We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Morgan Lee Richardson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Morgan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I don’t think it’s uncommon for people in any career to wish they had gotten a head start. When you compare yourself to peers and colleagues, it’s very tempting to a put yourself down or be flooded with self doubt. But the truth of the matter is there’s a very good chance that somebody may feel the same way when they look at your accomplishments. Do I wish I had been more serious about my career early on? Or finished college sooner? Or came to the inevitable conclusion that I would be making art for a living? Sure, I guess.

There have been a few points during my career when I saw a less experienced person progress quicker than me, simply because they had more years to take advantage of the social infrastructure within a company. It was a frustrating experience but it didn’t really mean that I was less qualified or that they were more qualified…it was just a matter of optics.

Now that I am older, and hopefully wiser, it’s clear to me that every professional or educational experience has left an indelible mark on me. Provided me with the arsenal of tools required to do the the job I have now. My career trajectory has always been creative, I just didn’t realize it until now. Because even if I didn’t have a “creative job” when I was younger, I internalized it in creative terms and therefore it benefited me as a professional Creative now.

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

I’m a professional artist and themed entertainment designer. I create and direct the design of theme parks, zoos, museums, aquarium, immersive experiences, and live entertainment.

I’ve been doing this kind of work for 2 decades. I somehow always knew that I would be an artist when I grew up, but how that was to manifest was always a big question. After some false starts, I ended up as a performer in a Nickelodeon production and then weaved in and out of various creative roles in the themed entertainment industry before landing at Walt Disney Imagineering. I spent 7 years imagineering projects for 11 of the 12 global Disney Parks before I left and rebooted my old company.

Today, I run Mangolin Creative, an experiential design studio based in Southern California. We create amazing original productions and help others realize their creative projects. One of the things that sets us apart is our pedigree — most of our core team are former Imagineers. This means that we can bring an elevated level of talent and problem-solving to a client project. We are may be the only themed entertainment design studio out there that specializes in narrative animal exhibits and wildlife conservation. Sure, there are other landscape architecture studios who design zoos, but we are new school animal people and clients seek us out because of the fresh approach we bring to their projects. We start every project from a narrative standpoint and through the lens of Disney-quality entertainment, coupled with a fail-fast workflow that is fine tuned for production.

There also aren’t many design studios out there who create original productions and internally develop new intellectual property. This sets us apart. Right now we have an original experience called UNEXTINCT that is getting a lot of buzz.

I own my own company and have employees who work for me so some days are simply spent wrangling people and paperwork. But at my core, I’m an artist.

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.

You see, I’m not a very big fan of this question. Or at least how it is phrased. It assumes that there are people out there who are not creative. Everyone has the ability to be creative. But not everyone has the skills needed to be artistic. They are two different things.

I think the best way to approach people who are having trouble understanding creative concepts is to find a way to unlock their creativity. If I’m pitching a project to a room of executives, or politicians, or money people, it’s my job to paint a picture for them that allows them the freedom to imagine. There is nothing more creative than to imagine yourself experiencing the unfamiliar.

Getting people who have chosen a non-creative career path to understand my creative career path is only slightly different. Unless they can imagine themselves having taken the same path that took, I will no doubt be met with shrugs and quizzical looks. People connect with people who are passionate. Be passionate about who you are and the path you’ve chosen in life and you’ll have a much easier time getting people to dig what you were doing.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

There is a good quote out there from Jim Henson, who I admire:

“Many creative people have a certain degree of dissatisfaction with the status quo, the established way. If you look at things differently, you are thought of as ‘different.’ In turn, ‘different’ people are thought to be ‘mad.'”

I think that as a society, if we opened our collective minds to the possibility that there are new ways of doing things and more ways of looking at the world, we would all be better off. Creative people can sometimes be erratic in their thought process. We sometimes have problems communicating with the world outside our head. This often means that we are dismissed as moody or unprofessional. The status quo is maintained, new ideas are dismissed as a radical, and progress is slow.

Aside from ensuring that every child on this planet is given a creative outlet for as long as they feel a desire to be creative…we simply need to expand our mind. Progress is a good thing. Be weary of anyone who pines too much for the good ol’ days. Nostalgia is great but time never stands still. It’s creative minds that move us forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.morganrichardsonart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morganleerichardson/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morganleerichardson/