YouTuber launches own design firm
A new design firm has been launched by Ballynacargy-based YouTuber James Mitchell. Called Lucky Ten, the business provides graphic design, videography and marketing services. Mr Mitchell said he has honed his skills in those areas over an almost 15-year career making videos for YouTube.
Highlights from his career include becoming an ambassador to Ireland for YouTube and reviewing shows for the College Times. He told the Westmeath Examiner that the company name pays homage to the most important year of his life. “I came out as gay in 2010 and it was also the year I started my own YouTube channel, which has been the ball roller for all of this,” said Mr Mitchell.
“The year was a real shift in paradigm for me as I had been lost in every sense of the word, professionally and personally, up until that time. Starting up that YouTube channel was a small action, but it set off the most wonderful avalanche, which got me to where I am today.”
Mr Mitchell said his videos have always been “a mixed bag,” including trips to London or Galway, or offering his thoughts on the latest episode of the X Factor.
His break came in 2015 when a video he posted asking his grandmother what way she planned on voting in the gay marriage referendum went viral. “Everyone has their 15 minutes of fame and that was mine,” he said.
“From there, I started to host Irish YouTube conventions on an annual basis and I became an ambassador to Ireland for YouTube. YouTube flew me and two others to San Francisco, along with people in similar positions all over the world.
“We were organising events for YouTube at Google’s HQ in Dublin monthly after that, I did that for two years until the programme ended globally – it was so much fun.”
He decided to put the skills he developed to use in the corporate world. “I’ve been doing design in the background the whole time for myself, other YouTuber’s and businesses,” said Mr Mitchell.
“After a while, I decided to go back to college as a mature student. I went to DCU and studied in their multi-media programme as a mature student while also working, while also YouTubing – it was a hurricane three years.”
That led to him launching his own design firm. “We do graphic design, videography, motion graphics and some marketing as well,” he said.
“I have experience with small businesses and I would quite regularly work on things like wedding invitations – it’s a mixed bag.”
Included in Lucky Ten’s list of clients so far is The Shed Distillery in Leitrim, which produces Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin.