“If rappers can have a nom de plume that has nothing to do with their legal name, why can’t graphic designers? And I love an alliteration,” says Andrei Dominiq, who goes by the moniker James Junk.

“When I chose the name, at that point, I had like 600 followers on my Instagram, so no one was paying attention. Then I got busy with school and life and forgot to change it, and here we are. It’s too late to change it now, and I don’t really have a desire to either. This is me.”

Based in LA, Dominiq found his groove with graphic design after taking a class during his marketing degree. When Covid struck, he and his classmates were sent home and Dominiq found solace in sharing his newly acquired design skills on Instagram. Slowly he began creating work outside of his assignments. “In the end, I just fell in love with it and knew I needed to make the switch. Initially I thought it might be crazy to throw away two years of studying marketing, but then I realised it would be crazier to not listen to myself and my gut. This was just the way it was supposed to happen.”