From Animator to Marketer: Why It Works

Not a whole lotta people know this, but I'm an animator and cartoonist by trade.

Yep! I graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a B.F.A in animation in 2008. I wasn't in the industry very long. Full-time work wasn't plentiful due to the recession, so I took on a myriad of freelance projects to make connections and build up my portfolio.

I really, really love drawing my cats being crazy.

Despite leaving the industry for the once lucrative SEO link building train (which would soon evolve into my current marketing career), I don't regret my choice in degree - nor do I regret my limited time in the animation industry. Here's why:

Grit - The animation industry (namely TV animation) isn't for the weak of heart. Network deadlines must be met at all costs - which can mean overnights at the studio, trying to knock out high quality work in a short amount of time. That's grit, baby - and I've got plenty of it.

Adaptability - The entertainment industry as a whole requires you to really think on your feet. If "the powers that be" require changes, you gotta figure out how to make them - even if you don't know how. In animation, you are a lifetime student. You gotta constantly learn about new apps, tools, techniques and of course, other people's art styles. Managing ambiguity is something you learn early on in the animation industry and it's a highly transferable skill.

Communication with Creatives - Artists typically speak the same language when it comes to discussing art. Terms like color theory, composition, alignment, opacity, rasterized, dpi, etc, make sense to both parties. There's no "make this thing pop" or "give that pizzazz." It's "can you improve the color saturation of this logo?", "can you export this image at 300dpi?" It makes getting the requested product that much easier for everyone.

Storytelling - Lastly, studying animation made me into a capable story teller. I'm no longer telling stories about teenage males navigating adolescents with their scientist father, or stories about an unhinged warden at a freakishly cartoonish jail - but I am explaining what our brand is, what we care about and what we want our audience to care about. I'm able to get the right message over to the right audience and convince them to feel a certain way.

Anyway, I left the industry years ago, but I'm still a cartoonist through and through. The panel shown above is proof, no?