We recently connected with SJ Anderson and have shared our conversation below.
SJ, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
First off, let me state that I don’t believe anyone needs a degree to be able to have a career in graphic design! I will say that it did allow me to learn the formal design principles. It also helped to have a mentor figure walk me though what the difference even was between Photoshop and Illustrator. I hadn’t even heard of InDesign! The experience was similar to acquiring tools, but I still was lost on how to create things I actually liked. So much of learning how to be a successful designer happened after college. I had to remember my inspirations. How I really learned design was passively, by studying the art of my favorite album designs, or learning how to code a tumblr website. Realizing that appreciating already existing things that I had found beautiful in my day-to-day was already training my personal eye for art. I could use it as a catalyst for practice to improve my professional work. Things like creating fake tour posters for musical artists, drawing fanart, or making zines about special interests, all provided a sandbox for me to let my creativity run free. It’s the biggest thing that held me back for so long- allowing myself to take breaks from the professional and allow myself to enjoy and be inspired by the world around me. Over time, without even trying, it will always inevitably make me a better artist.
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 SJ Anderson, a graphic designer and illustrator from Austin, Texas and currently based in Portland, Oregon. I am currently and in-house graphic designer for Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, and freelance on the side. My most recent freelance work has been creating show poster art for Bottle Alley Theatre Company’s 2024 season and branding Dirty Gold Theatre. I love meeting other geeks through my work that are true fans of what they do. Making something that can help bring a collective vision to life, and having fun while doing it, is what I am all about.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
When I decided to be a graphic designer, I didn’t really have any names or examples of who to look at as an example. It felt like an exponential learning curve that was hard to follow. I wish I had known where to find more free learning resources. Honestly, with the rise of social media, it’s gotten easier as well to find other designers sharing tips and tricks. Kel Lauren has been a content creator I’ve enjoyed for some time. They provide tons of free resources and are vocal about taking down the barriers of getting into the field. Outside of that, finding opportunities to network was challenging. It truly started with helping friends with projects, and asking if they knew anyone that wanted a designer. It took a while to get used to trying so hard on one path and it going nowhere, and then suddenly an opportunity comes from out of the blue.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I want to help bring down the wall between this field and those that can’t, or don’t want to, go to college for it. I really see so much potential in how fast we can share information now, and how that can play a part in avoiding a paywall between aspiring designers and actually getting employed. I believe the knowledge to learn this (and anything, truly) should be free and accessible. My mission is to one day put everything I’ve learned about being a professional and freelance graphic designer in one place, and share it with as many people that seek out that knowledge. I want it to be free and easy to follow creative pursuits.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: s.ande
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sj-anderson-684283a4/
Image Credits
Photography of Lord of the Rings Feast menu courtesy of Alamo Drafthouse