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

Andrew, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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 learned from a variety of sources, all of which offer their own advantages. As a kid, I learned a lot from watching youtube tutorials. It was so great to have this free resource as a child! After that I took some after school classes and was later able to attend the Art Center College of Design! Knowing what I know now, I would’ve broadened the subjects that I studied. I was so focused on designing characters, but I wish I took more 3D classes, backgrounds, or other areas to become more adept at these other skills. Some skills that I think were the most essential was definitely learning to take criticism well. Being able to take feedback from your clients, even if you don’t always agree with them, is super important as a designer. COVID definitely stood in the way of learning more, as my classes were all online and I feel like I missed a lot of college experiences where I could’ve learned not just from my teachers but also from my peers.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a Illustrator and Designer based in Los Angeles, California! Although I dabble in a whole bunch of things, concept art has always been my bread and butter! Designing characters for video games, film, and television is my main service, though I have also ventured out to designing movie posters for film and television as well! I think I am most proud of my ability to adapt and work on things I never saw myself doing. As a freelancer, I sometimes have to learn new skills and design things I haven’t had the experience of doing before. However, I always take these challenges in stride and take it as an opportunity to advance my own skills and become a better designer out of it!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Ever since I was a kid, my main goal was to one day work on a superhero movie! When I achieve that goal, that for me, is my measure of success. I have been a huge fan of superheroes such as Batman, The Flash, and Iron Man so to one day design a costume for them would be an absolute dream. Outside of that, I also hope to leave a legacy where people in the future and look at a certain design and say “Oh, that’s an Andrew Chang design!”

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think something that society can do to support artists is to have more opportunities for more entry level positions for young artists to break into the industry. When I was applying for jobs out of college, all I could find were senior or middle level positions and it was super discouraging. How could an artist out of college apply for jobs that require over 5+ years of experience if there are just no opportunities for those artists to get that experience?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andrewchangart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewchang.art/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewchangdesign/
• Twitter: https://x.com/androochang_art
• Other: https://cara.app/andrewchang/all