We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jordan Knight a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jordan, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I truthfully stumbled into the motion design field by just following a vibe. I never had particularly strong feelings about the type of creative work I was going to make but when I was young, art was just something I understood better than any other class at school and I felt very capable of dedicating enough energy to it to make it into a living. I started out going to school for animation at Savannah College of Art and Design, picking my major mostly out of curiosity as I had no clue what the process of animation looked like. I spent most of my time there learning the foundations of traditional 2D animation and putting a lot of effort into fine arts and drawing skills. In my very last semester I ended up taking an introductory class in Adobe After Effects because it was necessary to know some of it for my final student film. My professor for the class was a professional motion designer and through him I became exposed to companies that were actually able to make an affordable living out of these crazy experimental creative projects through the very fast paced and never ending advertising industry. Once I had a general direction and was able to hone in on a set of tools I was driven by curiosity and exploring the capabilities of limitations of motion design. Having a foundation in traditional mediums like drawing, painting, collage, and any other hands on mixed media has really helped me be a better designer in a digital capacity. I think often working digitally you can be very limited by how overwhelmingly technical the tools can be. In a lot of ways it’s like learning a whole new language. It can be so frustrating to want to do something so simple and get really bogged down by it. With hands-on projects you are almost always forced to go with the flow. Fixing a mistake requires more ingenuity than just pressing the undo button and it’s often in those mistakes you learn a new technique or discover a better approach. It’s also really helped me develop more of a style as I often prioritize a tactile feel to my digital work.

As far as obstacles go I’ve dealt with many in the lack of funds category. I often wish I could have learned more about the way studios are run earlier on in my career. I saw a lot of my classmates go off to internships at very successful studios and agencies and when I graduated I’d been punched in the face with the reality of student debt. I was forced to find a paying job quickly that could support me and was ultimately lucky to find one in New York City as a graphic designer at a beer warehouse. While I learned some things about printing and advertising, it didn’t really push me creatively and it often tested me in the harsh realities of a male dominated profession. I came very close to giving up on an advertising career but as a last ditch effort I jumped into freelance in the hopes I could just teach myself how to run my own business and although that came with MANY mistakes I would have never arrived to where I am now without taking that risk.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Jordan Knight and I’m a freelance motion designer based in Brooklyn, NY. I am also queer, a snake mom, and a hobby enthusiast.

I specialize in 2D After Effects animation, but lean heavily into concept, graphic design, illustrative, compositing, and experimental type work. I love acting as a design problem solver, to make something look new and engaging with the limitations of technology and the tools at my disposal is a really fun challenge for me. I think some of the most exciting developments in animated storytelling come out of the motion design because things tend to move so quickly and trends often come and go almost overnight. You constantly have to be paying attention to how you can make something captivating and stand out amongst a million other ads in the social, television, miscellaneous entertainment sphere.

Lately I’ve been very inspired by maximalist design and animation styles that lean into light sensory overload territory. Having lived in NYC for 8 years my surroundings are constantly overstimulating and I’ve found the longer I live here the more I really lean into that aesthetic in my work. I think there’s something very satisfying about taking a complicated piece of design and finding ways to make it move that feels intentional and mesmerizing.

I’ve been a freelancer almost as long as I’ve lived in NYC. I love the flexibility that comes with operating my own business as well as the benefit of exposure to so many different types of clients and companies. I can’t say that it’s come without difficulty. In a post-pandemic world navigating this industry has become a big adjustment for everyone and while I’m eagerly looking to learn and grow with it I can’t confidently say what the future may hold as my needs and values change with the climate and culture. But I hope to keep creating because I’m really proud of the work I do.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

At the start of 2022 I had to deal with some major burnout. I had worked on a couple jobs that took a lot out of me over the course of several months and at the end of it I really found myself existentially questioning what was really motivating me to do what I do. I ended up taking a few months off to try and improve my mental health and went solo travelling around Europe. I took most of that time away from animating and spent the majority of it visiting word famous museums and falling back in love with art from the beginning again. Coming back I still really struggled with finding balance between trying to stay afloat and the ethics of participating in a heavy consumer culture. It’s been a slow evolution since then but I’ve been diverting a lot of effort into studying what inclusivity can look like in design in hopes to use that information in all my future client projects. As a designer I feel a responsibility to ask myself who benefits from this? Who gets left out? Does this message feel honest? Does everyone on this project feel heard? I think it’s so important to find and hold on to firm values, especially as we start to grow into positions of leadership.

I’ve also been making much more of an effort to give myself some grace in the process of finding work. Too often I tend to spiral in my down time and I’ve been trying to fill that with things that feel creative but not necessarily productive. For instance I’ve been taking a painting class to learn oil paint techniques. I’ve also been collaborating with some of my friends on a magazine tht we’re making purely for fun and not seeking any specific result except to share it amongst our friends.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I was fortunate enough to learn very early that finding community was a vital resource to my career. I was introduced to a networking group in it’s early stages in NYC called Panimation, a group focused on helping women, trans, and non-binary artists within the animation industry. Through that group I met people who would eventually became my peers, mentors, coworkers, and close friends. Finding people who can relate to the challenges you’re going to face in your career as part of a marginalized group and come together to share stories and confront those issues collectively has been crucial to my survival as an artist. I highly encourage anyone looking to grow in their creative journey to seek out classes, festivals, meetups, one on one coffee dates with your insta mutuals, just to find friends and allies who will support and encourage your growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: JordanKnight.co
• Instagram: Jjknightart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanknightmotion/