Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Miller
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve always had a passion for art, even as a young child. I cried when my mom signed me up for club soccer. Please don’t make me play sports, I want art lessons! Naturally, I continued to pursue art into early adulthood. Even though I’m a native Angeleno, I attended Boston University for college and graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design. BU provided an excellent foundation in traditional art, I took two years of painting, drawing, and sculpture before even touching a computer. I graduated in 2008 (height of the economic recession) so it was not an easy task to find my first design job. After working a few odd jobs, and applying to countless companies I landed a Graphic Design Internship at Disney Consumer Products, which essentially started my long-standing career in toy packaging design.
I worked for numerous toy companies over the years, bouncing around between freelance and full time creating style guides, packaging, branding and even dabbled a bit in product design. Once you get started in the toy industry I’ve found it’s hard to leave.
In 2017 I landed a contract position at Hasbro, designing Disney Princess fashion doll packaging. Working at Hasbro was a dream and the Disney Princess brand suited me well. Pink and sparkles seemed to run through my veins. I truly loved working there and contracted on and off for a few years.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’ve had many struggles and successes along the way. This brings me to part two of my personal journey! In 2019 I became a mom. I took some time off but knew I wanted to go back to work in 6 months. I was due to go back to work at Hasbro in 2020 but it just so happened to be the week of the COVID-19 shutdown. I received a call that they weren’t hiring any contractors and I would not be returning. I was devastated. I was a new mom, forced to stay inside my house with no creative outlet. It was probably one of the lowest times of my life.
I had some spare time while my daughter slept so I started digitally drawing on my sister’s old iPad, just a hobby to pass the time. I started taking numerous Skillshare classes to help me navigate the drawing app Procreate and became hooked on trying new brushes and learning new drawing techniques. I joined the online art community and created an Instagram account, @JessMillerDraws, devoted to all my art. I became fast friends with artists from all over the world that shared my same passion. I took part in numerous design challenges, one in particular “Inktober” in which you draw a new prompt every day in the month of October. I relished drawing spooky Halloween art in my flat graphic style. Unbeknownst to me, art directors were discovering my drawing account and following along. In early 2021, American Greetings reached out saying they admired my art and asked if I’d like to illustrate a greeting card for them…um YES! This was one of my first illustration freelance jobs and the start of my illustration career.
From 2020 my drawing Instagram account has grown from 0 to 125K+ followers and I’ve had the pleasure of creating art for brands including The Ellen Shop, Los Angeles Times, American Greetings, Penguin Random House, Adobe, Meijer Grocery Store and many more. People are flabbergasted when I tell them I started illustrating four years ago. But what they don’t know is the long winding road I had to take to get there. People often ask me how are you so prolific in such a short time? I tell them that I’m unleashing over a decade of pent-up creativity! I have a strong passion and drive and a thirst to simply just create. Sometimes you don’t know the direction you are truly meant to take until you’re forced to take turns, explore new avenues, and start fresh.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Today I own and operate my own full-fledged illustration studio, Jess Miller Draws. I take pride in having my own small business and tell people I’m so much more than just a freelancer. I specialize in hand lettering, surface pattern design, and character portraits. My work has been printed on greeting cards, home goods, tech accessories, book covers, packaging, and more! My bold, colorful art style and my background in toy package design really make my work stand out. I’ve got a knack for marketing too, and I love connecting with other artists, which means I create a lot of social media content. I’m a self proclaimed “art-fluencer”, sharing my process through short videos is something I really enjoy.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I believe the strongest quality I have that is the most important to my success is resilience. I can’t tell you how many hardships I’ve faced, terrible blunders and utter failures I’ve experienced over my lifetime but they shaped my character and who I am today and inevitably made me a much stronger person. Even after graduating in the height of the ecumenic recession I was determined to find my first job out of college. After a lot of cold outreach and failed interviews I eventually found my first job at Disney Consumer Products which led to a 15+ year career in toy packaging.
And like I mentioned previously it took a global pandemic for me to lose my stable job and open my eyes to drawing as a full time career. Sometimes I wish that I discovered illustration sooner than I did but I think all that prior history working for corporate consumer product companies gave me so much experience in running my own illustration business today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jessmillerdraws.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessmillerdraws/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessmillerdraws/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJRZuOPlJSzByZ-S3fItHJA
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jessmillerdraws
Image Credits
Julie Shuford Photography
