You seen Jared Nickerson’s artwork before. You seen his colorful expressive illustrations on a La Fraise T-Shirt, Computer Art Magazine, for Nintendo and Microsoft, and the list goes on and on. Believe me, you seen it and stared at it in awe. The music inspired Jared Nickerson is a freelance illustrator based out of Seattle, Washington that specializes in character, editorial, videogame and product design. With well over five years in the industry, Jared runs his own design studio, J3Concepts.



“Honestly though that's something that most "real" artists have to deal with: everyone calling themselves "designers".”


Tell us about your design and illustrating background? Did you go to an art/design school?

I never actually went to school for illustration, in fact I never went to school (after high school). I got kicked out of my house at a young age so never really had the money for school. I'd had an art background from a very young age as most kids and kept with it all through high school. I figured the future of art was headed in the digital direction and I decided to hop on the train. I picked up a copy of CorelDraw way back in the day and went from there. I eventually got to learn Adobe Illustrator and that to this day has remained my tool of choice. Essentially the motivation was the money in the beginning, and at this point it still to some degree is the money, but there is a lot more to it now. I truly enjoy design and the medium I work with, I just happen to make some money at what I enjoy.

The character designs for Sophisticated Monsters was great and fun, what was the process and inspiration in creating such works?
I sat down and started making random shapes into creatures. I was on this moustache/monocle kick with my characters so I started working those sorts of elements with the shapes. It was all very random, but I ended up forming this sort of monster character. So I proceeded to create more and more of them until I had the Sophisticated Monsters. I was giving them names when my wife had the idea of writing a back-story for them. And the rest proceeded from there. Was all very random, but the end product turned out fairly well. Currently we are in the process of making them a series of toys, hopefully.

What is your favorite and least favorite thing about the design and illustrating industry?
Most favorite has always been getting positive feedback from artists I respect and look up to. That's always been a big one for me. Another thing is seeing your hard work on an actual physical product like a vinyl toy or a t-shirt etc. Least favorite would be "discipline". I'm not an overly disciplined person, and I find working as a freelance illustrator you have to be very organized and disciplined. So it's something I struggle with on a daily basis.As for the actual industry itself, I'm not a massive fan of a lot of "wannabe artists" who expect to pickup a pirated copy of Adobe Illustrator and in 10 minutes produce a polished piece of artwork. A lot of these sorts of people don't realize that it takes months-years to develop your own style, fan base, and reputation. These same artists are usually the artists who get frustrated and end up ripping other people's artwork for their own gain instead of doing the work themselves. Honestly though that's something that most "real" artists have to deal with: everyone calling themselves "designers".

Some of your work merges cartoons and playful illustration and typography. How did you start with this approach?
I got tired of my original of my original editorial portrait style and needed to branch out. Whenever I doodle it's always little characters, not portraits. So I figured it made the most sense to incorporate characters and toons into my everyday digital work. It took some time but I was able to develop a few different approaches to character design, and went from there. As for typo, I'm not exceptionally good with typography but I do enjoy playing with it. I start to find now almost everything I do has some sort of typography worked in.

I read online that you’re focusing on doing good work and the “good” kind of money will follow. Can you explain this concept in depth?
It's honestly very simple. Making money at something you love doing, that's the "good" money. Most of the time it's not like working :)

What was the defining or most inspiring moment in your artistic life?
Moving always serves as inspiration. I think the key move in my life was from Toronto, Ontario to Vancouver, British Columbia. I started to get into a rut while I was back in Toronto. An opportunity came up to move to Vancouver so I took it. Things eventually fell into place and it seemed the change was what I had needed. That was a pivotal moment in my design career for sure. Other things such as meeting my wife and the amount of travel I use to do have all been major contributors to the advancement of my artistic career.

Where do you see your work going? What are your plans for future projects? What are you most excited about right now?
Honestly... I have no clue whatsoever. That's the fun of it, and why this industry keeps you on your toes. You have no idea what client will contact you next or what sort of project you'll jump on board with. I'm currently working on 2 videogames that I'm pretty excited about, I seem to have been getting into that field more and more now, which is def. exciting. I am still hung up on getting my own series of vinyl toys out there, but I'm sure that will come in time. Also the vector community Brad Mahaffey and myself own called BloodSweatVector (www.bloodsweatvector.com) has always got me excited. We are always recruiting fresh new talent and I always love seeing what the artist will come up with next.

What advice do you have for people who want to get into the art business?
Don't take yourself too seriously. I see too much talent wasted on asshole artists. Remember that everyone started off where you are at right now, everyone had humble beginnings. Artists are not gods; they will not save the world. I always find it funny when artists become self-proclaimed celebrities. I'm sure it's hard to avoid, but I always find it funny when people idolize someone who draws cartoon characters with a mouse or who adds lighting effects to a photo in Photoshop. Get over it, go build a house or plant a tree.

Really though, listen to critique and respect other artists. I think those are 2 very important things to help you retain your soul in this industry.

More Info at:
http://www.jthreeconcepts.com/