We recently connected with Titus Simirica and have shared our conversation below.

Titus, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

My first job in the industry was swiftly met with the hard lesson of my studio shutting down. Looking back, in that moment I knew what a tumultuous time the game industry was experiencing and instead of focusing on my future and whether or not I was going to make it. I wish I spent that energy in the one thing I can actually affect which is growing myself and my artistic abilities and putting my confidence in that.

Titus, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Titus and I was born and raised in Chicago. I was a tinkerer from a single digit age and would disassemble my toys to see how they would work. My parents HATED what I was doing but I like to make believe that deep down they saw a little artist doing his magic and growing into a Concept Artist, a profession that lives and breaths understanding how things work.

Currently I work on Forza Motorsport as a Lead Concept Artist, I do see a stylus pen from time to time and help problem solve with my Concept Art skills but more times than not I help mentor, guide, enable and overall try to give the people around me a positive environment where they can be collaborative and contribute their ideas.

At my core though, I am still an artist and I love to develop my own IP on my spare time. I love to write for it, do marker sketches to problem solve the lore, compose 3D environments, and create digital concept art in hopes of refining the world and story more. The process is sometimes more fun than completing a concept piece because to me concept art is about the design more so than the technical prowess of a piece.

What I problem solve is the human element and what it takes for someone to be excited to come to work and have a strong work life balance. You really can’t get stuff done if the people you work with hate what they’re working on and I believe that even if you don’t like racing games, if you had the right team, you’d love working on one.

From the day I started as Lead until now, my priorities and mindset shifted a ton. A lot of the problems I had when I started are not so problematic anymore and because of that, my focus is able to be placed on other things. Currently I think a lot about how to grow people and how to get them to achieve greater things. A common way I get into this mindset is by asking myself “How would this decision improve and grow a person/the people around me while achieving the overarching goals?”. It’s a simple exercise that helps change your perspective.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Living in Chicago during 2012-2016 was pretty brutal, a bunch of lay-offs were happening all over the gaming industry, small studios were collapsing and middle-of-the-road-studios were being gobbled up by massive corporations. The few studios that were left standing had found their concept artists and were working on their long term projects and I had no way in. I would get a small freelance gig from time to time, but I was plain broke and was quickly losing hope in my dream. There was about a month where I legitimately quit art and I was learning code to be a web developer. Then out of nowhere I had an opportunity to move to Seattle alongside with my brother and we drove all the way to Seattle and I was fortunate enough to land a concept art job within a few days of moving in. I was shocked and still attribute most of it to success, it opened up so many doors for me and it transformed my life. I know I put the work in, but I genuinely believe I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for my brother Jon.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Best way to currently support artists and to harbor a thriving creative ecosystem is to take a strong hard look at generative AI and how it goes against both of those things. Part of me doesn’t like talking about why generative AI is bad, because it will just give someone an idea on how to make it “better” but at its core it will still be generative AI. But at the end of the day generative AI waters down a product’s value (perpetually) and it harbors an anti creative mindset that will see future art stall out. As artists we have a stake in what our future looks like and we don’t want to willingly create a norm that sees our lively hood, passion, and life’s work be replaced.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/acirimis
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/titussimirica/