Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Miller.
Hi Jordan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Originally, I grew up in Hawai’i and was actually studying to go into culinary before coming to California for illustration. However, when things didn’t pan out on that end I sort of wandered through community college and ended up taking some art classes that reminded me why I loved all the things I grew up on: anime, manga, and Saturday morning cartoons. That (along with some positive encouragement from my instructors at the time) really reignited my passion for drawing and creating in general and ultimately pushed me towards pursuing a more professional career in the entertainment art industry. All it took was one college suggestion from a friend I knew and jump-cut to me attending Art Center College of Design, getting an illustration degree for entertainment and graduating in the summer of 2020.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not so much, no; although I would definitely say I’ve grown in many ways, both as an artist and a person, I’ve gotten my fair share of struggle and hardship since moving to California. As someone who’s constantly struggled with low self-esteem (and my need for perfectionism therein), getting put into an environment where I felt everyone is better than me did some pretty rough things to my mental health. In my “need” to catch up to everyone else around me, I developed some toxic habits: there were times I just didn’t eat or sleep, or trying to push out more work than I could handle and being too hyper-critical of myself. I’ve definitely gotten better since then, but it did take some time to break out of those habits.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Although I got my degree in Illustration, I’d more specifically consider myself a visual development artist: someone who does the preproduction work for animated T.V. and film. The work I would do could range anywhere from character design and development to prop work to even background layout and design, though the specific field I went for is more character and props. So far, some of the art I’ve been the most satisfied to work on is my Redwall project I worked on for my graduation portfolio. It’s a book series I grew up on, so just being able to read through it again and design the characters as I’ve always imagined them was a really fun process. Apart from other artists, I’ve also had a passion for writing along with other non-drawing or painting art. Just in general, though, I’ve always really loved a good story and have always found it really fun finding the different ways I could inject that story into the designs I put out.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
A bit hard to say, but I’ve always felt like I’ve been a bit all over the place growing up. I’ve always been one to find something that I’m interested in and just become obsessive over in until I get bored of that one thing and then find some new fixation for me. Luckily for that anime, manga, and so on had always provided that for me. There were so many stories for me to take in that I could never have too much, and that in turn developed my love for story. I’ve never been a very social person though, and I’ve never had too much confidence in what I always made, so it kind of made sharing the things I’d make difficult. Chances are when I was doing cosplay for a while, that what really helped me feel like I could show off the things I made to people while feeling less embarrassed about it.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://dribbble.com/Oblongmoose/projects
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oblongmoose/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/oblongmoose
