We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jesse Lundberg a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jesse, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I knew from a young age that I wanted to do something in the arts. When in kindergarten they ask you what you want to be when you grow up, and my answer was illustrator. Over the years, it changed here and there. I was originally interested in going into animation, but ended up going to college for graphic design. I graduated with a fine arts degree, then I was able to go into the newspaper field where I did ad creation and page design to help produce weekly local newspapers in my home state of Vermont. It wasn’t until my wife and I had moved to New Hampshire that I started getting into creating comics and doing conventions. Since then, I’ve been able to have steady work with freelance graphic design and independent comic doing interior work as well as covers. A more recent venture has been doing sketch cards for different trading card companies, both smaller companies and working with more established names such as Dynamite, Entertainment, and Upper Deck. I’ve been able to work on properties such as Red Sonja, Vampirella, Transformers, Puppet Master, and Looney Tunes.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I grew up in rural Vermont, moved to New Hampshire after getting married, and definitely have a New Englander’s sensibility. When approaching my work, I try to be efficient. I try to really listen to what my customer has in mind as to get the initial design right the first time and to be able to move through the process seamlessly with as few revisions as possible. I enjoy being able to switch up not only the mediums that I use but style as well. I can go from very cartoonish to more realistic portraitures so I can really fit what my customer needs. I can do more eclectic designs or more sophisticated designs as the client needs. I pride myself in having a mentality that art is for everyone and I try to really work within a budget that is both fair for the client and myself.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
We get so comfortable as a society with the things that we know that we’re not willing to branch out and try something new. We just go with what people have already said is good rather than making a judgment for ourselves. Coming from a comic book artist’s point of view, there’s what seems to be a lack of wanting to give new talent an opportunity at times. Rather than having one artist do 100 covers in a year, why not give a new artist one of those or make a pledge that for every 10 to 20 covers that you produce that one of them is by a new and up-and-coming artist? Support the art that makes you happy, but also the art that makes you think. Support art that makes you feel a little uneasy and in doing so, question why it does that.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Just to always try to do better on the next piece. I am almost never satisfied which drives me to work harder on the next project. Learning new skills and processes to make me more successful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://LundbergGraphics.com
- Instagram: @lundberggraphics
- Facebook: /LundbergGraphics
- Other: Whatnot.com lundberggraphics
