Inspiring Conversations with Bill Concannon of ConcannonArt

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Concannon.

Hi Bill, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
“You need to calm down,” a colleague said to me once after I had just given a presentation to clients. I thought the presentation went great, but my friend explained that I get too excited at times. I told him it was passion and that I wasn’t sure how to tone that down.

My brother John was my idol growing up and I tried to mimic everything he did, including working hard with passion. I followed in his footsteps with a tour in the Navy, and although the military did not directly lead me to a career, it taught me THAT FINDING ONE would be a journey with no guarantees.

Searching for new work led me back to Chicago where a friend introduced me to the art director at the daily newspaper. I was grateful that even though I didn’t have a college degree, the director took me into an apprenticeship where I could begin training in GRAPHIC DESIGN.

I made the ‘paper’ my laboratory and classroom. It was my printing press where I could publish designs every day. Before I left the ‘paper’ I became the newspaper’s editorial art director. I had found my “passion”.

In 2000, I joined Hasbro as an art director and designed for the Star Wars and Transformers brands. I was also assigned to the Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers brands where I was honored to redesign the Clue and Risk board games. With Hasbro, I had traveled to San Francisco to work closely with Lucasfilm LICENSING on Star Wars and Indiana Jones branding and thoughts of a life and work in California began to form.

Later, while CO-FOUNDING A studio in Boston, I traveled to LA to work with Mattel on packaging which included an important refresh of the Hot Wheels logo. I would stay at the Beach House in Hermosa and walk the Strand after work. AND plans for a move to LA began to come into focus.

It would be years later but we finally have arrived in LA with a new design company and technology to promote. As ever, exciting times!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It’s a corny sentiment, but when you love what you do the work doesn’t feel like a struggle. Even the long days and many all-nighters feel more like opportunity than strife. Passion for the work can get you through the many client curve balls and vendors that don’t seem to care about craftsmanship. I tell students considering a career in design that they should make sure they have that passion furnace burning bright.

The pandemic struck just as we were getting started here in LA, creating poor economic conditions. This reminded me of my early days in Boston where I was growing a business during the country’s worst recession. There will always be economic challenges outside of your control and it’s the excitement and passion that get me through it.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Brand development for companies is what we do as a DESIGN company. Identities, packaging, merchandising, and licensing guides are the bread and butter of our work. I do the majority of the graphic design, along with a team of other designers and illustrators. The packaging work that I have done for the ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Transformers’ properties helped to establish a reputation within the entertainment industry. I’m very proud of the recent logo design work I completed for Sony, Netflix and Mattel for the Masters of the Universe logo. The larger projects we take on is licensing style guide development. I just completed artwork and style guide for the upcoming ‘Borderlands’ movie which came out amazing. What sets us apart is a trusted design process that cultivates the wilder aspects of our imaginations to push boundaries and develop the fearlessness to take on tough projects. I have a big focus on virtual reality technology and brand development in VR ONLINE. I began thinking about this a few years ago when I considered where my skill set would be needed as the retail landscape began to dramatically change.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
From a business perspective, the greatest risk was leaving a secure job at Hasbro to start a design company during a horrible recession.

Understanding risk is important to me. For instance, many clients ask for innovation in their brand development. Innovation always sounds good but innovation is pure risk. Innovation means you will stand alone, that nobody else is doing it that way.

Creatively my first obligation is executing the ideas of my clients but many of my successes came from putting things on the table that were not asked for.

EXPLORING OUTSIDE THE SCOPE IS ALWAYS A RISK WORTH TAKING, IT’S WHERE THE REAL GEMS CAN BE FOUND.

I am a huge risk taker. “Imagine Wildly” is our motto, signifying the unleashing of limitless imagination.

Contact Info:

• Website: concannonart.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/billy_at_ca/

Image Credits
Style guide elements from Dirty Dancing style guide. Masters of the Universe logo design for Mattel x Sony. Masters of the Universe Revelation logo design for Mattel x Netflix. Transformers logo design for Hasbro. Cinemontage cover designs for Motion Picture Editors Guild. Court of the Dead logo design for Sideshow Collectibles. Brand guide for Denali AK rafting company New Wave Adventures. Style guide elements from Hunger Games lookbook. CA crew photo shoot for annual report, Bill, Joanne, Will Concannon. Star Wars and Indiana Jones toy packaging designs for Lucasfilm. Nike x Concepts Green/Purple Dunk packaging ideation. Style page for the Hunger Games 10th Anniversary lookbook.