Team Spotlight: Jessica Miracle

Why did you become a graphic designer/illustrator?
I’ve always loved art and drew all the time. I still have sketchbooks and notepads that I filled up when I was in elementary school. So when I was in high school and had to start thinking about careers I thought it might be fun to make a career out of my life-long passion. Originally I had wanted to be a scientist like my mom. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with art, or what possibilities were even available to me, but when searching for a college I made sure that they had a decent art program. While attending college I learned what graphic design was and that was seriously so exciting because there were all these new avenues of art that I had never known about! I’m still not sure what I want to do; I want to try pretty much everything and become a well-rounded artist. Animation, 3D modeling, and traditional art are all avenues I’m eager to pursue while still honing my skills as a graphic designer. Really, as long as I’m in the art field I couldn’t be happier.

What makes a good designer and/or illustrator?
Flexibility. Art is always changing just like people and while it is important to remember old fads I think it’s more important to know the new ones and be able to use them. Everyone’s got a favorite style, but if you limit yourself to that then you are only hurting yourself and your clients.

I think it’s also important for a designer to know that you’ll get better with experience, but you will always have more to learn. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the previous aspect. Since design is going to be changing constantly, even seasoned designers will have to learn new techniques to continue thriving.

What has been the project that you’re most proud of and why?
That’s a hard one to answer. I’m proud of a lot of things I’ve gotten to work on, but as I improve a lot of the pride diminishes as I look at the old projects and see things I could’ve done instead. I’m most proud of the projects I know I gave a lot of attention to and worked really hard on. Web mockups are a lot of fun to make, and even more fun to build on the web, such as SLS Optical or West Pasco Family Dental.

Who has influenced your style of illustration, and what is your style of illustration?
Another difficult question to answer! In the beginning my inspiration always came from cartoons and anime, as well as my favorites animals at the time: dragons and dinosaurs. There’s a lot of artists that I admire who always inspire me to continue drawing and improving. These artist’s styles vary so much and so my style has ended up varying quite a lot over the years, and it’s still changing. Recently I’ve developed a cartoon-ish style with bright colors and exaggerated proportions.

What areas of your work or personal development are you hoping to explore further?
I want to try new mediums, like animation and 3D modeling. I can’t help but want to try a little bit of everything because I get so inspired by all these amazing works I see. I want to continue developing my style and push myself out of my comfort zone. It was one thing I enjoyed so much while taking college courses; getting to explore new things! I’ve also been enjoying coding a lot recently and would love to pursue that a bit more.

What’s playing on your playlist right now?
Stranger Things soundtrack… I recently watched both seasons (twice) and I am in love with the soundtrack. I love that creepy mood it gives you!

What do you do for fun?
Watch shows/movies, play video games, read good books, draw! I also enjoy hanging out with my family and my friends.

What games are you playing right now?
I’m going back and forth between two games right now: Persona 5 and Okami. They are both really long games so it’s been taking awhile, and ironically they are both based in Japan. I have a huge pile of games I need to beat so I’m trying not to start anything new until I beat both of these ones…

What is your go to food?
Popcorn? I always have popcorn in my pantry. There was one point in my life that I popped a bag of popcorn everyday after dinner. The more butter the better!