Takeover Tuesday Catarina Alves
An interview with Catarina Alves (AKA itsacat): a Graphic Designer and Illustrator born in Portugal who is constantly diving into the world of shapes and colours to bring them to life through animation.
Interviewer: Bella Alfonsi
Read time: 5min
Bella:
Thanks so much for joining our Takeover Tuesday series, Catarina! Please introduce yourself for the people who aren’t familiar with you.
Catarina:
Thank you for having me! I'm so happy! I'm Catarina, an illustrator and designer. I was born in Porto and currently live in Amsterdam. I've always been interested in art because my parents are both artists, so I studied graphic design.
I currently work as a designer/illustrator for the animation industry.
Aside from my work, I have a cat called Jimi and I'm obsessed with him (he reminds me of the Chinese lucky cat, fat and fluffy).
One of my hobbies is scuba diving but, now that I live in the Netherlands, it seems nonsense haha. However, it's something that makes me completely disconnect and feel like I'm in a whole different world. So, whenever I go on vacation, I try to go to destinations where I can dive to detox from the whole year I've been in front of a computer.
I'm also obsessed with food, and I love trying new restaurants with different concepts.
Bella:
How did you get into the motion design industry?
Catarina:
I started studying Graphic Design, and then I had the opportunity to work in a video mapping company. I began to explore 3D and 2D animation, so I took a postgraduate course in motion design. From that moment onwards, I had worked in an animation production company in Barcelona for five years.
However, keyframes weren't exactly what I wanted to do, mainly because my background was in design, so I started working more as an illustrator/art director for animation. Everything I learned in animation made the transition easier, as I began to understand better how to develop ideas and to design for the animation world.
Welcome illustration for Catarina’s website.
Bella:
What’s your experience been like working with Buck?
Catarina:
I'm really glad about this new step in my career. I had spent three years as a freelancer and, although it was something I loved doing, I have always had the ambition to work at Buck and develop my skills alongside their team.
Sometimes, changing from freelance to full-time can be challenging because both have pros and cons. But, so far, it's been a great experience to work with a team again, absorb wider knowledge, and grow professionally.
When we have such a talented team, sometimes we can feel pressured about your work, but, at the same time, we can learn more and understand that everyone has the same fear. So, we need to start believing in our skills. Nothing is impossible.
Bella:
I love all of the different characters you create. How do you give unique personalities to each of them?
Catarina:
Oh, thank you so much! I don't have an answer to that because I don’t have a very defined style like some artists. I try to absorb a bit from my day-to-day life and gain inspiration; which means that most of the things I develop are very trial and error oriented.
I have always had some difficulty in drawing certain body parts and I started doing it regularly so that I would feel more comfortable in that area. That’s why nowadays I really like drawing hands with different proportions.
I like exploring different styles, namely 3D realistic drawings, and more minimalist images…
When I don’t feel that inspired, I look up for photos I like and stylize the character as much as possible. That helps me develop my skills and explore my creativity.
Forbes Virtual NFT Billionaire Character Illustrations
Bella:
What’s the workflow like when combining 2D with 3D?
Catarina:
I've always loved mixing media between 2D and 3D, and for that reason I’ve been working a lot with Jonas, as he is a 3D designer. One of the best things when you team up with someone is trying to take the most out of the other person’s skills.
So I started creating some drawings, and then Jonas would do the modelling. After that, I could explore different textures, colours, and ideas.
I began to feel that some of the things would work better in 2D rather than 3D, so I decided to replace some 3D elements. Then, we realized that it works and brings character to our work.
Bella:
Is there a project you’ve worked on that stands out as a favorite to you?
Catarina:
One of the projects I loved doing was for Forbes. I was lucky enough to have all the freedom to design this project. The idea was to create different characters that could work as a toolkit.
I started by developing the first sketches, working on proportions, and exploring different eyes, hair, and clothing.
The challenge was to integrate 2D well into 3D. So the same eyes or hair could work on other faces. I felt really happy with the result, and the client did too, which was very important to us.
Another one was a secret pitch, I really enjoyed working on it. It consisted in an animation video using paper characters. When I saw the references for the first time, I thought, “Omg, what am I going to do with those paper references, how can I create some cool characters using paper?” So it was a challenge!
At the end, it turned out to be an incredible assignment, one I couldn’t even imagine it would have such a new and different result. For me, developing the animals was a challenge because I wanted them to be singular and, at the same time, to be able to build them up on paper. We nailed it because we had finally found a graphic style with which we identified ourselves.
I share with you my favourite animal.
Bella:
What/who inspires you?
Catarina:
Lots of things and people. It’s something that happens naturally on a daily basis. I learn something new every day, whether through a conversation, a project I've had the opportunity to collaborate on, or just something I've seen.
I'm a person who is constantly overthinking about everything but also very emotional at the same time, so, sometimes, the way to get my feelings out is through drawing. So, my biggest inspiration is my daily life.
Caterina’s favorite animal.
Bella:
What advice do you have for getting out of a creative rut?
Catarina:
When I feel blocked, I try to get out of my routine, see something new, take a different route, and try to meet someone I haven't met for a long time, but who will bring me something new. Nowadays, it’s very normal to feel blocked; there’s so much going on around you that sometimes it makes you feel too small.
Most importantly, we should respect that sometimes we need time and space and not push ourselves too much; take your time.
Bella:
How would you describe your brand/style?
Catarina:
It’s a tricky question; I’ve never thought about it. It was something I developed when I started freelancing since it's important to show more solidity and to keep up to date. Whenever I develop a new project, I try to explore other styles within "my" style. I don't like to feel that I'm always doing the same thing because I end up building limitations and not growing professionally.
I think that the best way to describe my brand/style is as friendly and with a great connection with graphic design.
Some of Catarina’s personal illustrations!
Bella:
Anything coming up that you’re excited about?
Catarina:
There are many things, but I’ve been working on a toy, in collaboration with my partner, Jonas, for some time. I've almost finished the design, and now we're working on the modelling to print and paint it. We will do everything in-house because we had already explored some prototypes a year ago and want to do everything from scratch. The idea will be to develop a limited edition. I love drawing something and bringing it to life; I think it’s quite special.
Still from Catarina and Jonas animation and illustration course.
Meet the speakers: Loe Lee
An interview with Loe Lee: an illustrator and art director based in New York
Q&A hosted by Ashley Targonski.
Read time: 15min
Ashley:
Loe, it's great to have you here. I think we can begin by introducing yourself.
Loe:
Yeah, my name is Loe Lee. I am an illustrator and art director here based in New York. Some people I've been lucky enough to work with would be Coca-Cola, the Democrats, VICE, and Uniqlo. I've been both on the agency and the vendor side. One thing that I can usually lend is a bit of experience from both. Recently, I went full-time freelance.
Project with Havas Atlanta for Coke Coffee
Ashley:
How did you get into illustration and art directing?
Loe:
I first started getting into illustration when I worked at an agency called Translation. This was years ago. We did a lot of advertising work. In some of those cases it kind of lent itself to illustration. The first illustrations I did was for a brand back then called Google Play Music. We did illustrated animations that would play together and become social posts. So it was a social rebrand for them. My style back then, since I was just getting into it, was actually mostly vector, especially for animation, but it kind of sparked my, like, "Oh, I can actually do illustration for work." Because before that I was just drawing in my notebook and on coffee cups.
Ashley:
Yeah. It's really cool to realize that something that you love doing can actually be your way forward and how you make money. I know that you create a lot of different illustrations for different platforms like: digital, motion, murals and print, and all kinds of different mediums. How do you balance what to focus on?
Loe:
That's one thing that I feel like I'm weirdly good at. I think because I have a design and art direction background, when I was just doing pure design, I was made to work with all kinds of vendors. So I think that experience of being like, "Okay, well, if I have to break this illustration down for motion, I know what I need to do." Just because I've messed up so many times in the past. For print, I think it's probably not as hard as people think. I think everything is about getting the specs right.
Ashley:
You mentioned earlier that you just went full-time freelance. What made you make that switch from full time? Because I think the last time we interviewed you for a Mograph Lunch, you were just starting at VICE, which is really interesting to see your path to now..
Loe:
I know, I feel like my path is definitely not linear and crazier than I want it to be. I really loved VICE. It was so great. The team was amazing. We worked on a bunch of wonderful projects together. At the same time, I was doing a lot of freelance work. To the point where, if I have to be super honest, I didn't have a social life. I didn't sleep that much. Because after work, I would go home and do work. I would do work on the weekends. Even when I went on vacation and I traveled with my partner or my friends, I was doing work. I was constantly working. I felt like, "It's been kind of tough, I think, on my body for a long time." Doing the freelance thing, I guess I was nervous, because I was like, "Oh, well, I feel like the job is very secure." So many people feel that way. Especially in New York, it's so expensive.
At the end of last year, there was a lot of craziness within the corporate world. There's a lot of restructuring within all the companies. That is also true with the companies I was at. After VICE, I was also at another agency for a little bit. But with all the restructuring, coupled with all the freelance work, I it just wasn't sustainable. It was impacting my health a little bit, which I promised myself I would never do. So I just made the leap within the new year. I was like, "You know what? New year, let's try it out."
Illustrated animation for VICE’s Global Logo ID series
Ashley:
Yeah, that was going to be one of my questions, how do you balance a full-time job and your freelance work? I think that would be difficult for anyone, of course. Especially when it's starting to affect your health. I'm hoping that now that you're fully freelance, that's been a good shift for you.
Loe:
Yeah. I think it's definitely possible with the right parameters. If you're like, "Well, I'm only going to take one freelance job a month."it's definitely a balance.
Ashley:
Yea, and I noticed a theme of your work is mental health. Going into that a little further, I know you focused on sleep towards the beginning. Why was that a focus of your earlier work?
Loe:
This is something that I think I talked about mainly when I first started illustrating. When I was in college, I had this mental health issue that I never really had before. Basically, I had insomnia. It wasn't really something that I had before my twenties. I think a lot of mental illnesses do get diagnosed within your twenties. When I got that, I just suddenly wasn't sleeping for a really long amount of time, and it was starting to impact my life at school. I was passing out randomly. Since I was in New York, I was passing out on the subway. Just because of my sleep, I wasn't regulating it at all. There was nothing really I felt like triggering it. I mean, consciously, I wasn't staying up all night working, right? It's just you tossing and turning, walking around at night. It got to a point where I had to take a medical leave for a semester to deal with it. During that semester where I went to get help, at first, I didn't really know much about mental health back then. That was years ago. I had to go back home to my family, but my family thought I had a brain tumor or something like that. I was going in and out of all these x-rays and scans and MRI seeing what was wrong with me, because, of course, it had to be something physical, right? And then when someone suggested that maybe it was mental, even I kind of rejected it because I never really knew about it growing up. It wasn't really something that was taught to me. The only thing I really knew about was depression and I didn't feel that I was depressed. So to me, things weren't really connecting. But once I learned more about insomnia, what triggers it, how it's not just physical.
Personal project titled “Time to Recharge.”
When I went back to school for my thesis, I wanted to explore that theme more. So I did this project called A Hundred Ways To Worry. I interviewed a hundred people. I collected their biggest worry at the time and I turned it into an illustration book. And then when you flip the book, it has an affirmation. It was a project where you have one thing that you're really grateful for or you're really proud of and one thing that you're worrying about. And then I also made them into cards.
So when I gave them to the recipient ... Only they know. It's all anonymous. Only the recipient knows their own worry and story. The test was like, "See if you're still worried about this in a year or two." A lot of those people have said, because I know them personally, "Yeah, it's kind of funny because this is something I'm not worried about anymore." It shows that a lot of our worries, I mean, not all of them of course, are transient. That project was received really well.
100 Ways to worry project.
Ashley:
Yeah. That's really cool. Because I think when you're in it, it's hard to step back and be like, "This won't worry me in a few years." How do you feel like that experience made you grow as an artist? Or did it help you at all as you continue to grow?
Loe:
It definitely did. A lot of questions that people ask me is how I got my style. I always tell people there's no formula to finding your personal style. I think that just continuously drawing things that you like, you'll notice yourself gravitating towards certain colors and themes. For me, because I had a lot of anxiety, I tended to draw things that were calming. So a lot of blues, a lot of soft colors, and a lot of themes where it kind of brings it back to this dreaming, calm state. Honestly, that pervades a lot of my personal work today because that's when I'm the most content, just lying at home, putting HGTV on the TV for background noise and just drawing something that calms me down. I think that's just something really prevalent in city life as well because there's always so much hustle and bustle, especially when you go outside your home or apartment when you go to work. So it's just one of those things where that theme at least helps bring some peace into my life. It's something that I want to put into the world.
Personal project highlighting Loe’s style.
Ashley:
Yeah. I love that. As you've been creating your style, it's interesting to see how you've incorporated that into different brands. What's something that you start to think of when you get a new client and you're trying to meld those two styles?
Loe:
A lot of my work recently has been commercial work. I'm trying to put more personal work out there, but it's definitely a balance. At first when I started doing commercial work, I bent a lot to the brands. Especially before, I wasn't as confident in what I was bringing, in my direction or my style. So I was like, "Okay. I'm putting really hardcore branding in there." Because I'm like, "This is for a brand. I'm just happy to be here,"But I think now, very luckily, when people approach me, they know it's going to be a mix between real life and a little bit of fantasy or a little bit of whimsy.
Every single client is definitely different, so I think the key is always to ask those questions in the beginning. Something I always ask is, "How strongly should I be taking from your brand cues or your brand style guideline?" Because sometimes people are really strict, and sometimes they want you to do something entirely on your own. I think one example would be ... Even when I was working at VICE, obviously my style and VICE's style is very, very different. I know VICE is a little bit grittier. Sometimes it can get a little bit gross, sometimes it gets a little bit scary, so how can I implement that into what I bring to the table and meld those styles together? Sometimes it takes a lot of reworking, a lot of noticing little things, like VICE uses a lot of black. They use a lot of gritty textures, things like that. So just noticing those small details and adding that to my illustrations. When I worked with Uniqlo, for example, I think our brand messageswork together really well, positivity, vibrancy, living on the edge of helping people in their everyday lives versus going towards a little bit of fantasy. So when I worked with them, they were like, "Go crazy. Have fun. Do what you do." As long as it pertained to their theme, which was living vibrantly in New York. So it really depends, but it's definitely a sliding scale.
Ashley:
When you were first starting out and you had started to develop your style, was it nice to have your personal artwork on your website? Did that help people come to you for brand work?
Loe:
Definitely. I would say that's the biggest advice I give people who are starting out, is that a lot of times people, even for me, too, when I hire for something or when people hire me for something, they want to see the literal thing, which is really funny. Once I was pitching myself for these Subway ads. They were like, "Well, but have you done a Subway ad?" I was thinking to myself, "I haven't illustrated a Subway ad, but I've done plenty of print, so I'm not really sure what the difference is." The difference is there's really no difference. Honestly, now that I've done it so many times. It's just the specs. As long as you work with the specs, it's really the same as any print project.
Hope in the streets of NYC
One thing that I urge is that if you do a personal project, the funniest thing is even if you put it on a mock-up just to show what it would look like, and you post it online, it does get you hired for that specific dream project much easier. I don't think there's any problem putting that mock-up onto your site. I think what’s happening ... at least on my end, after I was doing more mood boarding and direction ... A lot of times, art directors have to do things really quickly. You have a time limit. Sometimes things have to go really fast. There's a quick turnaround.
So when I'm doing a coffee bag, for example, and I see, "Oh, this illustration's amazing, but I have to show some illustration on coffee bags. But for me to mock them up, it's going to take time that I don't have." If I already see on Pinterest, on Behance, or something like that, I can quickly grab it and put it on the mood board and present it, and then find the illustrators who worked on it. It's very easy to grab and see it so literally. It's so easy to pitch yourself and for the agency or the art director to pitch you to the client. Because a lot of clients, they're not art directors, so they can't tell you can do it until they see it.
Ashley:
Yeah. I was going to say, I think some clients ... There's some study about this, where creative people can actually see things in their mind on an object and other people can't. So when you're trying to pitch something to someone who's in an industry that doesn't require that skill, they just can't see it. So that is a really cool thing, if you have it on your website, they're like, "Okay, I already know that they can do this because it's there. I see it. It's tangible." When you get new work, what are clients and projects that you try to take on? How do you differentiate what you want to take on versus what you say no to?
Loe:
I think, definitely last year, when I was super busy, I was much pickier. This year, I'm much less picky because now I'm doing this full time. But I think things that I was really picky about is if it's a project that doesn't really match my style very well, but for some reason they want me to work on it. That happens a lot, actually. I'm not really sure why, but I think they want to see if I can fit the mold. But if the mold is really just so different from what I offer, I don't really take those projects on as much.
I think one other thing is if I see red flags in the process, the pitching process. For me, that would be wanting an answer within ... I know everything is rushed, but if a client or an agency messages me and then I don't answer in an hour, they're like, "Hey, we need this right now." I'll be like, "Hmm. I feel like the process is going to be really crazy." If I don't get back to them immediately, it seems like a fire drill. Everyone's different. A lot of people are probably like, "That's totally fine and normal." But for me, that's an indication of what the process is going to be like.
Or if you get asked so many questions down to the wire, especially when it comes to licensing, I think those are red flags as well. For example, there was one project where they're like, "Yeah, you're just going to do this one thing." And then in the license it would be, "For print." Even though what we discussed was just going to be a card. It'd be like, "Print is vague. It should really just be, 'For this card, for this amount of time.'" And they're like, "Well, we want to include, 'For print,' and leave the timeline open-ended, but the price is the same." Of course that's a big red flag. So you're like, "Maybe this is not for me," because you don't want to get in a place where your card is now a promotional poster which you didn't get paid for. Little things like that. Otherwise, I try to be pretty open to the projects.
Ashley:
Yeah. Sometimes they don't fully know how to build a contract. But it is good, as you were saying, to create those parameters. Be like, "Actually, this should just be what we agreed upon, the card, not all print materials."
Loe:
Mm-hmm.
Ashley:
When you think about art direction or something that would need more of that type of work, do you go about it differently than you would just starting an illustrative project?
Loe:
Yeah, I definitely do. Most times when I do just an illustration and it's a one-off, they know my style and then they come for that specific thing. Of course, they have their own brief and concept, but they want me to do my thing, in simple terms. But sometimes whens a bigger project especially a branding project, they want to see where you will take it. That's where I think the design direction comes in. Because at least for me, I'm very familiar with making decks, especially decks that tell the style and the story of where the direction is heading. So I think that's really where it comes into play. Because then you could be like, "Okay, well, this direction is sliding scale of your style. So here is very commercial. Very, oh, more standard, more commercial, very digestible and approachable"
And then, "Here is something that's really outside of your box. It still has some nods to your brand, but this is really pushing the limit and bringing it a little closer to what my personal style is." A lot of times I like to present one safe option, one wild card, and then something in the middle. When you do those three directions, it's usually a longer deck. It's a longer presentation. It's a longer pitch. But I think for those, it's more like a walkthrough and more of ... Not like a sell, but yeah, it's kind of like your pitch of these ideas, and the rationale behind it. All that good stuff that people are really familiar with when they're trying to sell a client something. And then some of the one-off illustration projects, it's like, "Okay, they're coming to me, I'm going to do my thing, and then we're going to collaborate on that."
Ashley:
I did want to talk about your mural work a little bit because I really love it and everything that goes behind it. I wanted to talk about your Care for Chinatown project. I don't know if that's still ongoing, but if you want to talk about what started it, what inspired it, and then how that went.
Loe:
Yeah. I actually really want to get back to mural work because last year I just could not do it, because it just takes so much time. Because you have to be onsite for days at a time, which I couldn't do. I couldn't take off from work. But for the Chinatown project, that was during COVID and that's when we started working from home. My family's from Chinatown. That's where they immigrated to in the sixties. So we have a lot of roots here. And I have seen this area change within the last 30 years. My family's still here. I'm living here currently. We're just very ingrained in the culture here, in the neighborhood. But it was during COVID, I think that ... It was no mystery that there was a lot of ostracization and xenophobia here.
Here in Chinatown, as you may imagine, it is an extremely popular tourist site for New York City. It's one of those things that everyone always hits and goes to. But during COVID it was like a ghost town, which I've never seen, ever. Except maybe when I was growing up, when it wasn't that safe back then. But now it's very bustling. I think that during that time there was also a lot of ... There was a lot of violence. There was a lot of vandalism. People were coming to the area to mess with the people here, the neighborhoods here and the residents. It was just really tough and difficult for all of us, I think, because nobody is really supporting the restaurants anymore. It was a really tough time for the Chinatown neighborhood, in general. Dealing with the racism, the lack of business, all this vandalism, which we don't have money to repair for.
There is an organization that banded together, which is Welcome to Chinatown. It's actually a lot of working professionals that are younger, that came together to kind of help revitalize the neighborhood. Because one obstacle that was happening,, is that a lot of the residents that are part of the culture, like the people who own the local shops, are family run. Those families immigrated here to give their children a better life, mine included. They worked really hard And then that's really an older generation that is still there because the kids like me, we have more of an office job. That's what that generation wanted for my generation.So those generations aren't always coming back to do the family business.
A lot of those times, those restaurants or those small businesses, they don't know anything about social media. They don't know anything about marketing. That's not really a thing. A lot of people, they don't even know English. So it's really hard to market an area if you're not physically there. So what Welcome to Chinatown did is ... because they have a lot of savvy people. There's actually a lot of marketing people in that organization. They created the campaign, the website. They throw events. They do experiential stuff. All throughout Chinatown, they plan stuff. When I saw them start doing that, they also rearranged the restaurants to ship food to the hospitals, because there's a lot of hospitals around us as well.
Ashley:
Yeah.
Loe:
Because the hospitals were overworked, and then they needed the food. And then the same thing with the restaurant scene of the business. So that partnership really helped a lot of people. When I reached out to this organization, one thing that they wanted me to do is help do these art projects or these murals within the community and for businesses that wanted them. Of course it'd be donated, and then we would raise the money for the supplies. It was really great.
Sins
Loe Continued:
What I really loved is that a lot of times for these projects, they also f turned into mural workshops. It was all planned out. It would be announced where you could go. You would have to get access, of course there was one mural where we did it in the community center. All the kids there helped out. They honestly painted the mural way more than I did. I mean, they did most of the work Once you showed them what to do, they're like, "Oh, this isn't so hard." And then they were able to take it away. When I say kids, I mean kids in high school.
Ashley:
Oh, I was thinking little kids!
Loe:
I was like, "Ah, painting murals, and then they're swinging the paint brush." That'd be really cute, but I think the people at the offices would not like that ... But no, they're high school kids. They're really interested in art and they're going to go to college soon. I think that was really close to my heart \There's a big organization called CPC. They help the lower income communities here. My family was part of CPC when they were growing up. They took them off the streets. So to be able to help the kids of this generation in CPC, earn more about art and that this is a viable career path, I think that was probably the best part of the whole project. More than just making pretty murals, which is really fun. But just showing that there are ways that you can help the neighborhood and it could be done through design and art.
Ashley:
Yeah. I love that there's a community of people that are, like, "Here's how we can help," and that you were able to be a part of that.
Loe:
Yeah.
Ashley:
I was curious, to pivot a little bit, about your thoughts on AI. Especially being an illustrator, is there anything you're worried or excited about with the topic of AI?
Loe:
It's really funny because everybody's talking about this, right? All the illustrators are like, "Oh, my God, the AI is going to make us obsolete," all these things. My old boss was like, "Who says we're not obsolete already?" And I was like, "Oh, my God.." But I don't know, it's definitely interesting. I think there are a lot of ways that AI can help people. There's some people I know that it's actually helped them find, for example, gaps within their resume, gaps within their writing. They're not trying to copy it, but it's helped them learn and improve. So things like that I think is really helpful. But when it comes to I guess the AI generating of images, I do think it can help you generate new ideas if you're feeling stuck. But I think it's definitely a tricky topic. It's one of those things that's like, "I don't really know who asked for this, but here it is."
Ashley:
Yeah.
Loe:
Right? It's to make art, I think, more accessible to a population who doesn't really specialize within the industry. For me, I'm probably not the target audience for an AI art generator because this could go as a direct competition to my work. But I still think that there's definitely a missing element that only humans can create or provide. A lot of the projects that you get, of course it has to do with art, but a lot of it is also about collaboration.
We can only hope that through the proper channels people will want to work with artists themselves. When people go back to the Polaroids and the records, or things like that, even though it's a really weird comparison, you still want to work with people. You still want to work with specific artists and specific agencies and specific companies. So I don't think it'll be a dystopian robot takeover.
Ashley:
Yeah. I think we hit on earlier, people come to you for your style, but then also because of that collaboration. So I think it's, as you were saying, hand in hand. You have to be able to create the art, but then you also have to be able to work with the brand, meld the two brands together, understand your client. There's so much more that goes into that. I know a lot of people are afraid of AI, but I think I feel the same way as you do.
Loe:
Mm-hmm.
Green Day
Ashley:
I just have some questions for advice for illustrators. My first one is, what advice would you give someone trying to get into the industry as an illustrator?
Loe:
I think if you're looking to do more commercial or branding work, putting those mock-ups on the site like we talked about and showing that, oh, you can adapt your style towards these different brands, I think that helps a lot in terms of selling yourself.
In terms of just putting it out there, sometimesI feel like a lot of people put a lot of pressure on social media. Where they're like, "Oh, I'm going to post this artwork," let's say on Instagram. Then they're like, "Huh, that sucks. Nobody saw it." And then you're like, "Oh, What's even the point of doing this?" But I think spreading it across different platforms, you have Dribble, Behance, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, all these things.
You never know who's going to see it. Sometimes when I talk to art directors, as the vendor, they'll show me the mood boards. And then the pieces where all I did was put it on Behance or put it on my own personal website, because I was like, "Oh, no one's going to see this. It's a niche little thing that only I like." If I see it on the mood board, I'm like, "How did you find that?" So you really never know how anybody finds you. Because I think someone was like, "Yeah, I saw you on a blog post." And I was like, "Wow, that's so crazy," because that's the last place that I would think. But you really don't know. Or someone was like, "Yeah, I saw your stuff on LinkNYC," which is those charging ports on the street. I was like, "Oh, that's so funny." Sometimes, I think we put a lot of pressure on social media and it kind of discourages us to put the art out there. You never know who's going to see, so I still think putting it out there is fine. It can never hurt you.
Ashley:
Mm-hmm. I think that's great advice. Because it could just be a random passerby looking at something, and like, "Who is this artist?" That's really cool. And then I know that you ... I don't know if you're still represented by an agent, but at one point you were. Are you still represented?
Loe:
Yes, I'm still represented by the same agent, Rapp Art.
Ashley:
Can you talk about the process of getting an agent? And then any advice you would have for someone who's looking for one.
Loe:
Oh, yeah. I think this is something that a lot of my friends ask me when they want to switch to illustration. When I applied for an agent, I went on these industry sites, like ADC or Society of Illustrators or Director of Illustration to see who my favorite illustrators were represented by. That was how I saw this list, or I made this list of reps that I really wanted to apply to.
When you see someone, you're like, "Oh, I really love this artist," and they're represented by Rapp Art or Debut or something like that, you want to apply. At least for me, I had to cold apply. Of course you get mostly silence. At that point, I just started doing illustration. I always thought when I got a rep that I'd be like, "Oh, my God, my life is set. I got a rep. They're going to be throwing me work constantly. I'm totally set." When I finally got into Rapp Art/Mendola, I was ecstatic, because I really love a lot of the artists in there. I love the whole team now. They're so great. I couldn't live without them now.
But there's definitely a reality check in that, just because you have a rep, it doesn't mean that you're going to get a constant stream of work. You still have to put in the work to get work. A lot of people are like, "Oh, I just want a rep so I don't have to do this outreach pitching anymore." And I'm like, "No, You're going to be doing that still. Make no mistake, that is still happening." At least for me, I think a lot of the work I get is 50% myself and 50% the agent. There's a lot of agencies where if you get the work yourself, you may not have to pass it off to your agent. It depends on your contract.
That's part of it too. They've thrown me a bunch of really great projects. I think that's a great way of how I got started. But now, it's more like 50/50. I would say I got my first really big project from them. And then once you do a good job on that project, then I think more projects start rolling in. But instead of depending on your agent to get you work, you guys are working together in tandem to get work together.
Ashley:
Yeah. I didn't even realize, when I first got into the motion industry, that agents were a thing. So it's so cool to see that it could be a good partnership for people in the industry.
Loe:
Yeah. I think for anyone looking to be represented, I would definitely do a deep dive on the reps you're looking at. Because I love Rapp Art. And then there's other ones that have over a hundred people on the roster.One thing I hear is that if there's a lot of people on the roster sometimes you can get lost in the list and you don't get any work. The agent doesn't know you as well, you're new, so you don't always get mentioned.
If that agent who has 500 artists doesn't really remember you in that moment, and they always pitch the same, let's say 100 people, then I would say, yes, that is tough, because that's something that I've heard from other artists. But at the same time, when you have a roster that's 10 people or 20 people, it's much harder and more competitive to get in, as well. So I would do research on what you want.
Ashley:
Yeah. I think that's great advice. For someone who is struggling to find their style or niche within the industry, do you have any advice for them?
Loe:
I think my biggest advice is always just to keep drawing. You don't always have to share what you draw. I know an artist that's like, "I really like Adventure Time." And then they started drawing a lot of stuff like Adventure Time. But then eventually, as they kept drawing, they're like, "Well, I like different things. I'm a different person." So eventually they start going more in the direction of what they like.
When I started drawing, I really liked a lot of black and white ink artists. Because I didn't own an iPad or anything like that, so I was just drawing on ink and paper. I didn't learn illustration either, so that's the way that I started. I always list an artist named Maggie Enterrios. She's also known as Little Patterns on social media. I was in love with her drawings in college. I've told her this. So I was drawing just like her when I was in college, in my notebooks. But of course, if you look at my style now, it is just so different from that. I also love artists like Dave Arcade. I love movies from Studio Ghibli. I think you take all these inspirations and you eventually find what your own thing is. It's kind of annoying to say, because that's not the easy way. It's just like, keep doing it, keep doing it, and it takes so long, but it's really the only way. It's like learning how to cook. It's like, yeah, you can do a quick workshop on how to cook these things, or you could do a quick training, but to really find the nuances of it, and find what you like, and discover, "Oh, this is my way," you have to just keep doing it.
Ashley:
Mmm-hmm.
Loe:
As long as you keep drawing and finding things that you like, what make you unique, you'll eventually find your own themes, things that you like to draw, ways that are more comfortable for you. You'll find it, but you just have to actually put in the work to doing it. You know?
Ashley:
Yeah. Kind of like learning the rules before you break them.
Loe:
Yeah, exactly. That's the way I did it, anyway. I was kind of emulating a bunch of people I liked. And then eventually you become confident in what you like and your direction, and you find yourself. In a cheesy way.
Ashley:
No, I love that. I think especially with media now, seeing all of these different artists and being inspired by so many people, I think that's a great starting point. Find what you love that's out there, and then build off of that.
Well Loe, it was great to meet you and I’m really excited for you to speak at the bash later in the year!
Loe:
Yeah. It was great talking to you too. Good to meet you!
Meet the speakers: Ariel Costa
An interview with Ariel Costa AKA Blink My Brain: an Emmy award winning Creative / Animation (mixed-media) Director based in Los Angeles, CA.
Q&A hosted by Mack Garrison.
Read time: 15min
Mack:
Ariel! Welcome. We're thrilled to have you come to The Dash Bash!.
Ariel:
I'm honored.
Mack:
I'd love to find out where Blink My Brain started. What's the idea for it? Where did you get the idea that you can make the weirdest stuff out there and make it commercially viable?
Ariel:
But it's not for all brands. I'm aware of that, but that's okay. I passed the point that I was trying to fit in and trying to make my craft more popular. When I mean popular, I mean more accessible for clients.
I've been working with Motion Graphics for almost 15 years now. It's been a while. During this timeframe I've been trying to explore and do all kinds of animation. I dove my feet into 3D a little bit, and cel animation. But collage was always part of me because I remember when I was a kid, I usually cut out characters from my mother's magazines to make action figures.
Mack:
Oh, cool. That's cool.
Ariel:
Yeah. That was super fun. Eventually, I started to draw my own characters. I had my own studio back in Brazil. I ran my studio for four and a half years. I figured that I was becoming more of a manager, a business guy.
It's natural because if you have a studio, of course you need to count on smarter people to do the job for you because you're going to be busy doing other stuff, taking care of people. It's more about making everyone in your environment happy to produce good stuff.
It’s better now, but during the time, motion graphics was something very new for the entire world, and especially in Brazil. The agencies back there, they didn't know how to work properly and how to ask for some motion graphics work. So that made my life at the time very miserable because we already had the Motionographer and all the websites.
We used to have way more websites at the time, to get references, to be inspired. I was feeling very hungry to produce those kinds of things.
The combination of not having the opportunity from the agencies in Brazil to do that, and my managing role that I had to take at the time made me very miserable inside. So, I was not happy at all.I wanted to develop my craft. I wanted to do something cool. I was always looking for everyone's work and getting inspired. I said, okay, now I want to be doing this stuff. I want to produce. I want to create.
I decided to leave my studio. I built up a website, with a bunch of fake ads. Now I know that people call it spec works, but at the time, it was completely fake stuff. I put a bunch of well-known brands in there, like Nike and stuff. I did some side frames, just so I can show people what I was capable of doing. I just wanted to send out some portfolios.
I bought a flight ticket to Los Angeles. I just said, okay, I'm going to just toss the coin and see what happens. I sent work to a couple of studios and said, "Okay guys, I have this ticket already. I'll be in LA next week. I would love to schedule a conversation with you."
Luckily for me, at the time, professionals like motion graphics artists were in a very high demand, but there was not a lot of people doing this kind of stuff. I got a call for a couple of studios. I luckily got a job. I came here to the United States. I worked for this nice studio called Roger. From Roger, I felt like I needed to expand more of my stuff because to me, it's always about learning. It's always about connecting with people and trying to absorb the skills. It's about evolving. I don't want to be better than anyone else. I just want to be better than I was yesterday. I'm doing it for me, for myself, for my soul. I want to learn. I feel happy, I feel alive when I'm learning something new, when I'm out of my comfort zone. I decided, okay, let me just give it a shot. I'll send some of my stuff to Buck. I got a nice response from Buck. Then, I luckily was hired. I worked at Buck for two and a half years. Then again, I think I was not designed to be staff.
Mack:
Sure.
Ariel:
For some people, it works and it's fine. Whatever works for you. It's not for me because I like the freedom that I have, to do whatever I want, to have my time.
Anyways, Buck, I feel like it was the school that I never had in my whole life. I had the chance to meet such amazing people, not just talented folks, but incredible people and friends that I carry up to today.
It was an amazing experience for me. But after two and a half years, it felt like, okay, I feel like it's time for my next leap. I know that I don't want to be searching for another studio for me to work.
Blink My Brain, it started as a joke. I wanted to create the Blink My Brain as a website of references.
Blinkmybrain
I wanted to do something like that because Blink My Brain, to me, is something that you get so focused on something that you love. You were watching those references. It just got paralyzed. You were asking for someone, "Please. I felt like my brain just froze. Please, can you just blink my brain so I can come back to life?," something like that.
I always loved this name. I decide, okay, and I want to go as a freelancer, but I don't want to go as a regular freelancer. I wanted to be more like a problem solver, rather than just a tool.
I don't want to go to studios and just be the after-effects guy, pulling buttons here and there. I want to operate more as, it's a one-man studio. I always tell my clients, "I can operate according to your project. So if your project demands me to hire more people to help me out, I can scale and I can get those people. I can get a producer."
I just want to be a problem solver. I want to just offer my services as more of a creative director. Also, I can provide you all the tools you need, but without the hassle.I don't want to compromise myself, of having a studio again and becoming a manager again. I'm okay if I can become a manager for a couple projects, but I don't want that to be my main role.
Mack:
So prior to starting all of this, this endeavor, what were you doing in Brazil that got you in motion design?.
Ariel:
Man, I always knew that I wanted to do something involving creativity. I had a lot of phases in my life. There was a point I wanted to do comic books. There was another point that I wanted to do painting.
Something that I carried for a very long time, when I was trying to discover myself in a creative way, is my desire to become a live action director. I always wanted to become a live action director because I wanted to tell stories.
It’s Ariel!
There was something about the camera, the lenses, how it can capture and frame an action or something. That was very appealing to me. It was more like, deep inside of me, I always loved the design of a shot, the design of the composition, the lighting, the entire thing. I love the structure to create a very appealing image, something that was very, very, very nice. In Brazil, we don't have a lot of... of course, at the time, didn't have a lot of film schools. I ended up doing media art back in Brazil. They have these television programs where you can be behind cameras. Eventually, you can move yourself to a director to the commercials and stuff like that. That was my main plan.
They have a channel in Brazil, that’s just for colleges. So, every college has its own show in there. So, I got this internship there. The only role that they had at that time was to create the promo, the graphics and the opening for the shows and stuff like that. It was after effects, this weird software that I had to learn in, I don't know, two weeks. It was fun. It was a fun, scary moment. But once I figured out the possibilities, I completely fell in love with its abilities. In my mind was, okay, I'm able to make cinema here without needing this big crew.
Mack:
So you're running your own shop again. I know there's probably things you want to do differently. You knew what you didn't like. You wanted to lean into what you like, which I'm sure comes back to this very unique style. Did you know that when you started Blink My Brain that you were going to lean into this particular style?
Ariel:
Nope. That's the thing. I knew what I wanted, but I didn't know what I was, who I was. That was two different things. First, I knew that I wanted to become independent. Once I decided to leave Buck, I did what everyone that wanted to get work to do. You do a portfolio, make a portfolio.
I made my portfolio. I showed to a couple of friends. They told me, "Ariel, that's cool. It's an amazing portfolio, but I feel like this portfolio, it's not you. This is Buck."I look at and say, "You are absolutely right. I love the work that I did at Buck, but it's hard for me to show to other people what I can offer because this is not my portfolio." There's a bunch of other people working on the same project that I was working.
So, I decided to come up with a personal project and something that I was... it needed to be completely different of what Buck was doing at the time.
Then I brought back the collage kind of thing. It's something that, it's not shell animation, it's not so organic. I wanted to do something monochromatic. Buck, it was all about colors, all about gradients and stuff. Then I decided, okay, I want to do a piece of art. I was watching Seven, Dave Lynch. So I thought, man, that could be cool. That could be really, really interesting.I came up with this concept of... it's not more like a storytelling, but it's more like a concept. It's a representation of the seven deadly sins. So I decided, okay, let's do something different. I want to do something very provocative, very shocking and something that it's not... I want to be totally the opposite of what Buck is doing because Buck was doing something that was very, not just...How can I say? Of course, it was beautiful, but it's kind of kids friendly. I want to do something very, very opposite, very aggressive, very-
Mack:
Edgy. Different.
Ariel:
It's like a statement. I'm here and I'm not here for bullshitting. I just wanted to show attitude. I just want to show something different. So, yeah. Then I created these project scenes and I put it out there. I was really, really surprised with the reception.
Sins
Mack:
I'm assuming that it just starts to grab and garner attention. People are like, what is this? Did you land some big clients right off the bat from that?
Ariel:
Yeah, from that. Luckily for me, I brought back to life this passion for collage. I found, okay, now this is something that I really enjoy doing. I want to do something more focused into that.
The idea of creating this contrast between the vintage, like old photos, with the modern, put them in a digital, manipulate, mix it up with something else and create something, give a different life to an old photo. To me, it was very interesting. After that, I received this email from Warner Music. They saw this piece, Sins. "Man, I saw this piece and I feel like you could be a good fit to do a music video for a band," at the time, like Green Day. I saw, man, really? Oh, that's cool. So, I did a little treatment. They liked it. Then I did the music video for Green Day.
Green Day
After that, my name passed along inside Warner and went to Rhino, which is a sister company from Warner. They usually take care of the most old school bands. At the time, Led Zeppelin, they were about to release their... it's a box with the best of the best of shows.
Mack:
Oh, yeah. Like a box set. Yeah. Yeah.
Ariel:
Yeah, a box set. It's a BBC release. It was something big for the company. They wanted me to create a music video for one of the songs. That would be part of the campaign of release.
They invited me to do something for Led Zeppelin, which was awesome for me. It was surreal. Even today to me, something that I cannot believe that I had a chance to work with Led Zeppelin. I thought it was impossible because they're no longer a band. But it was a great moment because even though they're no longer a band, the brand Led Zeppelin, for me to working with them and getting feedback, from the band, it was amazing. After that, I had a chance to work with some incredible other clients, that I'm very grateful to be on this journey. Yeah.
Led Zeppelin
Mack:
So you come up with this edgy aesthetic. It lands the Green Day music, lands the Led Zeppelin endeavor. I'm sure stuff starts to roll in. Now all of a sudden you're in this. You've defined the look for yourself. You've created this edgy persona.If you look at your website right now, the first thing that you see is fuck average. That's the first thing that you see on the site. Right?
Ariel:
Yes.
Mack:
I mean, it is bold. It is in your face. I always find myself giving critiques to students who are trying to get in the space. "Put the work on your website that you want to do. If you don't want to do that work, don't put it on your website."
Ariel:
That's it. That's it, man. That's it.
Mack:
So, here I am looking at your site. It's got this aggressive but confident mentality. There is a very clear style. Now you're in it. So, I'm assuming that the clients who do reach out to you now, they get it. They don't question that aggression that comes with it because that's who you are. Is that right?
Ariel:
I did a couple of projects that were still simulating what Buck was doing and was trying to understand that. I was pushing myself. I think it was a naive and very young part of myself, trying to discover himself. I was trying to compete with people on Instagram and say, "Oh my God. Now that guy did this. I need to do something similar, but better or similar but with different colors."
I was seeing projects that other people were doing. Oh my God, I wanted to do that. Why didn't I come up with it? It was a battle that I was having with myself. It was a very poisonous kind of thing, relationship, with me and my work. I was not happy at all with that.
Once I started to stop caring... not caring, but stop trying to be someone else, I told you, okay, now I want to do what I want to do. I don't care what other people would think about my work.
I want to do what makes me happy. I'm going to stop doing this, and I want to do what... I'm going to stop mimicking other people. I'm just going to be real to myself. That's when I found, really, joy.
Of course, I still see work of other people and I think, oh my God, it's amazing. It's beautiful. But this is not something that I want to do. This is not something that I want to mimic. I love seeing other people’s work out there. Now I feel like I'm more mature. I know how to appreciate other people's work.
Mack:
Well, it's really interesting because social media can be amazing because it connects us with all these artists, all these different shops, all these studios. You get all this great inspiration. You see this amazing stuff. But it can also be toxic because all you see is amazing stuff.
Ariel:
That's it. That's it. It's light. It's light. It's beautiful. My creative process, every time that I'm trying to create a concept for a project, I'm just seeing things that, it's not related to motion graphics. I'm just seeing science books or anything that is nothing related to the work we do. That helped me a lot, to see the possibilities that I have. I'm not limited to just one thing. I can spread my stuff elsewhere. It's fun.
Mack:
You've done such a good job of creating this space for yourself and who you are, your brand. You have a very distinctive style, and you're happy with the stuff you're making. I know that as creatives, one of the things that we all navigate with and struggle with is burnout. Right?
Ariel:
Burnout is something that will happen. To me, it's just like exercising. You might love doing exercise. You might love to work out, lifting weights, lifting weights. But if you train every day, your biceps, you're going to overtrain sometime. You're going to have muscle fatigue out of that. It's the same thing with our brain. No matter if you love what you're doing, but if you are doing in a very constant way and if you're dealing with stress...Because in the end of the day, it's about the client's needs. I know I create this craft, but I tend to do sometimes projects that I'm not creatively proud of, but we have to pay the bills. It's normal. It's part of the industry.
Now that I'm almost in my forties, things that have usually upset me in the past, they don't upset me anymore because I know how to deal with that. I know how to recognize when I'm leaning towards the burnout path. I tend to avoid that. But it happens, for sure, for sure.
Mack:
I think it's just being in tune with who you are, how you're feeling and to acknowledge it. I think sometimes we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as creatives, to be creative on demand.
We’ve talked a little bit about your past, the beginnings, what you were doing in the middle years, where you are now. But what I'd love to end this conversation with, Ariel, is a little bit of the future, thinking ahead.
We're in this really weird and kind of unique space of motion design. Technology is making things easier than ever, but it's also introducing some controversial things, like AI, the generated art, the ChatGPT, what's come out. As you think about Blink My Brain in the future, are you excited about these new technologies and how you can use it in your work? Or does it make you nervous with how automated it is?
Ariel:
I have mixed feelings about all of these. At one point, I see that could be a really nice tool for you to create some sort of inspiration or to create color palettes, to create maybe some textures out of that or things like that. But it bothers me that people are putting out something that they just typed in a prompt and they just proclaim themselves as AI artists.
Everyone is free to do whatever they want. Again, I passed the point of judging people, but this could be a really dangerous path, if you think about it.
One of my friends told me that one agency in Brazil just fired 20 people, just to be doing things with AI. So, they're doing AI for commercial release now. They're using the AI creation. This is something that I'm not pro. I like the idea, of course, you can generate whatever you want and just post it, whatever you want.
But again, I feel like this should be used as a source of inspiration and not as a source of making money. I posted the other day that I lost a pitch for a guy that did AI.
Mack:
I saw that.
Ariel:
Yeah. I spent, I don't know, two weeks doing a treatment for that.
It was for a band, a band that's supposed to be all for creativity. It's an art, craft, just like we all are doing the animation. They decided to go with the AI. I saw the result the other day. It was the most generic kind of... The visuals, it's very similar to everything that you are seeing out there. They just generated the same frame five times, putting in sequence. Every scene is just a version of that shot. That felt weird to me.
Mack:
To me, it's the originality that comes along with that, using the tool for inspiration, using the tool to build off new ideas and to push the boundaries of what's possible with the accent to help with that direction.
But as soon as you look at it as a replacement... Like the agency you mentioned, that let go of the 20 staff members, a replacement, the band that looks at it through the lens of, this can be our music video, a replacement.
You get to this negative space. That's where it's this constant churning of just the same old, same old. It's not new. That's what I said. It just feels like it's being borrowed from what's out there. I don't like that.
Ariel:
It's not a tool. It's doing the work for you. You're not doing anything. You're just typing shit in the prompter. It is a tool once you use that as a source of inspiration, again, as you can create. I want to spark some ideas for new characters or for color palette. I just want to see what I can come up with. That is a tool. But once you use the results, the outcomes of these typings into your work and you post it and you say, "Okay, I'm a AI artist," that's not a tool. That's a fucked up thing.
Mack:
I think with the originality of an artist and pushing that and being more different, it even highlights the importance of more artists finding their own Blink My Brain, like you did. Because finding your style, finding something that's unique for you and pushing that forward is more important than ever, as these tools are generating more commonalities in the space.
Ariel:
I feel like to me, I'm kind of oversaturated with this AI thing. I don't even use the Midjourney. I used to use Midjourney for a source of inspiration and things like that, just to come up with some ideas for colors and stuff. But it felt so saturated because now everyone, no matter what prompt you put in there, it feels like everything's the same. So, I just stepped away from these directions. I don't think, again, it's for me. Yeah. I'm not against it, but I don't support it if you use it in the wrong way.
Mack:
Yeah. I feel the same way. It's going to be an interesting future.
Ariel, just wanted to say thank you so much for hanging out with me and we’re excited to have you at the Bash.
Ariel:
It's going to be amazing. It's going to be amazing, dude.
Takeover Tuesday with Josh Edwards
Q&A with Josh Edwards: a motion graphics designer based along the Sunshine Coast in Australia.
Q&A with Josh Edwards
Read time: 10min
“Personal Branding” | Josh Edwards
Madison Caprara:
Hey, Josh!
Why don’t you start off by introducing yourself and giving us a bit of background on how you got into the MoGraph world.
Josh Edwards:
G’day, (I’ve got to say that right?) I’m Josh Edwards and I’m a freelance Motion Graphics Designer based along the Sunshine Coast in Australia. I'm also a husband and dad to three rad little humans.
My road into motion graphics I suppose was pretty typical. As a kid, I always loved to draw and in high school, my older sister told me about graphic design. She thought it would be right up my alley. So I checked it out at a university open day and knew right away that it was what I wanted to do. I didn't so much like the idea of being a struggling artist, so commercial art seemed perfect. I got to the end of my third year and had the thought that I was making all of these static designs and images, but how much cooler would it be if they moved? So I decided to teach myself After Effects for part of my final project. That then landed me my first job outside of Uni as a Junior Motion Graphics Designer.
Madison Caprara:
You definitely had to throw in the stereotypical g’day!
So, after University, at some point, you ended up as an Art Director at BUCK Sydney. I understand you’re no longer with them. How has the transition been from that to remote freelance work?
Josh Edwards:
Definitely a gradual one! I absolutely loved being an Art director at BUCK, they are seriously the most talented and awesome people. It’s the best job I’ve ever had. But between my wife and kids (I had two then, three now), and the cost of living combined with big hours in Sydney, it just wasn't sustainable for us, especially with no family close by. It was a really tough decision, but we decided to move up north to where my wife’s family is. BUCK was awesome about it and I stayed on staff for about a year, mostly working with the NY office on c4d jobs. I then naturally just shifted into freelancing, since I was already working remotely and working across multiple offices.
Madison Caprara:
Makes sense, it’s awesome they accommodated for a bit. You don’t see that very often.
Did the pandemic play any role in your decision to transition?
“Our Heroes Fight Monsters” | Josh Edwards
Josh Edwards:
For the most part, you hear stories of how much COVID has disrupted work/life. But for me honestly, not a whole lot changed. I’m very fortunate to live in a place where they managed to almost eliminate the spread, and I had already been working remotely for over a year. It just so happened that the pandemic shifted everyone else in the industry quickly over to what I was already doing. We did have a baby girl literally days before lockdown, being able to work from home and enjoy so much time with her has been a great gift.
Madison Caprara:
Congratulations! My sister also had a baby mid-pandemic. She VERY much valued the extra time in his early months.
So, freelance was a great move for you, is there anything you miss about being a part of a larger company though?
Josh Edwards:
Friends and community for sure. I’m a natural recluse, so I'm quite comfortable doing my thing on my own. But I also realize how incredibly beneficial it is to rub shoulders with such talented people today. I still get to do it a little, but with freelance work being mostly job-to-job, it takes out some of that consistent interaction.
Madison Caprara:
I definitely think we can all understand that feeling to a point. Even us self-ascribed introverts or home-bodies.
This industry has so many talented creatives. And now with the pandemic promoting remote working conditions, it’s even easier to collaborate with someone halfway across the world. How do you maintain that creative edge?
Josh Edwards:
The thing I love about design more than anything is that design is about problem-solving, and more often than not, that problem-solving is for someone else. I’ve always been interested in the ‘why’ of things. I was the kid that pulled cameras and toys apart to figure out how they worked and why they had been created the way that they were.
I find that it’s pretty easy to just accept things as they are, but almost always, there has been a lot of thought and reason put into something to arrive at the final result. I honestly just love the problem-solving aspect of design and being able to use processes from unrelated areas to come to an effective solution.
Madison Caprara:
Interesting, speaking more on that, in your opinion how does someone go about setting themselves apart?
Josh Edwards:
Haha, that’s a great question and to be honest, I'm not sure. I learned a long time ago, that I personally do my best work when I'm not the frontman. I’m way more productive and comfortable being a right-hand man, so I’d much rather blend in and get to work with all of those insanely talented people rather than compete against them for attention.
I know that some designers niche down and develop a ‘style’ to set themselves apart. But the reason I work in short form animation rather than film is that each project looks totally different from the last. I’d get so bored if everything I did looked the same, mostly because I feel like there are fewer design or animation problems to solve.
Madison Caprara:
A lot of creatives believe that a good motion designer should also be an excellent graphic designer. Would you agree?
Josh Edwards:
I think it definitely helps, but it's not essential. One of the things that I love about our industry is that almost everyone has a different way in, which adds so much more character and substance to what we make.
Design fundamentals are really helpful but also things like animation principles, life drawing, photography, storytelling, good transitions, sound design, and cinematography principles are all super helpful. For me, I've always loved making things, which is partly why some of my favorite jobs I've worked on are practical or mixed media. But that's not for everyone.
Madison Caprara:
Happy to get your take on that, Josh. When asked, I have been getting a wide variety of answers, but everyone always has a killer reasoning for backing it up.
If you had to choose one collaborator for a dream project, who would it be?
Josh Edwards:
It’s really hard to work out what a dream project would look like. If I think about the best jobs I've ever worked on, it’s all about the teams that I got to work with. I’ve managed to tick off working with almost all of my favorite studios. However, I would still love to line something up with Jorge R. Canedo Estrada at some point. I worked on the biggest story with him ages ago and we just haven't managed to make our schedules work.
Madison Caprara:
Sick! He’s actually one of our most anticipated speakers for The Dash Bash this fall. Jorge’s work is amazing!
I have to ask this next one of everyone, I usually find a new outlet for some inspo. Where do you go for inspiration?
Josh Edwards:
Probably the same places everyone else does, to be honest! Instagram, Pinterest, WINE after COFFEE, Stash Media. But I also like some alternative sources like leManoosh (for product design) or places like Colossal.
We are currently renovating a house that we bought at the end of last year, so I’m learning a whole lot more about building, architecture, interior design, and all the trades. Learning how to do all of it is super inspiring, and I'm sure it'll flow into my work in some way.
“Bridgespan - Narrowing The Crowd” | Josh Edwards
Madison Caprara:
Nice! Well, good luck with the house renovations! That’s always an exciting/stressful time.
To finish this off, do you have any closing advice or statements you would like to share, Josh?
Josh Edwards:
I’ve found the best thing that you can do is to solve other people's problems. Try to make the lives of the people around you easier, not more difficult. The amount of responsibility that the leaders in Motion Graphics companies carry is massive, so the more you can help them out the better everyone ends up. It's a team sport.
Madison Caprara:
Nice! So we’re reaching the end. Do you have any closing advice or statements you would like to share?
Josh Edwards:
I’ve found the best thing that you can do is to solve other people's problems. Try to make the lives of the people around you easier, not more difficult. The amount of responsibility that the leaders in Motion Graphics companies carry is massive, so the more you can help them out the better everyone ends up. It's a team sport.