We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Taron Jordon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Taron, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I knew early on that art was my passion. I used to draw Mickey and Minnie Mouse pictures for my gym teachers at Harper Elementary School in Evansville Indiana, because they had a large toy collection of them. Seeing the joy in them when they saw my drawings made me want to do it over and over again. As I got older, I started to fall in love with drawing pokemon and dragon ball z characters. Selling my drawings for 50 cents just so I could buy my favorite sodas during recess. As I entered middle school, Japanese anime shows, Studio Ghibli films, pokemon trading cards and pokemon gameboy games started to come out. This took my creativity and love for art to a higher level. In the 8th grade my family and I moved to Cincinnati and that’s when I started to draw more anime characters, collect more pokemon and yu-gi-oh cards, watch more anime and really started to fall in love with Final Fantasy. So much that I started giving my characters abilities, weapons and so on. At Mt. Healthy high school, Mr Gregory opened my eyes to a whole new world of art and introduced me to different mediums. This is when my art became more representational and larger scale. I knew then that I wanted to go to an art school. At Cincinnati State Technical and Community College I used to create art for anyone and everyone. From shoes, portraits, paintings and tattoos. I also used to do show and tell with my counselors. They too supported and loved my work so it always motivated me to create more artwork. At SCAD, my eyes and mind were opened to a world of art that I didn’t know existed. My creativity seemed endless but so naive. There was so much to learn, so much to create and so many people to create with. This is when I knew I was going to pursue a professional creative career or die trying.
Taron, 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?
For those that know me know that I am a very passionate person. I am obsessed with learning, teaching and helping others become successful. Even at a young age I was always willing to fail and try again. I asked questions, trained more, created more and shared more. Nothing has changed. Regardless of my circumstance or what obstacles that were in my way I was disciplined enough, committed enough and consistent enough to pursue my goals without fear. In my mind I knew the life I didn’t want to live so I was willing to go after my dreams regardless of failure.
At SCAD they taught me many things, but the one thing that turned the light bulb on was the process. Everything starts with a process. The audience sees the final piece, however there are many steps before the final design. Many artists like myself use to rush through the process to get to the final design and not realize all the errors that we’ve made. The process in art is no different than any other discipline. You cannot skip steps if you want to be successful. Our design process always started with a creative brief. Then came the research, moodboard, thumbnails, color comps and final design. Each step had revisions and multiple options up for critiques. This process allowed us to identify what the client needs, what were the problems they faced and how to target them with the correct design elements. For example, what colors to use, what typeface to use, who is the target audience, where will this design be used, what is the scale of the design and so on. If you rush through the process then you will miss out on valuable information that could take your art to the next level. SCAD essentially equipped me with the “WHY” to my “What”. Life is no different. What do you want? Do you love it? How bad do you want it? Are you willing to sacrifice for it? Are you disciplined enough to work for it on the days you don’t feel like it, because you cannot cheat or escape the process?
For work I am a Freelance artist and Youth soccer coach. I am able to combine both of my passions together while also pursuing them separately. For art, I have many projects ranging from Illustrations, Logos, Design, Labeling Design, Animation, Motion Design and Video editing. For soccer, I can share my knowledge with the kids through Motion Design or even create highlight or Explainer videos through Video Editing. You can see how much I love to learn and create from the range of my skills.
I am most proud that I am still the little boy from Evansville Indiana creating art and sharing it with the world. I’m more proud that I am able to continue to inspire others to pursue their goals without fear and regardless of their circumstance.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
“There is no such thing as creative and non-creative people, only people who use their creativity and people who don’t.”— Brené Brown
I strongly believe this. The people who don’t pursue their creativity often struggle with the idea that Art is a God given talent only selected for a few chosen people. Art is just a skill, like any other discipline, that can be developed over time. We’ve all heard this before, “I can’t even draw a stick figure”. Yeah, this may be true now, but it’s only because you don’t know the process behind drawing a figure. There are many steps to drawing a human figure or a character design and it takes time to become good at it. Your creative talent may also not be suited for Drawing. A common assumption is that Drawing, Painting, Photography and Sculpture are the only forms of art. These are Communication and Fine art based forms of art.
Many don’t realize that the world they live in is actually filled with other forms of art. The clothes you wear were designed by a Fashion Designer and each item of clothing could have been designed by someone who specializes in that area. For example, a Footwear Designer designs shoes. A Textile Designer designs patterns and prints to create the fabric. An Accessory Designer designs and produces items such as handbags, suitcases, belts, scarves, hats, and eyewear. A Jewelry Designer designs the jewelry and other decorative products. These don’t require you to be extremely good at drawing. These require ideas and working with your hands to physically make these items.
Other art forms are Industrial designers, who design concepts for manufactured products, cars, home appliances, toys and so on. There are Motion Designers who create artwork for the web, television or film. For example, the commercials you see and the moving text and images at the bottom of your screen during the football game. I haven’t even mentioned Graphic Designers, Architectural Designers, Interior Designers, Furniture Designers, UI/UX Designers, Sequential Artists, Animators, Performing Artists, Sound Designers, Cinematographers, Illustrators, Visual Effects and so on! The art world is huge and filled with people who choose to use their creativity.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
You don’t have to be rich to create art and I understood this as a child. The Golden Disney books I used to draw from as a child were all drawn with a number 2 pencil and lined paper. Eventually I explored construction paper, computer paper and a BIC pen. All of which you can find or get at school. Like many disciplines in life you have to train daily regardless of your feelings if you want to be great at it. In the early stages you are filled with joy, passion and don’t have a clue why you are doing it apart from that you just love doing it. As you become a teenager you start to mature a bit and realize there are different paths in life for your discipline. In High school you become more serious about pursuing your passion and begin to make big decisions. College is where you realize that you can really make a living doing something you love and reaching your goals is just around the corner. Adulting is where the real game begins. Each of these stages will come with challenges and distractions that will test you mentally to see if you really want what you said you wanted. For me, I had no real direction, because no one in my family graduated from college or pursued art. I was just going off passion alone and asking a million questions.
In the early stages I just drew everything I loved from cartoons, anime, video games and so on. I didn’t know at the time but this is known as Studies. I was training my eyes, improving pen control, seeing values and color theory while trying to match the likeness of the characters. The mental challenge was always being over critical of my work or critiquing each mark that I made. The mental boost was always when someone was able to identify my characters without me writing down their names or telling them. I would also be motivated to draw more after seeing the joy of someone when I gave them a drawing. Eventually I would draw for money so I could buy my favorite soda or candy during recess.
As a teenager there were still mental challenges with myself, more balled up papers and aggressive scribbling. However, I never lost the joy of drawing and creating for others. Materials still didn’t matter at the time, because I was so naive and young. At this time it was very clear that I had a passion for art and that I was good at it.
In High school, I knew then that I was one of a few that could actually draw and the introduction to different materials and styles increased my knowledge and creativity. Now things started to become more competitive and costly. Since we didn’t have a lot of money my brother and I would save our lunch money to eventually buy yugioh cards from the local card shop. I’m talking about 40-50 cents each day, over time, to eventually dump 20 plus dollars worth of coins over the counter to buy the latest decks. I would also draw classmates pictures, portraits or even do their drawing projects for money so that I could save up for art materials. As the winter would come I would purchase a shovel at a corner store to then shovel the neighbors driveway and sidewalks for money so I could buy us video games, clothes, shoes, pokemon cards, yugioh cards and so on. All of which helped me create more because I was collecting a massive amount of resources to draw from. I just did it, because I loved it. The major challenge for me in high school was to first graduate and then find a way to get into college. I used to skip a lot and escape to the art room. For me all I wanted to do was to draw and I didn’t care about the other subjects. Eventually my counselor helped me understand what I needed to do to graduate and how to send my transcripts to colleges. I was voted Most Artistic in high school.
At Cincinnati State I still created for anyone and everyone for money and attention, but I still didn’t have a direction. I didn’t know anything about Art schools besides DAAP and I assumed that wasn’t an actual art school, because I would still have to take Math, Science and so on. More challenges came like financial and transportation. In 2007, I would either take a bus from Compton Groves in Mt. Healthy to Cincinnati State or I would walk. That was about a 6 to 8 miles, 2 to 3 hour walk, but I didn’t care because I wanted to pursue art and soccer. I was still skipping and dropping classes because I only wanted to do art. Eventually I would drop so many classes that I had to pay my way to get back into school. In 2008, I just worked in the fitness center at Cincinnati State while still creating art for money to pay my way back into college. My counselors and soccer coach really saved me here. In 2009, I was kind of smart with my money, because for the most part I bought what I needed. When the reimbursement check came from my financial aid I bought a 1,000 dollar 2009 Macbook and a 600 dollar Firebird. I could now drive myself around and take pictures of my art. Smart phones weren’t really a thing yet nor did I like phones, so I used my Macbook to record everything. I would finally graduate from Cincinnati State and by then I knew what I wanted and how I was going to get there. My life changed when I got the acceptance letter from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).
SCAD was the hardest and greatest time of my life, because the challenges felt impossible to overcome but the people I’ve met, the things I’ve learned and the beauty of the city was worth it. The financial challenges were huge, the materials broke the bank and my car broke down. At the time I was living in Thunderbolt Georgia and would have to ride my bike to the dorms by 8am in order to make it to soccer practice on time. This was about a 45 min bike ride in the morning with all my huge art materials in my hands and back. I had to carry everything because after practice I had to go to class. The ride back home would be grueling, because I was so tired but also wanted to still have a social life. To balance it I stayed in the dorms with my friends. Creating a bed out of chairs, boxes and anything I could find. Occasionally an air mattress or sleeping on a couch. I didn’t have any money so I would sneak into the SCAD cafe or bum some food swipes off my friends. Good times and good people. They saved me. The school workload was so hard, the materials for each project was expensive and I felt like I was years behind the rest. I would borrow or share materials from classmates and teammates. SCAD was very international based so during our long winter breaks the foreigners in the dorms would throw out all their materials before leaving for home. I would collect them. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Eventually I would move closer to downtown Savannah and find new ways to survive. Through the help of my friends, family, coaches, counselors and SCAD’s Ombudsman I was able to earn my bachelors degree. I felt like I completed the game of life when walking across that stage as they called out my name. One of the proudest moments of my life, because I pursued a dream and I reached my goals regardless of the challenge. It was so hard but I made it. You couldn’t tell me anything.
Adulting was and still is hard, because it’s a challenge to pursue stability or passion. I wanted passion so becoming a Freelancer was ideal but in order to survive I had to work general labor jobs to buy materials, pay for online courses and to pay bills. Every job was mentally killing me, because all I would think about or do at work was draw. So in 2015, I decided to quit my job and pursue Freelance and Coaching soccer full-time even if I was going to be homeless. I am proud to say that I have been coaching and freelancing since then and have met so many wonderful people and have been a part of so many wonderful projects.
Follow your dreams.
Contact Info:
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