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

Anthony, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I’ve learned a lot of techniques and experimented with a lot of materials. I learned to create a space where my art can live as a designer. But when I first began to think of my art as a career, it made me feel constrained. I had a huge art block, overthinking every choice so that I could be “favored” by the outside world, but that only created inauthenticity. Understanding your voice, learning more, and experiencing more whichever way that may look is how we as designers connect to others, it is the most crucial part of learning the craft, and the plant only grows from there.

Anthony, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Anthony Segovia, I am an Illustrator and Surface Designer based in Los Angeles. I am finishing up my BFA from ArtCenter College of Design. Growing up in Southern California, I was easily influenced by the culture around me. I’ve learned that I’m an observant type of person, which is what led me to start drawing as a child. It was a safe space where my mind could wander. Like most young artists, I drew from what I saw on television, drawings step-by-step of my favorite characters like Yoda or Patrick Star. This led me to the dream of pursuing Animation as my career choice in high school. That dream would be short-lived through my time at ArtCenter. There I was introduced to many ways to apply my work, like surface design, and ceramics, opening up my mind to application for soft goods and product design. I would say my work intersects styles like naive art, and pop culture, looking inward into my own identity and hoping to make connections through my work, creating a space in my head where I’m building my universe up through iconography that almost becomes a dictionary in my work. These reoccurrences happen throughout my work, motifs or symbols I tend to celebrate, like, palm trees, my two dogs, surfing, and cactuses. Whether I am designing for something that lives in an editorial space, product design, wallpaper, or soft goods, I treat the work similarly with a certain cut-and-paste aspect to it regardless of the medium. I like to think of my work as stage sets and everything that lives inside, as a prop of that universe. I use a variety of mediums, like acrylic, paper and glue, photography, and clay, but drawing with pen and ink is still my favorite. It can be treated in many ways, like a step to invite other mediums in. It fuels my creative spirit, to keep people guessing for what’s to come next.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Halfway through my time at ArtCenter, I went through a tough time in my personal life. It took a huge toll on my self-esteem and that self-doubt grew to the point where I didn’t believe in myself or the work I was doing. I kept comparing myself to the “dream goals” of other successful artists, I had to unlearn that way of thinking, I switched my degree plan and went into designing for textiles and soft goods which gave me a place to “play” with my work, I learned to love the craft again. I would say it’s hard to pivot from the career choice I thought I wanted. But ultimately It was the best/only option so that I could step away from the shadows of dreams I thought I had wanted.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is empathy through your craft, that sensibility to connect with others. Whether through humor, education, or just great design. It feels great when you can spark a conversation with strangers through your work, where moments ago, thought they had nothing in common. To me that is rewarding, that is the magic sauce.

Contact Info:

• Website: tonysegovia.squarespace.com
• Instagram: that.lil.ant