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

Courtney, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.

My college experience as an art major with a focus in graphic design was fraught. At the time (2010-2014), the graphic design program at the university I went to was in its infancy, and the fine arts professors treated graphic design as an art form that was “lesser than” the fine arts majors. I don’t think this was a unique experience, I think there’s a lot of widespread belief that graphic design and digital illustration is not as impressive or remarkable as fine arts like painting and sculpture. I was specifically told by my printmaking professor that typography wasn’t art and she didn’t allow me to do letterforms for my printmaking class. That experience has really stuck with me, and I think it’s important to lift up the young artists trying to find their way and their niche and their style instead of arbitrarily deciding what is and is not worthy of attention or practice.

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

My name is Courtney LeSueur. I am a graphic designer and illustrator based in Birmingham, Alabama. I received my BS in Art with a focus in graphic design in 2014. After that, it was off to the races. I worked as a graphic designer at a print shop, the art director for a children’s digital newspaper, the graphic designer for a minor league baseball team, and a brand designer for UPS. I am currently working in brand management and design at Altec, Inc. In my free time, I do contract design work for the local independent cinema, Sidewalk Film, and freelance for a variety of clients. My style is colorful and playful and I get a lot of inspiration from pop culture, film, television, and music. I’m relentlessly optimistic and perpetually excited. I try to inject that attitude into my career as a designer and illustrator, and I think my work really reflects that.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I have a smaller but mighty instagram following, and the biggest piece of advice I can give is to participate in challenges! I connected with a lot of folks during @boringfriends Make Sh*tty Art Challenge. There are so many of these that occur annually, like Inktober. It’s a great way to find inspiration and make internet friends with other talented designers and illustrators!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Sometimes the creative energy just isn’t there, and it takes some time to gas up the tank. I think with so many other careers this is viewed as procrastination or laziness, but as a creative sometimes I have to take some time to seek out the inspiration and energy I need to finish a project – especially one that I don’t personally connect with. This can look like no progress is being made, but the inspiration and discover phase is an important part of the progress. I stay in communication with clients if I’m struggling to feel inspired or feel like I’m taking longer than I typically would to get them a first draft, and it’s never been an issue.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://courtneylesueur.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/lesueurcourtney
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneylesueur/
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/courtneylesueur
• Other: http://dribbble.com/courtneylesueur