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

Hi Jessie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

This might sound cliche to most of the artists, but it is a Ghibli movie that motivated me to pursue an artistic career in the creative industry. I’ll never forget the first time I watched “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind ” with a rented DVD back in the 2010s while I was in my hometown Nanchang. My parents had entrusted me to the care of my grandparents, believing that the tranquil, rural setting would help me concentrate and prepare for a crucial aptitude exam for high school admission. However, surprise, I would rather use the time when no one is around to watch anime and cartoons. I did face a fair amount of scolding when my grandparents returned from their errands and discovered that the old TV’s shell was still warm – evidence of my secret indulgence.

But the 2 hrs this animated movie has given me is worth anything. I have never imagined it to be possible that a world and a story this extraordinary can be encapsulated so perfectly within this 2 hrs. Every small action of the character has meaning, and every action they have taken early would have perfect call-backs with the progression of the plot. And oh, how can I ever forget the guileless grace Naussicaa possessed when she mounted her gilder and, with the ignition of the engine, soared into the sky. Within this movie lies a fierce love for the natural world, and a deep contemplation of humanity’s place and interconnectedness with other creatures of the world.

Afterwards, I was like, I hope there are more meaningful and beautiful pieces of media like this out there because I have certainly developed a craving for them. And also, I would die to be able to create something like this. I guess this kickstarted my purse for an artistic path.

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

I am a concept artist currently working at Ubisoft Toronto, and have previously interned on God of War Ragnarok, and worked as a contractor on Immortal of Aveum.

In these roles, I’ve primarily focused on creating environment concept art. My tasks involve producing visual development pieces that provide a visual representation of how a location would appear, incorporating the game’s style and narrative elements. I am fortunate to have been involved in projects within the fantasy genre. The concept artists are like world-smiths, taking the ingredients of the established narrative and real-life inspirations, and blending them together to craft something entirely novel and unseen before.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

For concept artists, the more we read and watch, the more abundant the contents in our visual library will be; finding and drawing connections between things is how we create something unseen before. Aside from the production of modern cinematics, ancient antiquities are actually an incredible source of reference. Ever since the bronze age, civilization starts to transit and intermingle with each other, and traded iconography, materials and aesthetics in the process. The iconography of powerful figures excising controls over the wild animals coming from Mesopotamia becomes the mistress of animal of the Aegean; and the Egyptian rock crystal massively imported by the Persian world were crafted into ewers and other vessels for water, etc. The deeper we dive into art history, the more interconnected the cultures seem to become, as if once humanity had a common past, and therefore it is true that we will have a shared future as well.

Going through some college art history classes on YouTube is always a good starting point; and museums like MET has an enormous digitized library. There is another website with more in-depth and more specific history classes is “the Great Courses”, although the classes are quite expensive, but the amount of information and lecture they held is worth it.

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

We can literally create worlds, and pull things out from our mind and give them a form on screen, paper or render them into sculptures, isn’t this just powerful and thrilling? Remember that it is an artist who gave humanity’s first literal hero of a face and a form on the stone reliefs at the palace of Khorsabad. This historical precedent underscores the remarkable influence of artists in shaping our perceptions and narratives. It is also because of the animators, vis-dev artists, film-makers, writers and story boarding artists’ dedications that we are able to have some incredible and meaningful cinematic works that bear the indelible imprints of the eras in which they were made.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/polyvolchant
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yu-yun-jessie-jiang-7948b3132/