love how you're using this particular move like for a while for many seasons I was using solar beam ho oh in master league And you know there's numerous occasions where I climbed leaderboards a certain point in the season like very early in the season or hit expert with it and it's fun to see like a spicy move or something that you're doing slightly different being implemented into a video where it's being entertained by a certain amount of people in the community to experiment as well, too which is something that I That I love about GBL. It always comes down to experimenting and, you know, not only taking teams that other content creators would recommend, but to try something a little bit different, which is the beauty of GBL in itself, the essence of it. you know, we have all these Pokemon, we have all these different typings and these moves. And I still feel to this at the end of the day, like if Niantic, expands the, coverage of moves that all these Pokemon can have. I mean, as far as creating teams would be just like limitless, you know, it'd be, it'd be really, really interesting to see. And I try to do some of it through my editing, you know, for whatever, opportunity that I can do to still climb and still enjoy the game. Cause I still want to win at the end of the day. But at this point, I usually tell chat, like, Oh, doing it for content, just doing it for content at this point. So,

David Hernandez: 22:39

Just doing it for the content, baby because you're a content creator within the pvp space Do you feel like a lot of the content creation is kind of more complacent still? You Or that there's not as much innovation?

PoGoDomz: 22:50

I think with the rise of the show six format and the play Pokemon regionals, it's, it's stirring up a little bit more content for content creators, but yeah, I still think there's, there's some complacency and I'd even I myself, I feel complacent with the shorts. Um, I have all these different, I, I, I, I, yeah, I do. I actually. have a lot of different ideas that I want to implement and create, but It always comes down to time. And, you know, for video editing, you know, to make a good video, you really have to do a lot of preparation, lot of the prep work before actually, like, executing the shot and, creating everything you need to do. and I feel like a good video is, 80 percent is the preparation and then the 20 percent is actually shooting and putting all together and, putting it out. But it's usually the time and innovation and you know, like certain things that work. And sometimes I think creators get stuck in that complacency as far as like, okay, this works and I'm going to continue doing this. But. I still feel, you know, most, majority of the content that I still see is very complacent and it's more or less on the YouTube, in TikTok because the type of content is, vastly different. The audience on TikTok is, is more in the casual gameplay and it's very, very casual gameplay, but then like usually on the YouTube side of things, it's a little bit of lifestyle and mostly G bill, type of content. I think the one person that I've always find that inspiration is pokey Daxi. I mean, I feel like he's still to this day, always trying something new and different. And I love, like at the end of the day, it comes down to storytelling and he's like trying to find a story and trying to find things to work. And I just love how he's trying to do different things. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. You just move on to the next thing and you learn from it. And I think that's the biggest thing that most creators need to do to, to not be complacent.

David Hernandez: 24:32

Yeah, because it's so easy to stick to the formula once you find it, right? And you find success But I think, you know, the content creation, especially for the PVP side, so important, especially if you want the community to kind of grow. Because I think when people see entertaining content, It makes them more interested in trying to maybe dive into PVP that they may not otherwise join into. And I think that's kind of what your clips do is that they allow you the people to kind of experience it and maybe, test out PVP. Otherwise they may have not ever touched it.

PoGoDomz: 24:57

Yeah, it's very true. I can see that. And. It's funny you're mentioning about that too because it's been now we're into season 18 I know like this. I don't know some people have like their ideas of seasons if it's 17 18 16 I don't know if they count or don't count the you know the off seasons but mean, we're pretty much 18 to 20 seasons in and you know for some like myself. It's like, okay. I hit legend so many times, I still get the hype of wanting to hit Legends, but I think now it's becoming, again, like another complacent thing to hit Legend because the gameplay has been a little stale, you know, there hasn't really been, like, new Pokemon or new moves that's really been shifting the meta in a whole other way, The joy that I'm trying to start shifting into is helping other people that want to achieve whatever said goal that they want through GBL. And I think that's the biggest thing through TikTok that I really appreciate it and, Again, going back to like all walks of life when it comes to playing Pokemon, like there's just so many ways of playing the game and I just appreciate whatever the person wants to do when they play that game and when it comes to GBL, I still have like that same mentality, that same mindset, you know, there's this people that have never hit rank 20. You know, for some people that's like very, very simple to do, but for some others, it's like, it's an odd mile. Yeah, it's an odd milestone. But, for a creator like myself, I, I want to welcome that. It's like, okay, like, if you haven't hit ace, or hit rank 20 or hit ace, like, let's do it. Like, oh, my goal is just to hit veteran. You know, for some people, it's, you know, they shun that or, they, bat an eye or cold shoulder, but it's like, if that's what you really want to do, like, just hit vet. I'll give you some of these pointers and let's see if we can hit it by the end of the season. Same thing goes for Expert and sometimes people get a little shy when they go Legend at that point. They're like, oh, I don't think I can hit, you know, Legend after Expert. I'm like, ooh, yes you can. It's like, when you hit Expert, you can definitely hit Legend. It's, there's not really that much difference. It's like, maybe like that 5 10 percent of focus that you need to do a little bit better in your gameplay you'll be fine. So, that's the beauty about TikTok is that, there's, there's a whole audience of people that are slowly getting more and more interested in GBL and, you know, our Twitch community that I always love and appreciate, you know, it's like, that's, that's our, like our top, I don't know what percent you would want to put it like the 1%, you know, that are so advanced into the game in GBL that they're, you know, they don't need to learn certain things, you know, all they need to know is like maybe new teams are experimenting with something else and they'll just pick it up and, They'll implement into their game style and, you know, they move on and, and do good. But, you know, for, for TikTok, it's like, man, there's, there's a lot of opportunity. And that's like the thing that's keeping me interested in the game is, is that alone. And that's what I've been doing this past couple of months is, like helping some of my friends to achieve those certain goals and see how I can, understand their mindset of gameplay and how I can teach. And then maybe try to implement that through like new short form content.

David Hernandez: 27:42

So, for those who, may not know, but you are actually the man behind PvPoke's logo, the one that he currently has on his website. I want to get the story behind that, so how did that all start?

PoGoDomz: 27:53

it was amazing for Matt to reach out when it came to doing the logo. there was a couple of logos I've done in the past within our community, advertising my artwork. And when Matt reached out, I was just, excited. You know, someone, That has put so much time and effort into our community. It was just like one of the things I was just looking forward to help because I feel like it's just giving back and helping Matt rebrand and give him that look that he wants.

David Hernandez: 28:17

Did you feel like you were anointed that, you know, just blessed kind of thing?

PoGoDomz: 28:21

I feel like it's always a gift. when someone comes and they recognize that they want to upgrade their brands, because I think as any content creator, your image says everything about you, or at least it gives you the synopsis of the snippet of who you are. And through marketing outside of Pogo, like that's what I do. And I say like your brand just speaks everything about you. So when Matt came and said, Hey, you know, I want to upgrade my logo. I want to have these ideas. I started off with, and you know, I wanted to see if he can help me in the process. And I was like, Say no less like let's let's do this. Let's knock it out So, you know you had the whole process of wanting to have like a sun floral or sunflower kind of effect You know just keep those kind of colors, implemented as well, too There's you know Some of the old colors that he had he's you want implemented it and just make it a little bit more modernized a little bit more simplistic Make the logo like modular, which I always something that I love to do because we all know PV poke at this point. so in terms of branding, like just to have like the square icon there, it's something that just stands out in its own. And I loved it. It's, it's one of those things that I'll never forget because, as an artist that helps people create. Anything that they have in minds. everyone comes to you and everyone has like their own way of communication and it was just really nice having this kind of communication with Matt where I was able to give him, a piece of what I had like in terms of a draft. I was, raised, you know, doing traditional art. I still use that in the beginning processes. So I have like all my, pencil drawings first. And then I shown that to Matt. And then I implemented it then into Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. And then we started like going back and forth with the files. you know, he would tweak some of the stuff that I had and he'll bring it back to me And then I started like, okay, I see what you're talking about I see and we we go with chitchat for like 30 minutes to an hour and then i'll come up with revisions and i'll give it back to him and like There's like this dance of of creativeness that the magic that was happening eventually it just you know It was like I think we got it, I mean it took Maybe two months a little less It's that type of process that again, like a lot of people just don't, give themselves that kind of, time to let it cook, to let it, you know, marinate, to let it simmer. and that's what makes things, you know, different amongst the rest, you know, it's, it's really spending that time and deep reflection and, seeing like what ideas just kind of surface up after so many different ideas. Cause I'll tell people when it comes to logo designs, usually your first 10 to 20 ideas is what other people have already thought of. And once you like. Have those ideas out you want to scrap it and then you want to start really like Investing in those ideas that come into your into your mind and then see how things mesh up and work So, like I said, it was it was just really really nice and I really appreciate you know Matt reaching out and and wanting to have that look done. They like the upgrade because it was cool It was it was a unique process. I really appreciate especially something that everyone uses in our community for for gbl So it's it's cool

David Hernandez: 31:05

I'll just say that's kind of the fun part about, I think that's the only appreciated part about art sometimes is that the first draft is always the one that sucks, second one's a little bit of proof but still sucks and you keep going until you find one that sucks the least. And that's kind of the dance you're talking about to where, you know, whenever I talk to an artist or whenever I talk to people, I know what it sees in my mind, but trying to detail it and then sometimes they get ideas that, hey, I wouldn't have thought of that. And I think that's kind of cool how you and PVPoke spent so much time to make a logo that people now recognize. Is it kind of humbling for people to kind of see your art every time they use their website

PoGoDomz: 31:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's, and again, like, it's another thing that I really appreciate about Matt, too, is the fact that he threw my logo at the very bottom, and he's still giving me credit, even though it's, something that he commissioned me to do, so, you know, when people are streaming, or people are looking, or whatever, and they scroll to the bottom, they see it, like, I still get it, every once in a while, You created the logo for PVPoke? I'm like, well, I didn't create it from scratch, but yeah, it was that kind of collaboration that I had with Matt. But yeah, yeah, I put a little bit of Pogodom's pizzazz into it..

David Hernandez: 32:08

Well, Domz, you know, you do so many things. You do the graphic design, you do Twitch, you do the clips and everything. What do you hope, your journey with Pokemon Go turns into as it continued progresses? Like, what do you envision it moving forward?

PoGoDomz: 32:19

The. and I'll be very honest, I lost a little bit of it, but one of the biggest things, with TikTok, may, may be banned or not, but I don't think the whole, idea or notion is going to ever change, but just the idea of going on to TikTok and trying to bridge the community from TikTok to Twitch, To bring more people that are casual into the gameplay and more people that are very passionate to gbl and mesh the two And to broaden our community to make it stronger It was one of the biggest goals I wanted to do to try to get other content creators to not be only stuck on twitch Or even possibly I guess youtube But to do it in other platforms and just to broaden our community because like at the end of the day It's just community is the biggest aspect that We just love, you know, not just only the game, but just people, that's just one of the things I want to do is just is connect that gap a little bit closer and to have a little bit more appreciation amongst everyone that enjoys what they want to do and learning at the end of the day. And, you know, like you said, with all the different skill sets that I have, you know, the thing I would love to do is just continue bringing brand awareness to content creators and, and to find ways to teach. Or to have people teach and learn and understands, you know, ways of branding, advertising yourself, because I think in this day and age, marketing yourself, whatever it may be, if it's, you know, Pokemon go or anything else that you have in mind, even if that's something that you can take away personally, and it should work in every other aspect of your life. And that's just one of the goals that I want to present. So, and I'm just using Pokemon go as a platform to, to communicate that and convey it.

David Hernandez: 33:51

Well Domz, that is an interview. Thank you for your time for coming on the show. Before you do go, if people want to check out your content, if they want to connect with you, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

PoGoDomz: 34:01

You can find me on pretty much every known platform at Pogodoms. That is Twitch, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, and through those links, I do have a bio link, which I don't know exactly that said link, but it has Pogodoms in it and you can find me through my Discord and other channels as well too. If you ever need artwork done as well, you can contact me through any. DM, Twitch is a little bit harder, or at least the notifications don't really pop up so well, but yeah, DM, DM me anywhere, basically, if you're looking for logo designs, or emotes, animation, anything, anything creative, I, I would love to hear it.

David Hernandez: 34:39

Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. If you want to support the show, consider becoming a Patreon by either clicking the link in the description or going to patreon. com slash as the pokeball turns. Now, if you aren't able to support the show financially, you can always support the show by sharing it with your Pokemon community, because this show wouldn't exist without listeners like you. Now, here's a sneak peek for the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.