We were lucky to catch up with Brian Scagnelli recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brian, thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

Since as long as I can remember, I have always been drawn to the arts. I would draw on the paper tablecloths of the restaurants my parents would take me to and always had a pen or pencil in my hand. I had always known that I was going to go to college for art, and one day become an artist. My parents also knew this so it wasn’t a surprise when I attended the School of Visual Arts. Issues quickly arose at the end of my freshman year when foundation was over and it was time to decide on what I would take on as my major for the next three years. I had decided to change my major from fine arts (which I had originally applied to SVA with) to graphic design. To this day, I’m not really sure why I decided graphic design was the path for me in that moment but I chalk it up to an adolescent whim. I had told my colleagues that I was switching my major and thankfully one of them questioned my decision and told me that illustration would be a much better fit for me. That ended up being some of the best guidance I received during my time at college.

Another unexpected problem that I faced through my creative journey was an issue that plagues many artists and creatives: finding your style. Throughout college we were encouraged to never stick with just one style as we were still developing but soon after I graduated I realized that I was no longer happy with the way my illustrations looked. With this issue came another one: I was barely getting responses to my cold emails I was sending to art directors promoting my work, even months after graduating. I felt lost, without guidance from school I really did not know how to progress forward. I figured this was due to my style not being unique enough as well as my dissatisfaction with my work so I went on to change my style 2 more times while creating a new portfolio each time, before I settled on the style I use today. With this new style I was finally happy with how my work was turning out and started receiving my first commissions, a year and a half since graduating.

Fast forward to today and I am incredibly grateful to have been commissioned by some of my dream clients, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal as well as many more. It took a professor during my sophomore year in college to show me that it was possible to illustrate for these clients and that lead me to where I am today.

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

I am an illustrator living and working in New Jersey. I have worked with clients such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post and have been illustrating professionally for almost 3 years. I found my way into the industry with the help of my professors at The School of Visual Arts, which I attended for college. Being instructed by industry professionals really opened my eyes to the market for illustrations.

I create editorial illustrations for magazines and newspapers, as well as GIFs. I deliver pieces to my clients at an exceptionally fast speed while solving complicated article briefs, sometimes with only one day turnaround. I pride myself on creating sketches that are almost at a final state so that the art director will know exactly how the final illustration will turn out. I am always open to tackling new topics, and enjoy the challenge of creating a fitting artwork to accompany the article.

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

I would say the number one resource I wish I had known about earlier would be my most important resource today: Photoshop. I had always heard the term growing up but always associated it with photography and therefore paid it little attention. During my senior year in high school, we had a class that covered the basics of Photoshop and unfortunately I did not pay much attention. When I started my first year in college at The School of Visual Arts I was put into a class which again covered Photoshop. This time I paid attention but struggled as I had very little knowledge of how it worked, unlike my colleagues. Through the rest of my time in college, I continued to use Photoshop extensively and today it is one of my most valued resources. I use it to take every sketch to final for my client work as well as my personal work. If I had known about Photoshop earlier, or taken advantage of its availability during that final year in high school, I’m sure that I would have gotten a better grip on illustrating digitally.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, there is no question of the best part of being an artist and that is holding a physical copy of your published artwork. It is one thing for me to illustrate a piece for an online article and see it appear on the client’s website accompanying the article, but it is another to actually hold a newspaper or magazine with my illustration printed in it. The look of the newsprint, the touch and tangibility of it is something that I fear one day will be lost when we fully switch from printed news to digital only.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brianscagnelli.com/
• Instagram: @brianscagnelli