We caught up with the brilliant and insightful José Miguel “Mike” López a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, José Miguel “Mike” thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
Back in the year 2010 there was a call for a contest, organized by the Stan Lee Foundation through talenthouse.com. The idea was to create a superhero with all of the character traits of one. The winner would have the chance to meet the judges, Stan Lee and Todd McFarlane, and would also have the opportunity to publish his/her superhero story. I entered my characters in the contest. They were inspired by real-life actual events that are of extreme importance not only for our planet but for us as well and that teach us who we really are.
I didn’t win but, fortunately, I was made aware of the potential of the story and the support of all the people who voted for me. This project has been registered and I have dedicated myself to write and visualize several chapters of the story, which has motivated me to explore the different places in our planet and the result of combining these diverse environments with human behavior and its consequences. There is no need to look for the answers outside of this world. The answers are here and live in every cell of our planet. Our living planet.
José Miguel “Mike”, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
A Leader, Concept Creator, Strategic thinking, Fun Team Player, Sr Art Director with more than 20 years of experience. I LOVE ART in all of its forms: Animation, Drawing, painting, Illustration, Books, Comic books, Movies and anything creative I can get my hands on. My experience throughout my career is leading and managing advertising campaigns; TV, Animation, Radio, Photoshoots, Casting, Promotions, Graphic Design, Illustrations, BTL, POS, Direct Mail, Social Media and Digital, storyboards and animatics. Lately I’ve been working on independent movies and on my own podcast: Toon Raiders Podcast. You can find all of it here! www.mikeink.net
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Culture is everything to me. Art in all its forms and knowing the background of everybody is the principle to respect each other. There are so many books that have inspired me:
1) Microbiology – Robert W. Bauman.
2) Carl Sagan: The Demon-Haunted World.
3) Cinco llaves del mundo Secreto de Remedios Varo – Alberto Ruy Sánchez.
4) Deepak Chopra: Las Siete Leyes Espirituales de los Super héroes.
5) Life After the 30-Second Spot – Joseph Jaffe.
In other words, reading and learning everyday about any topic is exciting and keeps my creative energy moving. It also helps me collaborate with my team or clients on areas or ideas that we never expected. The main idea that I want to share is to make that big change and keep evolving.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
This is a very good question and I’m going to divide the answer in 2:
1) We’ve been living in a world of a very fast response and there’s no time to really sit and think on the solutions for the key message or communication problem. It all relates to personality and the type of business we are in. It doesn’t matter if you are a creative employee or an independent creative. There’s got to be more respect for the time and work for each one of us.
For example, I’ve seen people (creatives and non-creatives) struggling and trying to understand why we have an “expensive” estimate for a job. My question here is: Are you gonna question a doctor for a surgery? a lawyer for a lawsuit? or a football player for being a leader on the season? The work that we create, it will be reflected on the results.
2) As creatives we need to care about the business we are in and what type of client / consumer we are communicating to, also as creative we can’t underestimate the person that is not working on a creative area or that works on a different department.. That person might be your client in the near future or a possible alliance for you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mikeink.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike.ink.art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikeink.creative
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeink/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeink74
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrMikevader
- Other: IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7325096/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Blogger: http://thecellorganization.blogspot.com/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GoHsZCHGNt1tQ4AfPnStM?si=473d603c99d84394 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mike.ink.art