His creative career grew largely out of his ability to express the emotion in the indie, hardcore, and metal scenes of the mid-1990s.
Hess began creating promotional flyers for shows in Cleveland using his own unique vision and a tendency to playing off the band's names and genres.
These flyers soon garnered the attention of countless bands as well as both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Louvre in Paris, who both have Hess' art in their permanent collections.
He has also been featured on television shows and in magazines including TLC, Food Network, MTV, Fuse, VH1, Alternative Press as well as many others.
[2] Derek Hess was influenced by his father, a World War II veteran and Industrial Design professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art.
From a young age, Hess was transfixed by his father Roy's ability to create images of planes and tanks he saw in his mind's eye on the paper.
Beginning his career as a student at the ClA, Hess later transferred to College for Creative Studies in Detroit to focus on graphic design and illustration before settling in on a major in fine art and printmaking.
Hess says one of his biggest artistic influences is Gil Kane's "forced perspective" technique that his father introduced him to.
[3] Hess' technical understanding of human anatomy and fine art education set him apart from other artists of his time.
He also started creating the promotional flyers and posters for the shows using his own unique vision and a play off the bands' names and genres.
The posters interested local art dealer William Busta, who then showed the flyers in his gallery.
Because of Hess' success as a poster artist, he had a built-in fan base when he wanted to make the jump back into fine art.
Hess' aptitude to convey his work through this showcase of fundamentals has helped elevate him from a poster artist to a skilled fine-artist utilizing pen and ink, acrylic paint, and silkscreen prints with handmade separations.
These shows were a collaboration of music and art that featured bands such as Thursday, Shadow's Fall, Stretch Arm Strong, and Taking Back Sunday.
The first Strhess Fest was in 2003 in Austin, Texas during South by Southwest to a capacity crowd featuring Candiria, Every Time I Die, Nora, and Atreyu.
Shaun Morgan of Seether Was photographed wearing a Strhess shirt in the liner notes of One Cold Night, a live acoustic album.
His battle with alcoholism began to affect his art, "The work I was making when I was drunk or hungover wasn't as good as it could be.