Today we’d like to introduce you to James Chung.
James, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Growing up, I always loved to draw but never really considered it as a career or if I did, I always just thought I was not good enough. My older brother went through Art Center College of Design so I grew up seeing his work and the work his peers would create. The quality of work that was being coming out of that school always seemed unachievable for me but around the time I was about to graduate high school, I found out there was Art Center at night classes so that peaked my interest and also at the time, I was looking through my brother’s little reference album full of past students work and being really inspired. That’s when I enrolled in the night classes then soon after those classes, I ended up getting into the industrial design program as a transportation design major. During school, I realized my interest was more in the entertainment field but I realized that too late so I decided to just stick within the transportation major, learn about good design then apply that to any concept design jobs I may get after school.
Once I graduated, I went on to work at various smaller video game studios then eventually getting hired at Activision at the Treyarch studio working on Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 and 4 as a concept artist. I don’t usually play video games but that one was a very big deal for me because that was the only video game I would play and it was a goal of mine to be able to work on that franchise. But, my main career goal of mine was to always work on movies and get into the film union. After a few years at Treyarch, I actually got the call to work on my dream project which was the Avatar Sequels with James Cameron. That show really kicked off my career working in film as a concept designer. I have worked on various movies since and I am currently working on a new Star Trek show.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It definitely has not been a smooth road to get to where I am today. After graduating from college, I basically had to start over learning concept art. When all my friends were getting jobs in the automotive design industry, I was continuing my studies to learn about a completely different field. There were so many established designers that I really looked up to that it just seemed they were getting all the jobs. I think everyone feels like their work is not ready to put out there and I for sure felt that as well. But, there came a point where I just had to either send out my work or post it somewhere online and see what happens. Of course, jobs didn’t come right away but I got great feedback from other professionals which helped me push forward and it helped gear my portfolio towards what I really wanted to do professionally.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I absolutely would not change anything! I know people always say they would not be where they are if they did not experience the things that they have but I feel that statement is very true. Although there were lots of ups and downs, I was able to learn from those experiences and push forward. Despite all the rejections in the beginning, I tried to keep a positive attitude and I used that rejection as fuel to continue to better my skillset and push myself to limits that I never would have thought I would have been able to reach.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jcsketch.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jcsketch/
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