We were lucky to catch up with Matthew Campbell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Matthew, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

As a kid, I have always been interested in anime and manga. I found it interesting how different and impactful Eastern animated shows were handled compared to the shows I was watching. I remember sitting in my living room watching cartoons and staying up later than what my mother told me too. I was curious what happened to TV after I stopped watching, and then a program came on called Toonami. It showed anime like Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and Naruto, and I instantly fell in love. I wanted to be a mangaka or someone who creates anime, so as the years went on I worked on my drawing skills to eventually become an animator.

But in 2016, I noticed a gap in the industry. While watching Black Panther, I got the same feeling of watching an anime but it was live action and a Marvel movie. I was floored, but the bigger realization I had was that we, as viewers, see superhero’s, but rarely see black superhero’s. I then turned to anime to see if I could find a protagonist that broke the model of a traditionally portrayed hero. To my surprise, I was lucky if I even found a black character in the series that wasn’t being made to look like a fool. This made me realize that if I want to see characters that looked like me in movies and T.V shows, I was going to have to do it myself. From that point on, I’ve been relentless on pushing for more diversity in comics, anime and manga.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a Detroit based graphic designer and illustrator that focuses on telling the story of a brand. This means I use companies brand assets to create a digital footmark to push their stories and mission. I am currently an MFA student at SCAD studying graphic design and visual communications. Unlike most designers, I never wanted to be one from the start of my studies. I wanted to pursue animation and character designing, but as I started to prepare for that industry, I was met with opposition saying that I would never make it as a professional. Eventually I chose design as a medium where I can explore both career paths simultaneously however, what I didn’t realize was that I was defining my own path for a career that only a handful of people actually get to realize. This made me want to step out from the normal roles that the industry knows and define my own path a creative.

Some projects and services include brand development, logo design, typography, character design, storyboarding and storytelling. Currently, I have a passion project that I am working on that is a visual identity for an Esport team and it is my favorite project to work on. I am a huge fan of sports and gaming, so when I found League of Legends Pro leagues I was addicted to watching and seeing who would gun for the top spots. This fueled my passion and curiosity to do a branding concept for a team and learn different programs and skills along the way.

As for my illustration projects, I am working on a manga called Nirvana END which is an afrofutism inspired story about a young teen who was brought to another world to save it from the lurking evils. It is a classic Shonen, but the world is an Afrofuturistic one that allows me to create this unique story where I can use personal experiences to develop characters and the plot. It is a project that I would like to expand into an anime and start building my career on, which is why I am doing a thesis on this for my MFA program.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Streaming was one of the very first times I’ve put effort into having an online presences. Usually I just upload artwork and go about my day, but during the pandemic I was able to get into streaming my art and process and luckly I was able to build a community of loving and supportive people from around the world. The biggest thing an artist and design needs, next to ability to learn and grow, is a strong network and community. These people drive you to become your best and also can lead to new opportunities that you can take. It is not uncommon these days, but the more connections you have, the more likely will be able to get a job, or funding that you need to launch your career.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

In life everyone tells you to be humble. Be humble towards your peers and team members, be humble towards your elders. Be humble and good karma will return to you, is what I’ve been told often. I believe the opposite of being humble is to be selfish. I had to learn how to be selfish because being humble made me a passive person. It made me backdown from responsibility, made me not want to take chances and made me not want to change. The way how the word humble was used around me as a young teen growing up, was to show patience’s and wait for things to fall into your lap. I don’t like that. I want to work and work hard to be better than everyone else. It might be my competitive spirit, but I don’t like to lose. Being selfish, to me, means in order for me to become better than everyone else, I need to want “it” more than them. What is “it”? Everything I want that someone else also wants. I have to want it so much, that I obsess over it. So, I learned that in order to get where I want to be, I have to be selfish with my time, attention, etc. in order to put more work in.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mattcampbell1297.wixsite.com/work
• Instagram: Campmatt_
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-campbell-designer/
• Twitter: Campmatt_
• Other: Twitch.tv/hahwinner