Find out what it’s really like to work in a design studio from digital animator and designer Jesse Bray.
Read the founder of Mr. Bray Studios Jesse Bray’s thoughts on the trust between him and his clients, his professional goals, and what he’s learned throughout his artistic career.
Recently, Matthew Chen (Founder, Editor-In-Chief) sat down for a Zoom meeting with Jesse Bray to learn about his goals, inspirations, and advice he would give to younger artists. *
*This interview has been edited for clarity and length
Q: What form of art do you specialize in?
Bray: I specialize in digital media; I do print and love to film, but digital media really is about visual communication, so digital media is probably the best big umbrella that describes my field.
Q: When did you start pursuing digital media and when did you become interested in it?
Bray: Well my studio specializes in animation and digital media, and my interests in that started when I was a kid, really. When I was young I saw “Rescuers Down Under”. It’s an older film; it’s an animation, and there was a scene in that movie where a little boy flies on the back of this eagle’s wings, and I felt this experience; I was probably seven or eight, maybe even younger, but I felt this experience like I was flying. I wanted to possess this magic because I couldn’t believe that images could do this for me. It was powerful and I wanted to do that too; it really started the love affair of telling stories, through images.
It was powerful and I wanted to do that too; it really started the love affair of telling stories, through images.
Q: What is one of your favorite and least favorite things about being in the digital media field?
Bray: My favorite part is that I love meeting new people. I would definitely say it’s the connections that I get to make with people. Like real, emotional connections through storytelling and through helping people solve a problem. I really love unlocking a piece of knowledge through storytelling.
The not-so-fun stuff can sometimes be dealing with the competitive nature of people in the business; and some people forget that ‘as waters rise, so do all ships’ and have sort of a short game, and those people really can be cutthroat. Usually, people who do that, they end up running out of steam somewhere down the road, but they think they can get away with it, so dealing with people like that is not so fun.
I guess the best thing is the people and sometimes the worst thing can be certain people.
Q: Could you explain more about what you do as an animator for your design studio and more about what your job looks like on a day to day basis?
Bray: It does vary from project to project; so for example let’s say a client comes to me and they want me to do a commercial for them. There are two ways I get hired for projects; a client knows what they want or they don’t know. So a client will have an idea of what they want, or they have no idea what they want. In both instances, they’re trusting me to bring their idea to life, or help them come up with an idea.
In both instances, they’re trusting me to bring their idea to life, or help them come up with an idea.
Q: What are your usual steps for a project?
Bray: It starts with talking. There are three phases: Pre-production, production, and post-production. And this happens regardless of if it’s a design project or an animation, or even if it’s for an educational platform. Phase 1 is coming up with your idea, your concept; you’re brainstorming and doing a lot of talking and a lot of listening. You keep going back and forth, and you want to get to the point where you intuitively anticipate what your client wants. You really have to understand what their overall objective is, so it starts with listening.
It’s having a birds-eye view of the entire project, seeing what the whole project’s going to look like, and then when the project starts, having things built in so there’s lots of communication because once the project gets further down the road, it’s harder to turn it and steer it in a different direction. Once the script has been written and approved, once you get to an actual production side, you can’t change that. If the story was bad, to begin with, it doesn’t matter how gorgeous the art is, so communication is really important.
If the story was bad, to begin with, it doesn’t matter how gorgeous the art is, so communication is really important.
Q: Could you describe a major setback in your artistic career and what you learned from it?
Bray: When I was in art college, I thought I was going to take to 3-D animation, I thought I was really just going to get it, even before I touched any 3-D software. [In college] we were forced to use a software that a lot of big studios used, and I hated it. It was just cumbersome for me. Now I, later on, found other tools that I like that I liked better but I remember that it really changed my views and because of that, it made me steer towards other things. I discovered I had a love for typography, and a love for graphic design, and that the design aspect of storytelling excites me more than the actual realistic renderings. So I think that was a pretty major setback as far as what I thought I could do, and then realized I had no knack for doing.
Q: For young artists pursuing or looking to pursue art as a passion or career, is any advice you would give them?
Bray: Lots of advice. The first thing is seek out mentors. Seek out trusted mentors, and this is very difficult because in a world where people take advantage of you, oftentimes the people who have a lot of free time are not always after your best interest. You want to seek out people that are genuine, authentic, that you resonate with, that are going to be honest, and that have a moral compass. Even if the person is on a blog form they can mentor you. It doesn’t matter if they’re next door or 10,000 miles away, look for mentors. Look for guidance and leadership, and collect them. There’s a saying; ‘milk many cows but churn your own butter’. Look for wisdom from lots of different people and then come up with your own sort of framework for how you want to do things. Your bad experience will guide you toward good experiences as well. I’ve had my own experiences with not so good mentors and not so good internships and not so good opportunities that kind of soured me and made me want to make my own company different.
The other advice I have is: don’t get obsessed with the tool of the day. Beware false idols. The false idol is the new toy that’s going to make you an animator, a better artist. If you think that this shiny new tool is going to make you better, you’re missing the point. What you want to do as an artist, as anyone should do, is to learn some business. Pick up the “pricing and ethical guidelines book” and learn that book. Get familiar with the business side of art, because that is going to be a natural deficit that every artist has.
If you think that this shiny new tool is going to make you better, you’re missing the point.
The last thing is to learn things that don’t change. Learn stuff that is never going to change, regardless of what slick new tool comes out there. Color theory will always be right. Color theory is always going to guide you towards picking the correct colors. Learn the principles of visual communication. Understanding those things? They’re not gonna change. Lastly, learn the 12 principles of animation. What I do in my internships and stuff like that is make sure people know these things so when they are not with me, they can get better at their typography, they can improve their color theory. All these things will always transcend, no matter what technology’s out there.
Q: Professionally, what would you say your ultimate goal would be?
Bray: Well, I would like to continue to have a thriving business, and I would like to have the kind of business that leads the pack. Not only for work-life balance, but also meaningful creative content that feeds your soul, that feeds your family, that doesn’t allow itself to become a soulless corporation. That always keeps in tune with people’s needs. And that evolves and changes with the times of course, but what it really boils down to, my dream is really to have a company that can lead people and takes care of people so that you can put family first. While yes you’re an artist, but the stereotype of the struggling, starving artist can be a thing of the past. At least when you’re in my studio, I can take people who are creative and I can nurture them to where they are creative and successful, and they are also reproducing other creatives and other successful people. So being productive and reproducing more beautiful things. So those are my aspirations.
Q: Who are some of your inspirations?
Bray: Of course, some of the early animation studios are inspirations to me, but when I was a kid, when I was about 10 years old, I read Walt Disneys’ biography. If you haven’t, and you’re an artist, I think you should. There’s a story where he was learning to draw, he was messing around with some paint. And it’s a famous story really. He took some tar out of a bucket that his dad had and he painted a pig on the side of the house. Now his dad tanned his backside for it, he got very upset about him doing it; and it didn’t come off easily, by any means. But, later on his grandma comes by and she looks at the drawing and he’s maybe 6 or something and she goes “that’s a pretty good drawing he did”. Afterward, she gave him a bunch of crayons, and I think that’s what I look for. What I look for, what I find inspiring, is people who have those moments. I had a moment like that when I was six or seven years old when I was having trouble reading, I was dyslexic. They used to make you read in public at school, and if you couldn’t, it was really anxiety inducing. My uncle then gave me a Spider-Man comic book. All of a sudden I was learning to read through comics, and my anxiety was melting away. Looking past that person, whatever problem it is, you know the pig on the side of the house, maybe someone’s got some talent here. These moments that we see in the Walt Disney biography, where someone can reveal talent through a struggle they had.
A big thank you to Jessie Bray for interviewing for our Professional Artists Corner. Check out his design studio below!
Jesse’s Website: https://mrbray.com/
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