Meet Jordan Bruner

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Bruner.

Jordan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m originally from Virginia Beach, VA. Growing up, I loved drawing, making up dances and plays, and making movies with my friends. My mom is a painter and soft-sculpture artist, and she was very encouraging of all my creative endeavors. My dad builds beautiful custom cabinetry and furniture, so there’s definitely creative blood running in the family. My brother, Barry, is an illustrator and designer as well. I went to an arts high school called the Governor’s School in Norfolk, VA, and it was a pretty ideal experience. It was a public school program, and we were given all the free paint, canvas, photography supplies – any material we wanted. It was a dream! At that time, I thought I wanted to be a painter, but when I got to college I started studying illustration and then switched my major to study animation, video and sound.

After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA I moved to Brooklyn, NY, where I lived for 12 years. I started making music videos and short films, working on various art projects, and eventually directing animated commercials. In a desperate desire to have less stress and more nature in my life, I moved back to Richmond, VA in November of 2019. The nature of my work is constantly changing. This year I created a 52 screen animation installation with the MTA in New York, have been developing an animated series, am working on a series of paintings about growing up in Virginia called Salt Lyfe, just finished a short film with Ted Education about Jason and the Argonauts, and am working bi-weekly creating motion graphics for Axios on HBO.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I moved to New York with the $3,000 I had saved from waiting tables. The first handful of years living in New York I was always very worried about money. It’s a competitive industry and I didn’t have many connections at first. I slowly built an amazing network of clients and collaborators over time, but it took much longer than the twenty-two years old me would have liked. I feel like failure and rejection is something I took too personally when I was younger, and I’ve had to retrain my brain to remember to love the act of making things for the sheer joy of it, and not because I expect it to give me anything back. Like, there is a mentality I had when I was younger to take on a project because I thought it might lead to an even bigger, better job – but that thinking can get really toxic.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m a freelance animation director, designer, illustrator, and artist. I specialize in 2D animation and creating colorful human-animal hybrid fantasy worlds. I work on a wide range of projects – directing animated films, working as a designer and illustrator on editorial and commercial projects, creating augmented reality prints, paintings and installations. My work is very colorful and humorous but also thoughtful and intuitive. I’m very proud of the installation I created with the MTA. It was so exciting to see my animations playing all over the Fulton St Station, and on some pretty massive screens. Last year I also worked with Giphy to create an animation that played on the Nasdaq screen in Times Square. That was very cool.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Hmmm, I think about this sometimes and I am grateful to my past self because I’m in a place now where I feel very fortunate. However, the advice I would give myself is: Be more patient and enjoy the process. Make more time for personal work. Listen to your gut instead of other people. Go to therapy now. Make more time for things like reading and exercise because they make you feel good.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jordanbruner.net
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: jordanbruneryesplease

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