Morgan Schweitzer, BFA in Communication Design ’07
“The most vital thing I learned at WashU was how to teach myself,” shared alum Morgan Schwitzer, BFA ’07. “Over time at WashU, I was able to internalize the critique process and establish the tools to continue learning throughout my career.” Learn more about Morgan’s professional journey, from WashU to today, in this spotlight.
Tell us about your work.
This year I departed Buck Design to reembark as an independent creative director in the commercial production and animation field.
What does an average day or week look like? Depending on the phase, type, and involvement in a project, I may be establishing pitch decks to describe the creative vision; working with producers on staffing, bidding, or timelines; developing key art, character design, or storyboards; offering daily feedback to artists; or giving client presentations to share our progress.
What’s something you learned at WashU that had a big impact on you?
The most vital thing I learned at WashU was how to teach myself. Over time at WashU, I was able to internalize the critique process and establish the tools to continue learning throughout my career.
How did your WashU education prepare you for your current role?
WashU excels at instilling practical creative reasoning. I have found that so much of working in a commercial creative field requires a well-thought methodology for creative decisions in order to explain and approve concepts.
What did you expect to be doing 10, 20 years ago?
I have stayed the course faithfully, and I’m essentially doing what I set out to do.
What was your “aha" moment during your time at WashU?
I credit my illustration teacher, John Hendrix, for sharing so much of the illustration work that was relevant in the field at that time. The “aha” moment was more of an "oh geez, I’ve gotta step it up” moment, because I was able to see how my work trailed behind the work in the professional arena at that time. My senior year was when I strived to close that gap before I was on my own in the professional realm.
What advice would you give a current high school or college student interested in your field?
For a high school student, I would say don’t be afraid to enter a creative field. I disagree with the categorization that a creative degree is less practical than other disciplines. Look around you. Everything we interact with was at one time designed by someone with a creative background.
For a college student, don’t wait until your work is “great.” The goal is to keep improving as an artist. That’s why it can be such a gratifying field to engage in. But, it’s also why, if you continue to evolve over time, you won’t remain satisfied with your previous work. That’s a terrific sign of growth! But, it can prevent young artists from sharing their work because it’s always trailing slightly behind their current standard. So, don’t be afraid to reach out to employers, studios, art directors, etc. It will never hurt you.
What do you wish people knew about your field? It’s an industry of freelancers, so it can be helpful to have that expectation at the outset. Also, it can be daunting to enter the animation field thinking that you need to learn all aspects of the animation process, but every artist is often very specialized: there are illustrators, storyboard artists, 3D modelers, 2D animators, 3D animators, and more. Projects benefit from this division of labor as these processes can often function simultaneously.
What skills did you get from a creative education that have helped you in your career? Ultimately it all goes back to composition, color theory, and conceptual creative problem solving. All the tenets that were instilled in my creative education.
What did you do after graduation, and how did you get where you are now? I cold-emailed 100+ studios asking if they had any positions open, not understanding that this industry is very freelance-oriented. It wasn’t until I was hired by one small studio in New York as a freelance character designer and storyboard artist that my career started to gain momentum. That booking lasted a few months, and things developed organically from there — freelance producers from that studio moved to other studios and remembered me. I kept my portfolio up to date and I always maintained the practice of reaching out to any new studio to get on their radar. Once I had some professional relationships, at the end of every freelance job I would reach out to the folks I knew to see if they needed any creative support. Early on, I also worked quite a bit in publishing as an illustrator, and that was a bit more challenging. I’d reach out to magazines to schedule in-person portfolio reviews whenever possible.
