Shawn Rubel’s (BA ’04) secret to success is all in the details.

The entrepreneur has harnessed his fine art training from Brock University into a successful business, Vecteezy, featuring stock photography, vectors, videos and Photoshop brushes.

“Our mission is to make creative assets available to everyone,” he says, which the company does through a ‘freemium’ business model. The websites attract millions of amateur and professional designers, illustrators and artists seeking design resources each month.

Rubel has built the company up to 70 employees and with plans to expand underway, he hopes to see fellow Brock alumni added to his team in the near future.

“It’s having that connection, knowing you have the same background as someone, to build good relationships,” he says. “The pandemic has really changed the way we work, and we’ve transitioned to a remote work force, which opens us up to hiring talent from all over the world.”

Rubel credits his fine art training at Brock for helping him to see the details in projects, in turn making him a better designer and allowing his business to thrive.

“Brock helped me get a broader sense of the world,” he says. “Brock helped me understand fine arts in general, helped me work on colour and hone my eye to see details.

“Being detail-oriented is a core value at Eezy now, and it’s something that we require all our folks to have,” Rubel says.

After graduating from Brock, Rubel headed to Bowling Green, Ky., to work as a web designer at an up-and-coming web development company. After working as a designer for several years, working with programmers and learning about entrepreneurship, he decided to pursue his broader interests in running a technology start up.

“I was really interested in marketing and how to scale up a company,” he said.

He took a position as an affiliate marketing manager with Camping World, an RV and camping retailer, where he “learned a lot about affiliate marketing and how marketing on the internet works.”

“I went from staring at a computer every day looking at shape and form and colour to staring at spreadsheets, and that was a terrifying experience,” he says.

Needing a creative outlet, he began designing his own website to collect and share Photoshop brushes.

“I knew early on that I wanted to develop a two-sided marketplace. I wanted to build something on my own terms that the world needed,” says Rubel.

Those interested in learning more about Vecteezy and available remote positions can visit Vecteezy.com