By Scarlett Ruggiero
Chris Shomo, a SCAD alumnus (B.F.A. 3-D animation, architecture; M.F.A. architecture) has designed over 230 watch faces since 2016.
After graduating (again) in January 2016, Shomo had the idea to create his own watch face designs for Galaxy Apps. “I decided I wanted a smart watch one day. I went to Best Buy, got the Gear S2 and I was kind of bored with the watch faces on the market right now,” said Shomo. “I Googled how to do it,” he said.
Shomo’s watch face offers many features such as heart rate, miles, calories burned and step count.
Photo Credit: Nick Thomsen
The two designs Shomo put on the Galaxy app brought him $17 the first day. Because of the great reviews, Shomo caught Samsung’s attention. He was invited to the Samsung Developer Conference in 2017, where he presented to hundreds of future watch face designers and taught them the art of watch faces.
“I never knew it would be like this. We just celebrated 500,000 downloads. Soon, hopefully if all goes well, within the next week or so, I should have the top free downloaded watch face [app].”
Shomo shared that his free designs only need to move up four places on the charts, and he will have the most downloaded free watch faces worldwide. As a gift to his downloaders, Shomo gave his most downloaded watch face for free, which previously sold around 1,600 times a day.
“Almost every watch face I do has some sort of hidden animation,” said Shomo.
It works with iOSas well; the only difference is that users don’t have access to download watch faces that cost money.
“Another job that you have to do when you’re a watch face designer…tech support. They contact you before they contact Samsung. Every single morning, I am usually translating emails–you never know in what language it is going to come from–to provide feedback for reviews or tech support.”
Shomo is surprisingly passionate aboutsomething he had started only two years ago.
“A lot of it has to do with the community surrounding it. The customers will reach out, and it’s a happy community. It was really cool working for the Samsung team to get the booth for the conference, and get the presentation put together,” he said.
It’s rare for an architecture and animation major, like Shomo, to meet such success while so many designers struggle. “You can put the best watch face ever out on the market, but if you don’t have the branding and the marketing behind it, it’s not going to sell,” he said. “Professor Woods in the architecture department told me once ‘a product is 10percent your idea, and 90 percent the way you present it.’ If you can’t convey the idea of the product or if it looks horrible, people aren’t going to buy it. So the product is worth nothing.”
He mentioned all the demo videos he made for every watch face design to promote them. Additionally, he created thumbnail images for app stores, social media campaigns and marketing campaigns just to get his watch faces known.
Photo Credit: Nick Thomsen
Shomo explained that most watch face designers don’t promote themselves. “I think I was one of the very first ones to do it, especially for the Samsung smartwatches.”
Shomo also owns his advertising company, Savannah Streetcar Design. “I never sleep basically!” he laughed. “I am the kind of person who needs to do multiple things constantly; my dad was like that, my uncle is like that. I got that from Shomo side.”
Shomo will also be looking for interns, mainly in marketing and design, with experience in Photoshop, WordPress and social media.
“I am really surprised the watch faces took off…it still amazes me every single day. SCAD set me up for it. I am always chasing new technology, I am a mobile geek.”
“You never stop learning,” Shomo said. “There’s new things every single day, everything changes so quickly. In order to become someone’s favorite watch face, you really have to do something other people aren’t doing. [By] throwing the animation aspect into it, things people don’t expect, that’s what makes me stand out.”
Shomo advised students to watch the SCAD Savannah Master Calendar for networking opportunities. “If you’re trying to get jobs in any type of location, go to these networking events, go to these parties. It doesn’t matter if you’re invited or not, go to them because they’re open to the community. You’ll walk out with work every single time.”
