Aradhana Bejarano Interview
In this conversation, Mack Garrison interviews Aradhana Baharano, co-founder of Little Labs, an animation studio based in California. They discuss Aradhana's journey into animation, her education at SCAD, the transition from a creative role to a business owner, and the challenges of starting a studio. Aradhana shares insights on networking, mentorship, and navigating client relationships, as well as her excitement for the upcoming Dash Bash conference where she will be speaking about her experiences and the rebellious spirit of artists.
Takeaways
Aradhana's early inspiration came from a book on animation she found in middle school.
Her education at SCAD exceeded her expectations and helped her grow as an artist.
Transitioning from a creative role to a business owner requires delegation and embracing new responsibilities.
Starting Little Labs was a leap of faith, but they managed to keep Disney as a client.
Networking and mentorship are crucial for success in the creative industry.
Contracts are essential to protect against misunderstandings with clients.
Approaching client relationships as collaborations can ease tensions and misunderstandings.
Aradhana finds inspiration in various artists and believes in the power of community.
The Dash Bash conference is an opportunity for networking and inspiration.
Aradhana's talk at the Dash Bash will focus on her journey and the rebellious nature of artists.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Aradhana Baharano and Little Labs
03:00 Early Inspirations and Journey into Animation
06:00 Education at SCAD and Its Impact
09:00 Transitioning from Creative to Business Owner
12:05 Starting Little Labs: The Leap of Faith
15:01 Networking and Finding Mentorship
18:02 Navigating Client Relationships and Challenges
20:59 Preparing for the Dash Bash Conference
Transcript:
Mack Garrison (00:00)
All right, what's up all you Dash Bashers? Thanks for tuning into another episode of our speaker series where we're getting to know the speakers that are coming to the Dash Bash. And I'm so excited to have one of those speakers with us today. Aradhana Bejarano with Little Labs, the amazing animation studio based out of California. They got over a decade of experience working on animated content and interactive experiences. She's collaborated with brands such as Disney, Netflix, Google, Snapchat.
Meta and Khan Academy for Kids. mean, these are all just amazing brands to work with. Aradhana thanks so much for hanging out with me and chatting with me today.
Aradhana Bejarano (00:34)
I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Mack Garrison (00:36)
You know, I
think one good place to start is always kind of at the beginning because it's fascinating to me how everyone kind of gets into motion design. It's such an amalgamation of different backgrounds and experiences. Maybe you take me back to some of those like early animation memories you had where you were like, this is interesting. Maybe, maybe this is a career I might want to pursue.
Aradhana Bejarano (00:53)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so I grew up in India and...
my introduction to animation was sort of in middle school. I was very, I love cartoons, I love watching animated films, I was really a nerd and geek about it, but it was one day in my high school, my middle school, in the school library, I came across this book, animation book, and it was like the only animation book in the library, and it was like the one, it was just the one, yeah, it was just the one I stumbled on.
Mack Garrison (01:22)
It was just the one, you just read it over and over again.
Aradhana Bejarano (01:27)
the one I would read every day from that fourth on, it was perfectly placed for me. And I read it and I was like, like a light bulb went off in my head. was like, I can actually do this. I love drawing. And it was like the aha moment. And I wasn't necessarily surrounded by people who knew about this. And that book sort of sparked my imagination. And so then I started looking for more information and going to bookstores. And I found the Animation Survival Kit by Richard Williams.
Mack Garrison (01:52)
yeah, that's a classic.
got a copy in here with the office with me.
Aradhana Bejarano (01:53)
That's a classic idea. Yeah,
exactly. And it was overpriced in India, so I couldn't afford it at the time with my pocket money. And I didn't want to share it. I wasn't ready to share it with my family because they, again, so I would just visit the store every week and like read politely as much as I could without purchasing it. I own it now. I have a copy and everything. so that was just my earliest memory of like, this is something I can do.
Mack Garrison (02:00)
no.
Nice, nice.
Aradhana Bejarano (02:20)
It like, it's like almost perfectly like it was meant to happen. I had to stumble upon that book to like learn about it and like, yeah, and get into it.
Mack Garrison (02:25)
How fun.
Absolutely, serendipitous
that you found at the moment that you did. So it sounds like, know, there's not a, at least at the time, wasn't a ton of folks around you in your space and your network knew much about animation. So you're growing up, you're learning about this stuff. You have this passion for it. And I believe you went to SCAD, if I'm not mistaken, right? So was that a big reason that you were like, I need to go check out the US to kind of try to find a path into animation. That's what led you to SCAD?
Aradhana Bejarano (02:36)
Mm-hmm. Mm-mm.
No.
Yes, I might just get...
it
Exactly, yeah, there wasn't a ton of schools or colleges around me. There was sort of like media studies, but not really animation specifically. There was a lot of schools to teach you software. So I did all of that while I was in high school. I also learned Photoshop and all the tools, but not necessarily the foundation to anime. And then it sort of became my goal. I started looking at the US and other colleges just outside of India in general.
Mack Garrison (02:59)
Mmm.
Mmm.
Aradhana Bejarano (03:23)
and SCAD ended up being the one I was the most, like it felt like the right place for me and also needed to be able to afford it and they offered scholarships so yeah, yeah, yeah and they do. it's gorgeous, the campus is amazing, I love that.
Mack Garrison (03:31)
Sure. Hey, there you go. Good scholarship is also really helpful. I love scat. It's so pretty down there. mean, I've gone down a few times for commotion. I think they do a great event. Yeah. Have you have you been to Savannah
before before learning of scat? Did you have any idea about Savannah?
Aradhana Bejarano (03:47)
I've never been to the US before
I came here so yeah it was it was I was just all in mm-hmm yeah I just I remember I painted on my wall I'm gonna get scared that's how I told my parents like this is how I'm gonna get scared you know of course I mean it was it was hard like having your child move across like thousands of miles and they had never been to the US before and
Mack Garrison (03:51)
So you were all in, you were like, I'm going to school here, I'm immersing myself, amazing, amazing.
that's so fun.
Aradhana Bejarano (04:11)
all of that. It took a little bit of convincing, but they eventually agreed to me. And I got a scholarship as well, partial, not full, but that helped as well. yeah, just like, I'm going to do this. This is my dream. I'm going to work.
Mack Garrison (04:15)
I love it.
I love it. Do you feel like
did SCAD sort of live up to those expectations? did what you were expecting in school for animation, was that what you got? Did you get more than you expected? What was that college experience like, especially being sort of an international student coming to the US?
Aradhana Bejarano (04:34)
Mm-hmm.
For me, mean, anything was more than I expected, I mean, you know, it's almost, I mean, coming from a different country, like I didn't have those opportunities. So me coming in on my mindset was, this is amazing. I'm getting to learn what I need to learn. And I had the best experience there. really, it really did help me spread my wings and learn about myself as an artist, but also as a human being and being just such an international college. You know, you meet people from all over the world. It just, it just expands your horizons in all different ways.
Mack Garrison (04:46)
Hahaha.
Aradhana Bejarano (05:12)
So that was great and all the professors were like well most of them I wouldn't say all but like I think there were really amazing professors that helped guide me through the process and honestly college really is like what you make up in I feel like Everyone has the experience that they make of it and so it gave Scott really gave you the tools to explore and then you do what you do with that and Take it out in the world
Mack Garrison (05:13)
I love that.
I love that.
Aradhana Bejarano (05:38)
And so.
Mack Garrison (05:38)
You're a great case study for the university. They're gonna see this video and want a copy of it, because all these are amazing things. But you're right though, I think when you find good mentors that can help support you and guide you, I look back at my time at NC State University, and it sounds very similar to how you look back at SCAD. It's like you get out of it what you put in. So if there's any students listening to this interview we're talking about.
Aradhana Bejarano (05:42)
You
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (06:02)
You know, it's lean in, talk to your professors, get to know them, ask people around you for that assistance and support because it seems like that sets you up on a great trajectory and of course, eventually in starting your own company with little labs.
Aradhana Bejarano (06:10)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah, and also, SCAD
so than a lot of the other colleges that I have noticed and interacting with other folks not having worked in the industry. Just like having those conversations like we do have like did have like classes where you're like working on your portfolio, working on your video, you have those conversations pretty early on. So you can you know you're learning all the foundations and basics. I did my undergrad not my post grad at SCAD and so a lot of it is just foundations but you know at some point teachers like and the professors do start talking to you but but how do
want to apply this in the professional world and those conversations really helped me figure out where I need to be. yeah. Yeah, no worry. Yeah, okay.
Mack Garrison (06:52)
I love it. That's fantastic. Well, I don't want to spoil too much from the actual presentation at the Dash Bash this summer. So I'm going to fast forward a little bit. Little Labs exists. You guys are crushing
it. You make some amazing work. In my opinion, it's some of the best that is out there in our space. What I'm really curious about is something that I've personally struggled with and I want to know if you've navigated that and it's being the business owner and less of the creative. How have you navigated this shift?
Aradhana Bejarano (07:06)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Mack Garrison (07:18)
that I'm sure you're navigating from like the person who's making this stuff to doing this stuff to now being the entrepreneur. What's that been like?
Aradhana Bejarano (07:18)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
It's been a journey. think when we started off, was, you know, myself and my partner Camila who started the studio. We were doing everything. And it's been a journey like starting to delegate and hand off those things because those are not sustainable eventually. And I've sort of embraced this role of now my role at the studio is different. I'm the creative director and also the business owner. And I delegate everything else. So I am managing people a lot more than I used to. And actually now
embrace it and love it because that's my genius and that's where I'm at in my career at the moment and my my role is more to guide everybody and help them create the best work and so that's that's that's just what I've embraced and I feel like probably you have as well yeah yeah
Mack Garrison (08:11)
yeah, it's interesting because
like I think at a foundational level, once you are a designer and a creative, you were just naturally built around this idea of problem solving. And all you're doing when you're running a company is essentially trying to solve problems in creative ways. And so it's different problems, right? So you got these teams that need this information and you're trying to get them the right direction, say the right things to get them in the right place. Quick question for you with Camilo, your partner.
Aradhana Bejarano (08:20)
Mm-hmm.
Right, it's different problems. Yeah, right, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (08:37)
Have you all always
Aradhana Bejarano (08:37)
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (08:37)
been collaborators? Have you always kind of worked together and this was a natural extension in starting the studio or how that all kind of come to fruition?
Aradhana Bejarano (08:42)
Yeah,
so it's kind of cliche like to meet your life partner at work in this industry because you work so much but that's how we actually met. We met at
Mack Garrison (08:48)
Yeah
Aradhana Bejarano (08:53)
Disney while I was working at Disney. And so we were always sort of working together in a sense. And then what sparked the little labs was you would start collaborating outside of work on things just, you we were having fun with because, you know, at work you do the work that you're told to do. And so you go home and explore. And so that just sparked like our collaboration efforts outside of the Disney work environment. And it just spin and grew into what the little labs is today.
Mack Garrison (09:08)
Sure, right, right.
How fun,
Aradhana Bejarano (09:21)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (09:21)
I love that. Well, it is, the natural progression, right? So you're working together all the time and it's like, well, we might as well just be partners then as well too. That's right. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, is with the labs part, what's interesting to me is like, you know, have your day-to-day job at Disney, you kind of have this labs piece where you all are collaborating on the side. Is their intentionality and calling little labs, I mean, is that an extension from that, you know?
Aradhana Bejarano (09:28)
Yeah, right? Yeah. And not with everybody. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
it is. Yeah. So the part little came from, know, we were working at large companies and corporations before and this was our space to be little and small.
and we love that, like that's us. And then the labs part was us experimenting outside of our day to day. And that just spin ball into the little labs in that we're, and it is in the sense of what we, who we are now as a team, as we've grown as well, we're always experimenting, always pushing our boundaries as a team and being playful. And that's where the roots of the name come in.
Mack Garrison (10:17)
Mmm.
Oh,
I love it. It's so fun. I'm always curious from folks who are, you know, creatives in house that then end up moving into starting their own agency or studio. Was there like a signature event or a project? I'm always curious. Like what, was it like, oh, this is maybe a little bit more than just a side project. Like maybe this is something we want to do full time.
Aradhana Bejarano (10:28)
Mm-hmm.
With us it was sort of like we took the leap honestly. We yeah, it was was sort of like we we just jumped off not knowing if we have a parachute or not and we're like I mean, yeah, we and we did you know thankful that we ended up having a parachute we were able to keep Disney as a client for us when we when we left the company But we honestly were just just ready to go on figure out our new path We it's sort of like I reached our goal
Mack Garrison (10:44)
Yeah, nice.
I love that analogy, that's great.
Aradhana Bejarano (11:09)
know, a dream, like we worked at Disney and it was like, what's next? What is the next challenge? And we were young enough, I guess, and naive enough to like take that, like, we can do it, yeah. That's right, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (11:18)
Yeah, we can do it, right? You know, not thinking about all the other pieces to it. That's so fun.
I feel like, you know, I would echo that same sentiment. You know, when we started Dash, we were both young and in our 20s and probably we're not thinking about all the other pieces that come with it. But let's say for someone who is, let's say there's a listener out there who has been working somewhere, they've been freelancing, and the idea of a studio or starting this collective sounds really, really good to them.
Aradhana Bejarano (11:34)
Right. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (11:46)
What's
a piece of advice that you might give them, either based on something you've learned now, you wish you could have done, or something you're really proud of? What would you share for someone thinking about starting their own shop?
Aradhana Bejarano (11:50)
Yeah.
I think making sure that you have the resources to delegate, I think that was like a biggest learning for us on our site that we started to burn out pretty quickly trying to tackle everything ourselves. So whether it's financial resources or just people you can lean into and ask questions, we didn't think that through when we started off. ended up, it was almost like we have a fire. We need to find somebody to talk to you about this. And so perhaps if you have like a network of people
Mack Garrison (12:21)
You
Aradhana Bejarano (12:25)
you can lean into to kind of help you troubleshoot, or whether it's consultants or things like that. And then of course like a client base, like knowing that you you have some sort of confidence in a client base, like you have maybe had conversations with before you jumped in, that could that could be helpful as well.
Mack Garrison (12:40)
Mm.
Yeah, I think you're
right. I mean, I look back and you know, there was definitely the jump in and commitment similar to you all and how we started, but we did have some work that we brought into it. Like we were kind of moonlighting on the side. We had something similar to like the little labs where we were doing some stuff from the work on the side. So it wasn't jumping into nothing. So I think that's important. You also hit on something else that I just, you know, profoundly believe in is mentorship. It's close friends in the space who have navigated it.
Aradhana Bejarano (12:54)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (13:11)
think there's always a bit of a question mark on, you how do I find a mentor? How do I meet some of these other people? Did you go to a bunch of events? Like, how did you start to network and get to know folks who you had some of these tougher questions to ask?
Aradhana Bejarano (13:11)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
I wish I had a good answer. would have gone to that. I wish Dash Bash was there and I could have gone to that, right? Yeah, yeah. For us, it was slightly different because we were actually leaving a different industry and coming into motion design with this sort of like move. We were in the animation and interactive space. And so we really did just jump off the cliff hoping we'll land into a parachute. We were like sort of freelancing a little bit with studios in the LA area. So we had some of a network and that sort of
Mack Garrison (13:42)
Ha ha.
Cool, okay.
Aradhana Bejarano (13:50)
were able to build off of that but definitely I would recommend like networking and events and going to some of those either in your local community or area or conferences like Dash attending those.
Mack Garrison (14:02)
I think, you know, it's interesting
because I remember when I was getting out of school and I would imagine maybe, you you felt the same way. We were kind of intimidated. It's a big industry. Like, where do I even begin with this? And what I have learned in talking to folks like you and other creatives is just how welcoming everyone really is. And I think a lot of artists just don't recognize right away, just if you reach out, you know, there's a good chance that someone could respond to you.
Aradhana Bejarano (14:10)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, 100%. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (14:28)
So in that lens, know, I'm always curious just, you know, who are some of the various artists that inspire you? Who has inspired Little Labs over the years? Who are folks that you still are enamored by their work on day in, day out?
Aradhana Bejarano (14:36)
Mm-hmm.
Oh, such a hard question because I feel like, you know, we're all inspiring each other all the time. so there were definitely Ye House was a studio back, you know, I mean, Michigan. Yeah. And they were also husband and wife too. And so they always inspired us to take the leap. And we actually reached out to them and Camila was more connected to Michelle at the time as well. And we kind of were able to ask them questions and help out.
Mack Garrison (14:46)
Mm, sure.
yeah, up in Michigan, right? Yeah, yeah.
Aradhana Bejarano (15:11)
help us out and they were super inspiring to us over time. I mean, almost like everybody in the, even the work I see now, you know, inspires me a lot. On just an all time base, like any artist, like, you know, who's like following their path, being truthful to who they are always inspires me. looking back historically, like Frida Kahlo, Mary Blair, like those, those artists are always very empowering and inspiring for me. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (15:18)
yeah.
Mmm.
You know what's funny is I think
I actually reached out to Michelle at yet house at 1.2 I was randomly up in Romeo just which is a small town just north of Detroit and they're they're close by to it I forget the exact name of where they are, but they're up near there and I was like hey Michelle I'm in town I'd love to come see your studio and I don't know if they've ever had someone like properly come visit their studio So we tried to make it happen Didn't quite work out but they make some amazing work and enter just the nicest people in the world, too
Aradhana Bejarano (15:40)
Mm-hmm.
yeah.
Oh wow. They do. They are
so nice and we've just had a friendship. We've actually never met in person to this day and just we haven't had the opportunity. We either like missed each other or didn't couldn't couldn't make it work but one day. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (16:04)
really? that's so funny.
One day,
I know it's funny for anyone that's like not in our industry when they're like, oh, you're to go hang out with your internet friends. It's like, look, I promise they're really cool. I may not have met them in person, but they're the best. 100%, 100%. You know, I think one thing that you've definitely recognized probably is being a studio owner and I have as well is just our industry is kind of a wild uncertain place. You know, the longer you're in it, the more you can kind of see the volatile swings, the ups and downs.
Aradhana Bejarano (16:20)
They are, and they always are. I mean, it hasn't like disappointed me. So yeah,
Mack Garrison (16:41)
I would imagine that you've got some pretty good stories from over the years. I'm always curious on a good industry story, whether it was like a crazy project you finished, you didn't know you were gonna be able to get done or stuff that went totally off the rails. Do you have a good industry story you could share with folks today?
Aradhana Bejarano (16:45)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, plenty, but I'll stick to this one without naming names. We had this one client several years ago, right, when we were just starting out and they wanted like all this stuff from us. built, you know, they were launching this new brand. So we did a bunch of branding work, character work, even like toy design.
Mack Garrison (16:58)
Okay, six to one. Perfect, that sounds good.
Aradhana Bejarano (17:15)
We were just starting off as a studio and contracts were not, we weren't like masters of contracts, but because a colleague had recommended us, we sort of slipped on kind of getting the contracts really signed off because they were kind of skirting the issue. were like, oh, we'll get it done. they were like, know, business is always done with a handshake, you know, and which it is, but it was one of those moments which looking back, I'm like, why did we go through with this? But because they were highly recommended.
Mack Garrison (17:26)
Mmm.
boy.
Sure.
Aradhana Bejarano (17:45)
by a colleague we trusted we went ahead and did all this work delivered it and when it came time to payment they were like well you didn't really meet our expectations and and and all throughout we got all this good feedback thankfully we had all of the emails and things to kind of prove that there wasn't a miss because there wasn't really a miss or ever communicated to us that
Mack Garrison (17:54)
no.
Aradhana Bejarano (18:06)
that we had not met their expectations. It all ended up sorting out at the end, but it was a huge learning for us to make sure you have your contracts and stuff all in a row. So it was a little bit our fault, but also, you do kind of come into these situations sometimes where clients want to start a project without signing off a contract. And it's like, as a business owner, you have to make those decisions of how do you make that?
Mack Garrison (18:08)
Right, right.
gosh.
Ugh.
Oh, 100%. Like even as you're telling this story right now,
I'm sitting here thinking about one of our early missteps was the same deal. was like, didn't quite have everything outlined in the contract, had a client that really didn't want to pay us at the end. I think the way that we finally got paid, I'm not proud of this, but I basically called this person every day and was leaving messages that I'm going to call you every day until you pay this. And I think we negotiated.
Aradhana Bejarano (18:38)
you
Mm. Mm. Mm.
you
Mack Garrison (18:56)
a 70 % payment or something like that. I was like, look, if you pay 70%, I'll never call you or talk to you ever again. So, you just, yeah. And I think it's also a good reminder though too, is like even in the lens of the story, y'all were doing everything right. You were doing everything by the books for the most part. You glazed over this little piece and there was still kind of a little bit of a friction point. And I think that's a good reminder for creatives out there that if you're ever feeling like, golly, it's what did I do wrong? A lot of times you are doing it right. And sometimes this stuff just bubbles up, right?
Aradhana Bejarano (19:02)
Right, yeah, he's just chasing clients to make payments.
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Right.
100%. And a lot of times you're working with clients who are not maybe in the industry and know how things are done. And a lot of it becomes having the confidence to educate or like standing your ground on what are your boundaries and limitations.
Mack Garrison (19:40)
You know,
this opens the door to a good question, I think, is how do you and Camilo react or how do you handle a situation that maybe feels tense? Like if something comes up and the client's like, I don't know, maybe they're unhappy about something or something was miscommunicated, but you can tell there's those moments every now and then where it's like, ooh, this doesn't quite feel right. Do y'all have like a playbook or something that y'all do when those situations arrive? What's kind of like your go-to solve for kind of easing some of that burden?
Aradhana Bejarano (19:52)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Usually it's like taking a breath and just hopping on a call and just leaning things out, leaning into our producer as well and like helping them come in. So we're really coming in as a team to service the client at the end of the day and provide the best solution. So we always start with that and we lay out that, you know, we're here to do great work. We're here to navigate this together. And we always look at our clients as collaborators.
Mack Garrison (20:21)
Hmm.
Aradhana Bejarano (20:31)
So that's really the mindset we go into with every meeting and so as friction comes up or there's misunderstandings we we always approach the conversation with that mindset and So far clients are usually very receptive to that because you're wanting to work together Honestly, yeah
Mack Garrison (20:46)
Yeah, 100%. I love that so much. I mean, it really is.
There's kind of an age old stereotype, think, you know, in creative versus clients. But really, to your point, if you think about folks as collaborators, as partners, then when there is a misunderstanding, it just becomes easier to have those conversations. So yeah, I love that a lot. Go ahead. Yeah.
Aradhana Bejarano (20:53)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And I will say one thing.
There might be a client that maybe is not responsive to that. And in that case, you do have to set your boundaries. And we're like, this is hard. But we honestly, 99.9 % of the times, we haven't had those kind of situations because we come with that mindset. Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (21:20)
Which is good. And I think like there's
also to the latter point you said is like, you you got to put your foot down every now and then it's, you know, you should feel confident in decisions you make. You know, I think we all are sometimes a little bit hard on ourselves, you know, wish we should have handled this differently or we could have, you know, in this instance of that particular example, we should have done the contract this way. You know, one of the nice things about making these mistakes that you and I have made is that we learn from them and you never do them again, right? You know, no one's perfect. You figure it out, you kind of move forward, which is good stuff.
Aradhana Bejarano (21:26)
Mm. Mm.
Right.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Right, yeah exactly.
Mack Garrison (21:48)
So let me ask you this, you're coming to Raleigh later this summer, what do you think are you most excited about for the conference? Is it getting up on stage? Is it meeting other people? I'm curious to know what gets you excited about the bash.
Aradhana Bejarano (21:59)
I'm just, you know, in the past years I've realized the benefits like of being at a networking event such as Dash and just the connections and relationships you make. So I'm really excited to meet people and hear the other speakers. Of course, I will be speaking as well, which I'm excited for. But more than anything, just every conference that I go to, I leave just feeling so inspired and empowered and looking forward to what I can learn from that experience.
Mack Garrison (22:05)
yeah.
Sure, sure.
I love that. And I echo that same sentiment.
know, I think conferences are one of the few opportunities where we mentioned earlier, we get together with all our internet friends to hang out and talk shop with people who know about it, which is really good. Well, let me let me do this. What do you think if you're giving a pitch to someone who has who is unfamiliar with little labs and you and your work, what would the pitch be on why they should come see you at the bash?
Aradhana Bejarano (22:27)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm that too, right? Yeah
Mm-hmm.
Sure, so my journey has been a lot about rebellion in one way or the other based on my cultural upbringing and coming to the United States and being where I'm at today. So part of my talk will be navigating that through my experience and I'm excited to share that. I think as artists, we're all sort of rebellious in one way or the other. And I talk a little bit about how I...
I transfer that into the work I do today. So I'm excited to share that and yeah.
Mack Garrison (23:17)
I love it. Love a good little rebellion in the art world. It's going to be great. We're super excited to have you. Just want to give a quick shout out and thank you to everyone who tuned in today. Aradhana Bejarano, thank you so much for the little labs and join us at the Dash Bash. If you haven't gotten a ticket yet, folks, and you're listening to this, what are you doing? Dash Bash is from June 11th through 13th, 2025. It's going to be right here in my hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. It's big enough where there's always something to...
Aradhana Bejarano (23:20)
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (23:42)
and it's small enough where you run to folks around town and you'll definitely run into a lot of animators and motion designers here that weekend. So if you haven't got a ticket, grab it now. Thanks so much for joining us today, Aradhana, and so excited to have you here shortly with Little Labs. It's gonna be great.
Aradhana Bejarano (23:56)
Looking forward to it. Again, thank you for having me. Can't wait to see you and everybody else.
Mack Garrison (24:01)
Same, sounds good.
Thanks everyone.
Reece Parker Interview
Ahead of his 2025 Dash Bash talk, Reece Parker and Mack Garrison chat about Reece's journey from a self-taught animator to a professional in the motion design industry. He discusses his early passion for drawing, the transition to animation, and the challenges he faced in finding work. Reece emphasizes the importance of mentorship, the need to adapt to industry changes, and the value of genuine passion in attracting clients. He also reflects on his creative influences, the exploration of new avenues like tattooing, and the excitement of future projects.
Takeaways
Reese prefers authenticity over trying to sound cooler.
His journey into animation began with a love for drawing.
He taught himself motion graphics out of desperation.
Cold emailing led to his first freelance job.
Mentorship played a crucial role in his development.
Passion for work attracts clients and opportunities.
Adapting to industry changes is essential for growth.
Inspiration can come from various creative fields.
Tattooing has similarities to motion design in terms of artistry.
The importance of being confident yet humble in new spaces.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Reese Parker
01:43 The Journey into Animation
05:11 From Hobby to Profession
10:44 Finding Mentorship and Guidance
15:32 Adapting to Industry Changes
20:00 Creative Stories and Experiences
22:45 Inspiration and Influences
25:43 Exploring New Creative Avenues
29:55 Looking Ahead to the Future
Transcript:
Mack Garrison (00:00)
Hey, what's up y'all? Mack Garrison here with Dash Studio and boy, do I have a good one for you today. I'm hanging out with a talented Reece Parker doing an interview for our Dash Bash Speaker Series. Reece is incredibly talented, also a nice guy, but Reece is a creative person making art for cool people and businesses, directing, illustrating, animating. He's uneducated, lacks any in-house experience and works way too much and has been riding solo for the last nine or so years.
guessing his way through it and loving every minute of it. I'm just reading that off Reece's bio, but Reece, welcome to the podcast, the video cast. You gotta explain yourself a little bit on that introduction and like why those were the choice of words to start us off.
Reece Parker (00:47)
Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me, Mack. I'm excited to chat and just be involved, honestly. I think, yeah, I don't know. The intro is like, I'm a very let my work do the talking kind of a guy, I think. So when it comes down to making a bio, it just felt very real. And I guess that's what I prefer over maybe trying to make myself sound cooler than I am. If I want to look cool, go watch my work. And some people think that makes me look cooler.
You
Mack Garrison (01:17)
Dude,
it is very cool work. And I also just love the authenticity. I think it speaks a lot to your personality. I've been lucky enough to know you now over the last like nine or 10 years that I've been running the studio. But yeah, there's a lot of folks who are listening and this might be their first time finding out who the heck Reece Parker is. So maybe you could just kind of take us back to like some of the early days, you know, like how did you get into animation? What is it?
Reece Parker (01:27)
Yup.
to.
Mack Garrison (01:43)
what part of animation really excites you and what's some of the work you're doing today.
Reece Parker (01:49)
Yeah, good question. Growing up I was always drawing. I feel like I've said this story too many times, I'll abbreviate, but like...
classic kind of creative story. didn't like math. I liked drawing. So there were times like in school, I would maybe fail the math test, but flip it over and draw a portrait of my teacher and they would hang it up on the wall. Like literally that did happen. And I think that that's just like represents kind of my journey growing up. But animation, like we would have sticky notes in class in like second grade and we were doing flip books and I was really into the YouTube stick figure fighting kind
era, you know, I don't know if you remember that. Yeah, that was big, big. So I had Flash and like just kind of dorked around on it when I had time growing up. Among other creative things, I painted grip tape. That's like the stuff you put on top of skateboards. I I would sell that. did paintings and graphite portraiture and just all types of creative stuff. And then I...
Mack Garrison (02:31)
Sick. Excellent. Of course.
yeah, nice.
Reece Parker (02:58)
You know, I was really good at it, but I was also like suburban home, you know, not in like a creative city per se, very like go to college. Just outside of Seattle, a little suburban town called Maple Valley. Yeah, 30 minutes away.
Mack Garrison (03:09)
Sure. Where are you from originally Reece? Where'd you grow up?
Seattle. nice. Excellent.
Shout out to Maple Valley listeners.
Reece Parker (03:19)
Maple Valley.
So I didn't have my eyes on the future of where is the creative work. I was mostly like, I do it because I love it and I probably won't get to do it as I become an adult. And then I just found my way to like...
being intro to motion graphics. Like I saw like a commercial for Coca-Cola or something that I think Seth Eckert did who runs the furrow. So there was morphs and it was like, I was like, whoa, this is cool. Yes.
Mack Garrison (03:39)
Mmm.
yeah.
You're like, whoa, what the hell is this? Like,
what is this?
Reece Parker (03:54)
Exactly. I was like, uh, I want to do that. Whatever that is. And so I learned like exactly that. And I didn't know motion graphics was whiter than just that. was like, that was what I want to do. So I learned After Effects and I learned shapes and I learned kind of those things. And I also brought my years of sketching and drawing and illustrating into kind of that. And then over the years, it sort of shaped my voice, I think, in motion. I don't Yeah.
Mack Garrison (04:21)
that's really cool. mean, like honestly,
I think with our industry, I heard this term from this graphic designer back in the day. His name was like Edward Tufte. And he talks about this like capital T theory, which I really like. It's like, we started this one point and there's like interest. for you could have been illustration. Like I love dueling, love drawing. Then you hit this T, like the capital T part of it. And it's like, Ooh, maybe I can put this in motion. So then you're starting to play around with motion or Ooh, maybe I can direct motion. You're directing. So basically you have all these T's.
Reece Parker (04:37)
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (04:49)
that make you unique. And I think motion design in our industry is probably the best collection of all these capital T's out there with these different backgrounds, different experiences. When did you know that like, like this isn't just a fun hobby, people will pay me for it. Did you have like a first job? Did you like kind of seek it out a little bit?
Reece Parker (04:51)
Yeah.
Well, I mean, again, the time where I ran into motion design, I was at sort of a critical point in just in my personal life. was skateboarding a lot. was graduated from high school. I was not in college or on a path to sort of buff the resume in any way at all. So I was like, once I recognized that, Coke hires artists to do work like this, I was like, okay, I'm just going to do that. And so I worked for like overtime for a
year, like kind of 16 hour days just non-stop just teaching myself out of really like desperation. Because again I'm coming at it like I clean bathrooms at Taco Bell and ride a skateboard. Like this isn't my world. I don't understand this world. So if I can teach myself how to do it and be that good maybe I can get hired. And so at a certain point I had like personal works and like a little portfolio built of no client work whatsoever and I'm just
just cold emailing like jobs off of job boards, not even motionographer, I don't even know that exists yet. It's like indeed and like other general job boards like I could do the work, I could do it and then finally like somebody hired me freelance for like 20 bucks an hour. I didn't know what a day rate was, I didn't know how to charge, I knew nothing. Yeah, yes.
Mack Garrison (06:28)
Sick.
didn't know the process, know anything. You were like, they just need an animation. I gotta make this sucker
for them.
Reece Parker (06:36)
Yes,
and they literally held my hand through it. I think because I was so cheap, they taught me how to do some of it. was really, it's a small little agency in New York. I forget the name of it now, but I hadn't kept up with them. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (06:41)
Wow. Was it a studio? Was it a company? An individual? what? Cool.
That's so funny. so basically
at the time you're working at Taco Bell more or less as a janitor doing animation stuff on the side and you're like, I've got to basically bust my ass on this because I don't have any education on it. It's all self-taught. And so if I'm going to win the opportunity, it's got to be through hustle essentially. Wow.
Reece Parker (07:10)
Absolutely. Yep. Just showing up, doing
the work, learning, and I was so excited and like in love with it that it's a lot of work, but it just felt like necessary. Like absolutely. Yeah, just driven.
Mack Garrison (07:23)
There's a whole generation of kids who could be looking to this listening to this videocast and they're like cool I'm not going to school. Thanks for race. You just ruined all these parents hopes and dreams No, no
Reece Parker (07:32)
I hope not. Yeah, do what you,
yeah, yeah, do what makes sense for you, you know.
Mack Garrison (07:37)
I mean, I think that is a really interesting conversation point though with so many different fields out there that do require a certain degree of higher education. I think motion design has been one of the most amenable and like welcoming kind of everybody. So you get this first kind of gig with a small agency, you would kind of crafted a smaller portfolio website of just some personal explorations.
Did you find that that first gig like really almost opened a door? was like as soon as like almost you had a client project kind of grounded in it that kind of build off of itself.
Reece Parker (08:12)
Yeah, I mean eventually it did it was a bumpy early road For your knowledge, I didn't want to just jump in freelance. I did that because I had to I asked for Internships and like staff jobs and just couldn't land anywhere because I was so Like raw talent, but no knowledge and that was a barrier that was not allowing me to pass like I was getting interviews in Seattle for like
Mack Garrison (08:19)
Mmm.
Reece Parker (08:39)
weird like leadership role like my skill set was beyond my knowledge meaning people saw my work and put me here and then expected me to be here and so i would come in for interviews and be like an intern and so it was like i couldn't land anywhere because they didn't know how to read me yes yes
Mack Garrison (08:45)
Mmm.
You had this raw talent that was like exceptional,
but you had no of the supplemental information to go along with that. So people were like, how is this guy this good, but has no idea about process or organization.
Reece Parker (09:01)
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Exactly, and I only know that in retrospect with the information I have now, but I didn't get it at the time. I was like, just like, yeah, I could do the work. And anyway, I couldn't get a job anywhere. So I had to be freelance. And then eventually, like one odd job led to another odd job. six months later led to another one and there was huge gaps in between. And then I got an email from Buck, like my first year in like down the line. And that changed everything. Once I went to go work with them in LA, they flew me
I was in studio for a few weeks. I was like booked ever since. Yeah, yeah.
Mack Garrison (09:45)
That's crazy. It's like
an actor who gets the first big gig, right? It's like, oh my God, this is it. Don't mess this up, Reece, you gotta stay focused. I love that. When I was coming along, I think a lot of people experienced that. It's really relatable in the sense that no one ever truly knows all the right process stuff. I mean, I remember my first gig I had at an agency. I remember this guy over in the corner basically yelling like, who the hell is Mack Garrison?
Reece Parker (09:50)
Yes.
Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly. Yeah, yeah.
Mack Garrison (10:14)
And what is wrong with this project file? And I had to like sheepishly raise my hand and admit that I had like comp one, comp two, comp three, layer one, layer two, was atrocious. But what was really nice about this Reece is that he took time and went through and basically showed me the way that stuff should be organized. And I'm forever grateful of it. Like, you know, I know he was upset at the time, but he took space and taught me. So question for you is, you know, during this kind of transition era, if you will, of like creative, finding your way, figuring out the structure behind it.
Reece Parker (10:17)
yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Totally. Totally.
Mack Garrison (10:44)
Did you have any mentors or did you find and reach out to people to try to get some of that knowledge?
Reece Parker (10:48)
yeah, yeah, I mean a lot of people were, as I began to get...
more hired and become more hireable. Again, I was mostly raw, intuitive talent and like my knowledge was years of putting things together over time. And like all of my clients were almost mentors at that time. I would have creative directors reach out to me and be like, I'll bring you on and I'd be like, great. And then I'd ask them like endless questions or I'd reach out, like I reached out to Alan Lasseter, one of my first years in the industry, like, dude, I love your work.
Mack Garrison (11:11)
Mmm.
Reece Parker (11:25)
and I love your position and how do you blah, blah, blah. And he was really, really sweet and responded. And I'm sure he wouldn't remember that if you told him, but he had a long list answering all my questions. I probably did that a hundred times, to be honest with you. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (11:39)
man, I love that so much. Cause
I feel like, you know, for whatever reason we, we, none of us want to look like idiots. think that's what it is, right? You're young. You don't want to reach out to someone. You don't want to bother them or you don't want to feel like your stuff isn't good enough to even be having that conversation for anyone that's listening to this that might be on the precipice of graduation, whether it's from school or like a school emotion course or something along those lines. What advice would you give?
Reece Parker (11:51)
Totally.
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (12:08)
and how to reach out to some of these folks or how to put yourself out there, the confidence to do that like you did.
Reece Parker (12:14)
Good question. mean, I think looking back at how I did it, I was mostly naive, but I was also really genuine, and I think you could feel that in my approach. I wasn't acting out of any sense of like, owe me a response. I mostly was like, you probably won't read this. that's the case, that's okay. On the off chance, you do read it. Like, I love your stuff, and that's why I'm reaching out. And I think...
that energy you can feel and it's encouraging a response. And I have a lot of students reach out to me on the flip side now where I try my best to sort of honor my early days and be really sort of spend some time answering thoughtfully to them in the same way that I maybe would have hoped earlier. But also like you can't expect.
it to go that way. You sort of have to like, I hope, but if it doesn't, it's okay and I'm going to try again. That's just how, like that energy is necessary and failure isn't failure. It's like you keep moving and pushing and eventually it'll land. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (13:20)
dude, I love that so much. I had this phrase
a couple of years ago that like I just gravitated towards that's perfection inhibits progress. I feel like so much as creatives and designers, we hold stuff in such high regard. It's like, I don't want to put anything out there until I really like it. But you think about all the times that that slows you up.
Reece Parker (13:29)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (13:39)
You're the student trying to perfect your portfolio. It's not quite there yet. I don't want to reach out where the studio trying to update our portfolio. it doesn't quite have all the projects, the reels, you know, at end of the day. And I think you would echo the same sentiment. People will critique whatever you put out there. You always have 20, 20 vision and doing something a little bit differently, but you just got to keep the bus moving forward, right?
Reece Parker (13:47)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. I think I ran into that problem more recently than ever before, honestly, where it's like...
almost inhibiting productivity because I want to over organize or over calculate or over speculate or analyze and it just yeah at a certain point it's too far and you're actually getting in the way of doing the work so I'm kind of trying to remind my brain to go back to kind of the early days of like yes I want to make great work but I also just want to be productive and make it simple you know
Mack Garrison (14:12)
Mmm.
course, simplicity rules each and every day, even with your design and your compositions, I feel like every solution usually revolves about me taking stuff away versus like adding anything new. You know, I think something that's been interesting, especially over the last couple of years, know, AI is such a hard conversation to have in our industry right now. I think just by the fact that like there's more people than ever in the space, marketing companies are turning towards, or excuse me.
Reece Parker (14:38)
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah, totally. Totally, totally.
Mack Garrison (15:03)
companies are turning to investing in AI, which is taken away from marketing budgets. So everyone's kind of working a bit leaner. I think that's from studios, that's from freelancers. So for someone getting in the space, you you had this hustle and this tenacity that I think really led you to these opportunities, got you into the door and ultimately led to where you are now. Did you feel like looking back on that, that there was maybe one single piece of advice or something that seemed to work?
Reece Parker (15:07)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (15:32)
best when you're trying to get yourself out there. Is it the cold emails? Is it like conferences? You know, looking back on it, was there one thing like, oh, if I could do this over again, knowing what I know now, I would do X, Y, and Z.
Reece Parker (15:46)
It's hard because so much has changed, even in a short time, nine years. The landscape is different now, but what I would say through those changes, what remains is...
Mack Garrison (15:50)
Mmm.
Reece Parker (16:00)
You've got to love the work and putting that love into the work is going to attract clientele and that's true for any service. So like I spent a year rebuilding my site with a developer and just putting so much love into it kind of for no reason to be honest with you other than I really wanted it to be great. And now I'm doing sites for clients that are paying me real budgets. And I didn't do anything other than say on Instagram, I'm redoing my site and I'm here
Mack Garrison (16:24)
Whoa, that's wild, that's cool.
Reece Parker (16:30)
go check it out. It's like that's all I did. Now I have a platform at this stage in my career, but the energy in the through line is the same. Love the work that will attract the clients. It's like I don't have any formula other than that to be honest.
Mack Garrison (16:46)
Well, honestly, it's just authentic. I love that, right? It shows if you care about something, you're putting time and attention towards it. It's reflected in the final outcome. You know, from a studio owner perspective, I have a interesting question for you. You made me think of, you know, there was this long standing, I don't know if it was like a thought or long standing conviction. I think there's a good word that if you are really good at something niche down.
Reece Parker (16:54)
Yeah. Yes.
Mack Garrison (17:14)
Like get really good at this thing and that's what everyone's gonna come to you for. With all this change, you accepted, it sounds like, some of these website jobs. It's like, yeah, it's kind of what I do adjacent to it. You kind of opened it up. Do you feel like that's a change that you're starting to recognize and as you look ahead to like future reach, are you kind of open to saying yes to a bit more and should other people kind of be considering that as well?
Reece Parker (17:19)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is a hard conversation because you're going to land.
It's 50-50 whoever you talk to. I do not subscribe to niching down. However, I also don't subscribe to saying yes to everything. The reason I felt it was appropriate to take some of these jobs that are outside of my normal skill set or service that I usually provide for clients is because they said we want it done in a Reece way. We want your voice on it. So it wasn't me acting as some ex graphic designer. It was Reece being
Mack Garrison (17:45)
Sure, sure.
Mmm.
Reece Parker (18:13)
Reece just for a different service. And honestly, as we move through changes in this industry, we start to question what it is that is going to remain valuable for clients. And that's a hard answer. And I'm not willing to turn away projects because they're not like they're not an animated film that are like super artistic, like that might not be valuable right now for clients. And that's okay. I can still kind of be Reece on something else. So it's been really rewarding. And yes, I've had to adapt.
my mind a bit and it's hard to go like, some artists do niche and they're great but like, I don't know, I don't know. It's a hard, yeah, it's a hard question.
Mack Garrison (18:53)
What a compliment
though. mean, like that is, that's a premier place to be where it's like, look, I want your problem solving ability is essentially what they're asking for. And honestly, this is one of the biggest things that I believe motion designers should be advocating for themselves and highlighting about themselves is just how good a problem solvers we are. mean, by definition, we're, multi-disciplinary creatives who are trying to come up with analogies and metaphors for all these different things.
Reece Parker (19:01)
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah, you're right.
You're right.
Mack Garrison (19:20)
So we're naturally good at thinking on our toes and moving quick given the deadlines. And it's why I personally believe that no matter how much change happens over the next 10 and 20 years is motion designers are always going to be employable because the sheer fact that like we can navigate ambiguity, we can come up with solutions and move things forward. And so I think like that's good advice for anyone did here to who's in the space is like, okay, if the technology is changing and maybe the medium is changing, where can there be flexibility and how to kind of present myself in a problem solving way. So I love that. That's really cool.
Reece Parker (19:38)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (19:52)
Let's see, let's change it up a little bit. One of the things I'm really curious about, you've been in this space now, what is it, nine years? Is that what you said professionally?
Reece Parker (20:00)
Yeah, I think this is the ninth year maybe. Yeah. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (20:02)
my gosh, isn't that crazy? Doesn't it both feel
like the other day and like you've been doing this forever. It's like both like I've been here forever and I just started. I bet dollars to donuts that you've had some wild creative stories over the years from like a crazy client project to something kind of unique. Is there a story that maybe you haven't shared and we don't have to like call anyone out. We can blind it over but I just want to know a crazy industry story that we could share Reece.
Reece Parker (20:10)
Absolutely, Yeah.
Ha
Yeah, I mean, there's wild stuff, a lot of wild stuff, honestly. Maybe one of the more interesting ones was a high profile, actually this has happened multiple times, so maybe it's not even weird. But it's the case of like high profile clients, you have a specific team within that client that you're working directly with, and then at a certain stage in production.
whatever deliverable you are delivering gets to the eyes of somebody above the ladder or up the chain and like shifts everything. Like they don't seem to care at all about the progress thus far and just makes a snap decision. And I've had that result in canceling half a million dollar projects. I've had that result in redoing six figure projects entirely because one color was wrong. I mean, I've had like
Mack Garrison (21:04)
the classic stakeholder.
Reece Parker (21:28)
Wild what multiple wild wild things where it's just if this person had their eyes slightly sooner Maybe it could have saved like hundreds of thousands of dollars, but for whatever reason it just doesn't unfold that way I don't know. Yeah, so I guess that counts. Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
Mack Garrison (21:39)
So crazy.
for sure. Absolutely. Someone spending that amount of money and then changing everything at the last minute is absurd.
And you're right, though. I mean, we've navigated stuff like that before. Or the one that always is so surprising to me is the one where the client spends time, energy and effort. You finish the project and it just never goes live. Like we've had a couple of projects we've worked on. They've just like eaten. It's just never gone out. And I'm just like, how in the world could you invest so much time and energy?
Reece Parker (22:05)
Yeah.
Yep.
Mack Garrison (22:13)
and never put something out in the world, you know, it's it's kind of bonkers.
Reece Parker (22:13)
Yup. Yup. I
like that too. Yeah, same. I don't know. I don't know. It's crazy.
Mack Garrison (22:21)
Well here, me this, I always am looking for new inspiration or finding out how folks think and how they tick. A lot of folks look up to you, Reece, for your inspiration. mean, you do some amazing work. I've got your website pulled up here. It looks phenomenal. So I don't know, maybe I need to get you to design our website. I might hire you for that too. But I'm curious, over the course of the last decade basically,
Reece Parker (22:37)
Thank you.
Let's do it.
Mack Garrison (22:45)
Who have been some of the creatives that inspired you? I know you mentioned Alan Lasseter and reaching out to him. Who are some others that you're just like, I love this studio's work or I love this person's work?
Reece Parker (22:50)
Absolutely.
Yeah, I mean, a lot of them come from sort of what I'm calling the golden age of motion design, but I think what it really was was like the little bubble within motion that was sort of the buck giant gunner era. Like my goal was to be as good as them as one artist. And that's a silly goal because it's subjective and whatever and impossible, but.
Mack Garrison (23:18)
You
Reece Parker (23:21)
I really, really looked up to a lot of those guys and still do, the ones that are kind of still doing work. And I know a lot of it shifted and pivoted and that's just the way of the world. But I look back on that era where, you know, every day there was a new piece that like absolutely blew my mind and taught me something or made inspire me to kind of try something new. That's really, really, really valuable. And I think it's different now. My inspirations now come from like...
Mack Garrison (23:35)
Mmm.
Reece Parker (23:49)
creators on social or designers that are doing logos. It's like, think I've expanded my mind a bit because I feel like at this point it's necessary and maybe that comes back in later years. I don't know.
Mack Garrison (23:51)
Mmm.
It reminds me of the the wine after coffee days, right? The Vimeo channel where you go there and there was always something new, some new inspiration. And that's where I would like collect my Vimeo likes. But I think you're right. I think there's something to be said about finding inspiration outside those traditional channels. So of course you have the Vimeos and the YouTube and now you you have Instagram and TikTok. Well, TikTok for a little bit. I think by the time this might be published, TikTok might be gone. But what are some of the other spots you look towards to inspiration?
Reece Parker (24:06)
Yep.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah, yeah.
Good question. Film, I just saw Nasferatu by Robert F. Kearney and it was like unbelievably rich. Every shot was like a painting. It's just like...
Maybe I write a movie, no I won't, but I'm just saying like, wow, I pull stuff from music and film and art and video games and life. And I'm trying to widen my horizons a bit these days, whereas before I think I was more singularly focused in an era that was really feeding me, but now it's less so and so you have to kind of go, where's the future and where do I wanna? I told my wife, I think 2025 is gonna be like a 2016.
year for Reece which is just like very self-focused doing a lot of different work experimenting a lot really productive because I think that's gonna be fruitful for the years to come.
instead of like abundant opportunity, like kind of chilling, signing checks, like they were those years too and those were great, but we gotta adapt when we need to adapt and it just feels like, you know, it's that time to really kind of explore.
Mack Garrison (25:43)
Dude, I love that the reinvestment in creative, you know, it's like almost in a way you've kind of set yourself on this path. You've been doing the path that you haven't given yourself enough time to analyze. Damn. Am I walking in the right direction? You know, like, should I be dabbling in something else? I know I saw, I think it was on Instagram maybe earlier last year about this tattoo apprenticeship where you're basically getting into tattooing is some of this kind of lending itself to kind of that exploration. Is that what kind of brought you into like trying out tattooing?
Reece Parker (25:55)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely. So I was getting tattooed often and my artist was like, I might leave this shop and go somewhere else, but if I had an apprentice maybe I'd stick around. And I was like...
I'll do it man, that sounds really interesting. Like I know how to draw, technically you can give me a pencil and I can do kind of almost anything with it. So I think that my transition and he was like, yeah, and we're like really good friends. So it was a really sweet like acceptance into an entirely different industry and they afforded me a lot.
respect based on sort of my accomplishments in the digital space. And so it was a really seamless and easy. It did not feel like starting over. It felt like, dude, come in here. We'll show you these ways. And when you need to use it, use it. So like for me, it's like five years from now. I don't know what's going on. I just cannot predict it. And if I need to fall back and like really hone in on tattooing, I absolutely can.
Mack Garrison (27:12)
That's so wild.
What do you feel like, you know, to your point, if you have a pencil, you can kind of draw something and draw whatever you can translate it over. Have there been more surprises than you realized on the relationship from like motion design into tattooing? Was there anything you're like, I didn't expect this to have this similar kind of approach, but that's cool that it does.
Reece Parker (27:31)
That's a really interesting question. Some of the...
technical aspects maybe transition in a way that you would or parallel in a way that maybe wouldn't be expected. I mean obviously learning digital software could be compared to like learning new languages. There's a lot of complexity and a lot of interesting like little tweaks and whatever. And I think the tattooing version of that is the machines and which machine and which needle and which type of ink and why and what is it doing and how is it moving and you know they're similar.
But it's also very, like it's draftsman-like. You're sketching a lot. There's a medical aspect that was the most difficult for me, by the way, because all of the art, go like, yeah, I'm art boy. But when you're like, well, this is almost surgery, so be very careful. I'm like, that's a new world entirely. I'm, you know, that, exactly. it's, yeah, connecting what does connect, but also being very reverent.
Mack Garrison (28:20)
Sure.
100%.
Reece Parker (28:37)
about the parts that are completely new and need respect.
Mack Garrison (28:40)
I
love that it's being confident, but not cocky, right? It's like, you know, being confident in your skillset, you're like, I can translate this over, but being humble to the new space you're in and making sure you're continuing to learn. I think all of us could take that advice with everything we do is like, be confident, speak our minds, say what we believe in, but also understand that we're still learning. We're still growing as well too. We don't know everything. All right, I'm put you on the spot with this question. Do you think we could get a live Reece Parker tattoo session at the Dash Bash? You wanna put, you wanna tattoo something?
Reece Parker (28:44)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Totally. Absolutely. Okay.
Mack Garrison (29:10)
on somebody on stage.
Reece Parker (29:11)
I would love to if we can figure out how to make it like above ground and not against the law. So there's like permitting and things that would have to take place before I'd be allowed to do so. But yeah, other than that, I would love to do it. And I actually, there are some people that are excited to maybe partake in that if we can kind of get it to work.
Mack Garrison (29:35)
I love it. I love it. You
heard it here. So if we can get it above grade, above par, we run a tight ship here. We'll do it legally. We'll get Reece tattooing folks. Well, Reece, thanks so much for hanging out with me today. I know a lot of folks are really excited to be hanging at the bash with you. Have you given much thought on kind of what you want to hone in on or any teasers you have for folks who might be attending?
Reece Parker (29:39)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right.
Yes, Sue.
Honestly, this is my first speaking event. I'm just excited really to be involved, honestly, and I'm also excited to get out. I've got a bunch of kids and it makes it hard to get out to these events. But I think now more than ever, it's really important just to go and be with the community and relate to each other and swap stories and all those things that sort of reinvigorate us in a way that where isolation does not afford. And in terms of what I'll be talking about,
I'm just going to keep it real exactly like my bio. You can expect my bio, but just keeping it real the whole time. Very vulnerable. I think that's my strong suit rather than technical and whatever. that's what I'm bringing. If that sounds exciting, awesome. I'm really excited to see everybody there and hang out.
Mack Garrison (30:44)
man,
we're so excited to have you. It's gonna be such a great talk. It's been great getting to know you over last 10 years, and just seeing how talented you are and how you've gotten more talented. I still feel like the best Reece is yet to come. So I can't see what you're gonna do over the next decade. For everyone listening on this, tickets are on sale right now. You can check it out at dashbash.net and you can join us June 11th through 13th, this summer, 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina for the Dash Bash and Animation and Motion Design Festival built around creativity, inclusivity, and getting to know all the cool.
Reece Parker (30:56)
We'll see.
Mack Garrison (31:13)
people in our space. Thanks for your time, Reece. Thanks everyone for listening and we'll be back with our continued speaker series. So make sure to check them all out. Thanks everyone. Take care.
Reece Parker (31:23)
Thanks guys.