Architect to Spudnik

Written by Laura Garcia Gomez. Graphic by Nicholas Latham

We tend to think about our careers in a linear way because that’s what we are used to. From middle school to high school to college and so on, we follow a continuously growing path where one thing leads to another. And so, when we find ourselves graduating from university, we feel the pressure of that first step. Pressure that we have to be careful with the first job we land because it’s going to set the course of our careers forever. We always hear, “Do you know what you want to do after school? What is it that you like about what you do? What is your plan?” Well, what if I told you that is not the only way it works? Life is just there, waiting to laugh in your face every time you think you have it all figured out. So we might need to get into a more adventurous mindset in order to ride the wave of becoming a creative professional.

“Say yes and always try new things.” That should be your mantra. There is no such thing as your future being set in stone. What you are doing now might not end up being related to what you do in the future, and I’m not saying this to discourage you. On the contrary, it’s to try and lift the weight coming with what seem to be life-defining decisions. More often than not, they are hit-or-miss opportunities that do not always rely on common sense, but on listening to your gut. Trust your intuition and follow it. As creatives, we should know how important that is because, whether we admit it or not, we make most of our aesthetic decisions with it.

I’m going to introduce an example of a SCAD alumnus that paints a perfect picture. Have you ever eaten a twice-baked potato bowl at Spudnik on Broughton street? Well, the owner is Andrew Wannamaker. He graduated with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in architecture from SCAD. You may think that being an architect would become his job from then on, only to find out that right after graduation he decided to open a restaurant right there in Savannah and make it as an entrepreneur.

How does one jump from architectural design to making potato bowls? Well, during his time at SCAD Wannamaker got really interested in the way branding was applied to his projects. He thought about how a brand can make it big in the real world and impacts the market by being the first at what it does and doing it really well. With that in mind, he decided to create his own restaurant as a branding project all from scratch. From the name to the recipes to the design (Wannamaker created the Spudnik logo and personalized type on AutoCAD himself) the business came to life. It was inspired by his experience as a student, turning his former classmates into his direct target audience and using those insights to develop his strategy and identity.

Wannamaker says, “One of the things I loved about being at SCAD is that I could explore outside of my major. For example, I took a screenwriting class in grad school, which everyone kept telling me was a waste of time since it didn’t have anything to do with design. But for me, it gave me the skills to later direct my publicity campaigns and craft my brand storytelling.”

Spudnik has been open for 12 years now, and they’re planning to expand to new locations, making Wannamakers abilities in architecture come in handy as he is preparing to design his brand-new building. Who would have thought he would get to use his architecture skills after all? This is only one example of how your career can have a series of turns of events, evolving with every decision and other times surprising you with unexpected casualties.

“Your major in college doesn’t define who you are or what you have to do for a career. But the education you received in your major will give you a unique problem-solving mindset that will help you throughout life,” Wannamaker says.

Don’t be afraid of trying different paths. Be a jack of all trades. Take one step forward and two back. And most importantly, don’t be afraid to fail. Real life is not about being on a constant, linear growing path. It’s about going through the branches, losing yourself only to find that that’s where you needed to be all along. Explore, find secret doors along the way and you’ll see how every part of the journey was worth it because you learned something, and that is what counts.