Chris Ellinas: How a Passion Project on Behance Landed Netflix — Freelance Design, Digital Nomad Life & Redefining Success | Be Yourself Podcast

Chris Ellinas

Designer & Digital Nomad — how a Marvel fan project on Behance landed a Netflix contract, and what it really takes to build a global freelance career

Watch on YouTube Chris's Behance
35 minutes
Design · Freelancing · Digital Nomad Life

Listen to this Episode

About the Guest

Chris Ellinas — Designer, Entrepreneur & Digital Nomad

Chris Ellinas is a designer and creative entrepreneur whose client roster includes Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon. He started freelancing before finishing design school and built his reputation almost entirely through Behance

His first Netflix contract came from a semi-viral personal project — Marvel-inspired posters he designed just to hang in his own room. Seven to eight years on, he still works with them across languages, from Greek title sequences to trailers and unreleased concepts

Of Cypriot and Vietnamese-French heritage, he grew up in Greece, speaks Greek, French, and English, and now travels as a digital nomad while hosting the Distance to Destination podcast

Expertise
logos, branding, title sequences, and trailers for streaming platforms
Notable Clients
Netflix (7–8 years), Disney Plus, Amazon
How Netflix Found Him
a semi-viral Marvel fan project on Behance — Netflix reached out anonymously before revealing who they were
Podcast
Distance to Destination — launched 2019 as an introvert's self-challenge
Background
Cypriot and Vietnamese-French heritage, raised in Greece, currently traveling in Vietnam

Key Quotes

“

Discipline is doing something that you hate but do it like if you love it.

Chris Ellinas
“

I want to be old and look back and have no regrets about how I lived my life. And I want to feel that I lived 10 lives.

Chris Ellinas
“

There is no finish line. We think we're going to get to that point where you're going to find that specific client and then that's it. But there's no end. You need to still keep going.

Chris Ellinas

Episode Chapters

0:00 Intro 1:40 Mixed Cultural Background 3:41 Getting a Job with Netflix 8:08 A Motive to Go into Entrepreneurship 14:56 Lessons Learned from Netflix 17:11 How to Work for Chris 19:21 Physical Transformation 22:25 The Benefits of Running and Endurance Sports 26:30 Redefined Meaning of Success 30:30 Chris's Podcast

Full Transcript

BTW: This episode of the Be Yourself Podcast is produced by Beverly Media. Also on the show:
Silvia Collepardi — How Luxury Resorts Win Global Markets: SUITE Framework & Hotel Marketing Strategy →
0:00 Intro
Chris One day I get an email. It's from an anonymous source and they say, "We cannot say who we are. We are a big streaming service. We would like to work with you." So I needed to sign a contract before knowing who I'm working with. Something led to this. Did you consider yourself like an ultimate professional at that point? No, not really. And the second was like uh running which I always hated. I never was good at it and I still do not like it. But one day I decided, you know what? I'm going to start to try running and I went online and find the ticket for the next Greek marathon. It's also the thing that I talked about working on something that you don't like, which like when I was in graphic design school, I never
Sergey Hey everyone, welcome to the Be Yourself podcast. the podcast on expressing our true selves. Today my guest is Chris Ellenus who is an entrepreneur with the main expertise in design. He has worked with customers like Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon, creating logos, titles, and even trailers for the movies there. Chris travels the world as a digital nomad. He's got a YouTube where he documents a lot of his travels and also he runs a podcast called Distance to Destination. Chris, welcome to the show, man.
Chris Thank you for having me. It's an honor.
Sergey Yeah, Chris, welcome. Pleasure to be here. I'm really really excited to talk to you. And the first question that I wanted to ask you, um, what is the main thing that surprises people the most when they hear about your journey?
1:40 Mixed Cultural Background
Chris H, good question. Uh, what surprises the most? H, Netflix is a like big name. So usually people will be kind of impressed by by that and they're going to ask me more questions around that for sure. So in terms of business that's one. Um personally I I think it's if I share a bit more about me is like where I come from. So I'm like um very mixed I have a very mixed background. Um, so from my mother's side, my grandparents left Vietnam and they moved to France. My mother grew up in France. So she never learned Vietnamese or anything like that. And my mother is my father is from uh Cyprus. Uh, and he moved to Greece and they met in Greece. So I grew up there. Uh, so I'm like a mix of different nations. All right. As a kid, I used to uh move a lot with my family. Um like changing schools every year. So I think like in a personal uh stories that's the maybe the interesting part.
Sergey Wow. So what languages do you speak?
Chris So Greek, French, and English. Currently I'm trying to learn Vietnamese.
Sergey Man, this this is impressive. Wow, this is really cool because we know that we have le less chance of getting Alzheimer or or any of these uh horrible diseases if we learn foreign languages. This is the fact the scientists establish. Yeah. So, we got to make our brain moving. Yeah. Well, let's talk about uh the business stuff. So this is really really cool that you had an opportunity to work with Netflix and I see that the the cooperation with Netflix it kindled other opportunities working with other big names. So can you tell us a little bit how did you actually get the deal with Netflix? How come?
3:41 Getting a Job with Netflix
Chris Okay. So this happened about seven or eight years ago. Um where I had a good presence on Behance I think. Um some good projects over there. So I was back then I will get I was getting like 95% of my clients through Behance. Um it worked really well for me um in terms of that. And one day I get an email and it's from an anonymous source and they say like we cannot say who we are. We are a big streaming service. We would like to work with you. So I needed to sign a contract before knowing who we're working with.
Sergey What? So I didn't know who who it is but like back then like I didn't know also a lot of uh streaming services. So if you pop in mind I'm like yeah why not?
Chris So the contract was for the first three months to work together and create some Greek uh Netflix titles uh back then. And they worked with a lot of people like there was a lot of um designers around the world, a lot of um companies uh back then. But it was just for three months. Uh after that they liked my work. So they were like let's extend it to one year. So I remember back then it was basically me and another studio and after the year I was from the few people that keep working with them and it has been seven to eight years since and have been working in different languages and different things from trailers to editing to uh some concepts and um yeah a few things that wasn't even public basically.
Sergey And and at that point uh how many years had you dedicated to design? So it something led to this. So h how prof like did you consider yourself like an ultimate professional at that point?
Chris No, not not really. So back then I'm uh just working between jobs like I'm uh in a company as an employee. Um not really making a lot I will say um I'm good compared to others I will say in my age and um for the the years I've been working too. Um I started working freelancing myself before even finishing school. So maybe I had an advantage there. Uh but yeah, I'm in between employee freelancing. So like a mix of both. And it's pretty interesting since I didn't mention that on how they found me and most people found me on Behance was through a specific project that I will say went semiviral. And it's pretty interesting because it was one of my personal projects that wasn't for a client. It wasn't for school. It wasn't for anything. It was just a design I made. Uh I'm I was a big fan of Marvel uh as a kid comics. And I wanted to create some posters for my room basically. So I designed those uh to just print them and put them on my room. And a friend of mine said, "You should put this on Behance." And back then I thought, "I don't know. It's not a real project. But I'll try it." And this went like semiviral. Uh so this is how actually Netflix uh this is the project that I found and uh contact me.
Sergey Wow. Can we put it up here uh right now so that our viewers could see what it all — No. I mean we will put do this in post-prouction. I mean yeah of course I'll share it. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Cool. Uh, and I'm I'm always kind of intrigued by how people branch out and become and become entrepreneurs after being, you know, employed and having like a stable life. What do you think uh sparked this mentality for you? Uh why why do you think you already at that point wanted to maybe do something on your own?
8:08 A Motive to Go into Entrepreneurship
Chris Um I think I always want it. It's like I'm not sure if it's like personality to its uh individual or not or how we grew up or how our brain is connected but definitely it's like every day I will have different ideas and things I want to try. Um, and to be honest, like being an employee somewhere, I I don't know, it's like you never feel like it's yours. Maybe at some point I'll find a company, I'll feel like this. Um, but until now, I never felt this way. And it's completely different to build something of your own. And yeah, I think it's more challenging. I I love the the challenge. So, yeah.
Sergey Yeah. So you love you live uh to take on ambitious tasks. Is that correct to say?
Chris Mhm. Yep. Yep. Once it becomes boring, I I think I lose interest or or once it becomes kind of easy, I'm like, I don't know. I need a challenge. I need something new. I need something more.
Sergey Yeah. But at the same time, you you know, I'm kind of the same because I I get bored really quick. But both you and I, we know that we can only go so much in life without uh patience. And it seems that you've had enough patience in your life to accomplish certain things in different areas. So, uh, how do do you balance, uh, getting bored fast with being able to sustain something for long enough to accomplish something on professional personal field?
Chris I see. Um, so maybe I didn't say that correctly. I wouldn't get bored really easily with something. Uh I'm definitely very patient uh with a lot of things. So I'll keep working and being consistent with it and keep practicing until I become really good at at the thing I'm working on. Mhm. Mhm. Um but when I get to a level that's now that's easy, I need something to challenge me more. So this doesn't mean leave it alone and go to something else. Maybe it's just the next uh stage of my my my my life. Um so as an employee like when you start you'll start junior and then you go mid and then senior and art director and this I don't know for me didn't seem like a challenge. Um so I needed that next stimulation I think next thing to to jump on and work on that. But also you get the freedom to to be yourself when you build something of your own. So that's also something very very important.
Sergey I think you just you just just uncovered the main theme of my podcast because the podcast is called Be Yourself. I even have a merch and yeah and I think that you can only be yourself well you can all absolutely you can be yourself uh while you work as an employee. uh no problem especially when you have if if you have yet found who you are because in first I believe that in the first half of people life we still discover who we really are for some people it happens earlier for some people happens later but until you actually understood and realize who you are you it's totally fine to align with another leader with another brand work for another company whose mission becomes your in the early stage of your life because in the early stage of your life you don't understand what's your mission so other company mission could be a part of yours for for some time but still I think I think we all want this ultimate freedom that you're talking about Chris.
Chris Yeah I'll agree and I I will also encourage most young creatives to exper experiment as much as they can and try different things. Like even if in the beginning you think um I want to be a freelancer or I want to build my own business, become an employee for 6 months, a year just to see how the company operates and learn from this. And maybe you like it, maybe not. But I I think it's good to to try different things. This is what I was trying in the beginning because myself, I didn't know what I wanted to be. like I like drawing and design. So I was like, "Okay, I'm going to go to the graphic design school." But once you get there, you have so many paths, so many different things that you can do. So I was like, "Okay, I know I I want and I need to niche down, but I don't know where, how, what, and how. So, I'm gonna just try different things from, you know, printing to magazines to advertising to 3D to websites to to see what I prefer to do.
Sergey That's what I remember the Neil Degrasse Tyson said that you know this astronomer, right? This this guy. Yeah, it's one of my favorite people actually. Yeah. Neil Neil Degrass Tyson said that his parents he learned a lot from his parents. His parents were constantly trying new things. constantly. So if people are lost, don't be afraid to try things that you don't even think you you're going to luck. Like who knows, right? And travel places and see what people do for a living. There are professions for those of you guys who watch this or listen and you don't know what you want to do in life. There are professions right now that you don't even think are are in existence, right? People pay money for all kind of things. So yeah, I mean absolutely and widening our world view really helps to understand uh where we can apply our talent, right? Yeah. Chris, what have you learned working with Netflix? Some main lessons.
14:56 Lessons Learned from Netflix
Chris Main lessons. Okay. Um h that's a good question. Uh I think because take your time. Yeah, I think to get there you need to work hard. If you want later I'll share the story a little bit more about that. But um you'll definitely need to to work a lot to to to get to maybe to the dream client or like to that level. But once you get there, for me at least, uh I I think this doesn't really define you. So, uh I'll meet people I talked with a lot of people the last years and a lot of them will say to me like, "Hey, you should mention more that you work with Netflix." Okay, I don't know. I I don't want to I don't want this to be like my main thing. Um but I took the advice. I started, you know, implementing putting on social media because like the first years I didn't even have it on my bio. I didn't even really. And I think it's because uh I didn't want it to be like the definition of oh Chris is like the Netflix designer and I feel I'm more than this. So that's probably why.
Sergey Yeah, that's a great lesson, man. For some reason, everyone wants to label everyone. So I think it's easier for human brain to label like him this paint this guy green this guy is blue this one is red and we paint everyone but uh as Tony Robbins says like a human being can be so so many things right and uh as you mentioned you you're you're much more than just a logo designer you're an entrepreneur you're a creator you're a traveler So yeah, this is really cool. Um, so do you have a team, man, or do you work alone?
17:11 How to Work for Chris
Chris So I don't have like a specific team, I will usually work with I I have a few people that we work together all the time, uh, other freelancers, but depending on the project and depending on the client, I'll put a team together and we can um work on that the best way possible. Right now I'm actually working on this idea of a business where it's gonna be implemented a little bit more but it's like nothing is ready. It's just an idea. So nothing to show show about that yet.
Sergey Yeah. And uh if you already hire, how do you hire and how people can get on your team? Oh, or or if you're not hiring yet, how will you hire and what people should do maybe to get to work with you?
Chris Yeah. So, they can send me an email or just contact me on social for sure. Uh right now I've been usually working with people that I know, I have met or people that those people know. um it's like easier and faster and easier to trust people. But this doesn't mean that there is not like incredible people out there that we would love to to meet. And in this idea that I'm working on, I definitely will be researching more uh on people to hire that I don't personally know or someone else know for sure. Um but since you mentioned that usually I will look when I need to hire someone I will look into two things. I will look at a personal project like what they love to do because I would love to hire them for that to do exactly that and I look also at a project that they didn't really like they were forced to do. uh and that's the opposite because I want to see the discipline there and how do they perform when they don't really like the project and what outcome they can do because if they can create a good outcome on something that they don't like working on I can imagine in something that they love it's going to be like amazing.
19:21 Physical Transformation
Sergey This is this is such a valid point and you mentioned discipline. Um I seen your um transformation. I'm sorry if I'm mentioning this but your physical transformation like you you became Thank you. fit and you were not fit. So um is there something about discipline and you know uh endurance sport that taught you in life and maybe that you have applied in in the creative business as well?
Chris I I think it's similar to to the to what I'm looking for someone when they work on something they don't like. Um and um so I used to be fit. Uh I used to be like very like being in a competitive rock climbing as a kid. Oh. So I was very fit and then like life happens and I got injured. I stopped went to graphics school, find a job and I'm sitting all day and I eat a lot of junk food and there was a period where uh I worked a lot of hours and I didn't train at all. Um so eventually I wake up a day I'm like like I have this belly which I never had and I like what's happening. So I needed to to focus and transform myself I think um like um in terms of like like my body at least physically. Um, long story short, uh, I started doing two things that I considered being like like one was going to the gym, which I considered being very boring. I never like the idea to going for to the gym because I liked sports. I wanted a sport. And the second was like uh running, which I always hate it. I never was good at it and I still do not like it. Um, but yeah, one day I decided, you know what? I'm going to start to try running and I went online and find the ticket for the next Greek marathon, which is the the authentic, the first marathon that happened. So, I was like, I'm gonna run a marathon. So the longest I have run before subscribing to that race I think was like 3k something like that. Uh and that like was like very very tough. So I it's like for me the that impossible task of I don't know how I'm going to do it but I need to do it.
22:25 The Benefits of Running and Endurance Sports
Chris Uh so I think like if I kept one thing from that was not running the actual marathon and finishing it. It was like the journey to get there of waking up every morning going for a run, eating properly, exercising. uh and I think this takes discipline and this can also be translated into design, into business, into everything. Um, and it's also the thing that I talked about working on something that you don't like, which um, like when I was in graphic design school, I never liked any of the projects that the the teachers were giving us, but I thought the the exact same thing I I gave you before, like I need to work on this and give the best outcome because if I can do this, then when I have a project that I like, I'm going to be like absolutely destroyed. Uh and Mike Tyson says says that that discipline is doing something that you hate but do it like if you love it. Uh and I truly believe that. Last thing about the marathon while I'm running it and I'm about to finish and there's two kilometers to go. I realize I'm going to finish that and I think like man there is no finish line. Like I started this journey just to run the marathon and then to like I probably will start I will quit after that. I don't want to run anymore. But actually when I finished this is where I actually started running every day more seriously and being like you know what the next step is to go to ultramarathon and run in 100k which now this is my impossible task. And I think that's the same thing about life or business or everything. Like there's no finish line. We think we're going to get to that point where you're going to find that specific client and then that's it. But there's no there's no end. You you need to still keep going.
Sergey So you ran 42 kilometers and uh after that you started running like daily right now it's your part of your routine.
Chris Yeah. Wow man. Mhm. Yep. That's inspiring. Yeah. Well I think the inspiring thing it's that I hate it. You hate it. You hate it. So you need So you inspire people with something that you hate, which is really interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um well, and now I'm traveling. I'm in Vietnam and it's like super humid here and I went for a run. I cannot do like 5K. It's like very very tough. So it's it's even worse now uh while I'm traveling here.
Sergey Yeah. Well, I I I tried to do something like exclusively something that I love. Well, I tried, but I I as a businessman, I have this uh agency. We do YouTube and video production. So, and um I realized that, you know, you can't have only the good things. You have to you're always going to have something that you hate like doing. Like for example, structuring my finances now, which I hate. I'm super, you know, I I'm super not disciplined in terms of running my finances, especially for business. I'm I'm like, "Oh my god." Ah, all this P&L stuff, but you have to do it. And um then, as you said, when you get to the parts of your job that you really enjoy, you're going to appreciate it even more.
Chris Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sergey So, Chris, you you as you said something interesting on my little surveys that I sent you that uh you redefine the meaning of success like how you define success. Can you expand on this?
26:30 Redefined Meaning of Success
Chris Yeah. So I think it's gonna go back to the moment where I started working with Netflix and being also an employee. Um so I was an employee in a company and it was a lot of hours. So I don't know now 14 maybe 16 hours some days of work. So I was going back home usually after midnight. So I was working late in the office.
Sergey Um, so you were working from the office?
Chris Yeah, I was there around 10:00 in the morning and leaving around midnight, sometimes 1 or 2:00 a.m. So, I get home and then basically I need to work on my freelancing which is Netflix and I don't want to disappoint them and that's for only 3 months. So, I I need to push. So, uh back then also I needed to work on their time zone. So, like until 4:00 a.m. usually, something like that. So, I get back home at 1:00 a.m. I work at Netflix and then I also need to order food, which is 4:00 a.m. So, the only things that are open is like usually very very like junk food like McDonald's and things like that. So, every day I do this and then wake up, go back to my job, like my day job, and then freelance and then eat junk food. and I'm like on my desk all day. And this brought like this um like eventually like back then I didn't feel it but after maybe two years I started having having like health issues and more serious stuff which uh wasn't really very good. Uh but about redefining success, I think until that point um I think that the thing that we think about success especially in a younger age at least for me when we grow up will be making a lot of money. Um like especially if you grow up like I haven't grew up into wealth. I I grew up like kind of poor. So like that's my first option usually um like having a good job like success in business or uh being famous right now will be getting a lot of views maybe or followers or things like that. So that's usually how we determine success. Uh but when this happened I realized that I don't want to do this anymore and this is shouldn't be my how I measure success. So I completely changed my mind about all of this and longterm my success is uh being my the best version of myself either physically, mentally, philosophically um spiritually and I want to be old spiritually.
Sergey Yeah. Thank you. Actually, yes. Uh I I want to be old and look back and have no regrets about how I lived my life. And I want to feel that I lived 10 lives. I don't want to feel like I just lived one or even missed in this one. I want to live 10 lives.
Chris Um but long uh shortterm success I will say I just want to have that internal peace and every day being peaceful like inside. And if I I am then it means I'm happy. So that that's my measurement right now.
Sergey Wonderful. Let's talk a little bit about your podcast.
30:30 Chris's Podcast
Sergey Um so I see a description where you uh open up that uh you're uh you started it in 2019 uh as an introvert to challenge yourself. That goes back to what you said about uh you that you want to challenge yourself. So you challenge yourself and now it's been what? Six years, seven years.
Chris Yep. Six years. Yeah. Almost. Yeah.
Sergey And and I see that you invite a diverse range of creators to share their stories on your on your show. So uh are there these people also uh digital nomads also uh people who work for themselves and not staying in one country like is there something about this there?
Chris Uh not really. Uh I usually when I found someone creative that's interesting to me and I would love to learn more about them, I will just invite them. Um and usually in my podcast I try to keep it also as a like a discussion. It's not so uh like an interview I would say. So it's I I generally want to learn about the other person or if I already know their story then yeah we can have a deeper conversation for sure. Um but I I love this you do this in person for the most part.
Sergey I tried to do also a lot of Zoom calls because most interesting people uh are abroad. Um but I did like the part of being able to have like a like a small setup at my house and and have people there and meet them in person. And I have done uh with a few people. I did met them online. So we did the first podcast on Zoom and then they did come to Greece. So we're like okay let's do it now in person. And obviously in person it's way more interesting. There is a different connection, different energy.
Chris So So they they traveled to Greece for to to go to do a podcast, right? No, no, not not just for that. I mean it just happened they were in Greece. But if you ask me what my main goal for the podcast is, uh this is it. It will be having a studio somewhere in the world. I know where and the podcast should make enough money so I can bring whoever I want and I can pay for their flights, their hotel, whatever. And I meet them in person and yep, man.
Sergey I I feel you because this is also my dream. Uh, I don't know where is the studio going to be, but I was thinking something like Portugal because people from the US can come. It's relatively not far from Europe. So, I'm I'm thinking Portugal.
Chris Portugal is clever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Have you lived in Portugal?
Sergey No, I haven't been yet. I've been in a lot of European countries, but not Portugal yet. Yeah, I definitely want to go and also go to the Azors, like the small islands. Um, so yeah. Yeah. Well, we're definitely going to feature your your show here and uh man, I'm like I'm like super I'm going to tell you I'm going to just tell you what it is. I'm envy of the life that you're living and I I I am inspired by you. I'm inspired that you don't waste your time because time is the most precious asset that we have and that you said that I want to look back at my life and like see that I lived like numer multiple of lives that's so cool you know and we can do so many things we can transform so many times we can start uh a fresh so many times and I mean like I I just want to say thank you for being the sheer inspiration that you are, man. Um, any anything you want to leave our — some final message from you as we wrap up?
Chris No, thank you for inviting me. Keep doing the great work. I've seen so many awesome people in your podcast. So, I think keep doing what you're doing and bringing value to to everyone.
Sergey Okay, we'll do. So, Chris, thank you so much and um see you see you soon, man.