Elevate Talks: Julian Glander
Julian Glander is an artist. His work has appeared in Disney, MTV, The New York Times, Vans, Nickelodeon, Vice and dozens of other cool projects. The transition between social media posts of his own personal projects and commissioned work was fast and subtle. He has published illustrations, animations, gifs and comics.
Can you introduce yourself, please?
My name is Julian Glander, I’m a visual artist based in Brooklyn, and I just woke up :)
How would you describe your job?
I work from my apartment and make 3D art and animation for a lot of different purposes — illustration, video games, short films, commercials, and comics.
You used to live and work in Pittsburgh. How was it like?
I don’t live there any more but it was AMAZING!! One of the best cities in America to be an artist — things are cheap, people are nice, and there is a cool art scene that’s not too big. I grew so much as an artist while I lived there because I had the time and freedom to really “figure it out”. Apparently it’s also a big comics town now with a lot of alternative cartoonists moving there. I can’t say enough nice things about the burgh.
How did you decide to become an illustrator/animator/artist?
Don’t really remember making the conscious decision. I studied creative writing in school and when I graduated I was trying a lot of different things: playing in bands, writing fiction, working odd jobs, and doing drawings. The drawings ended up taking off so I guess you could say market forces decided it for me.
On a scale from 1 to 10, how important are social networks for you?
I guess, being honest, like 9.5 because I spend all day on them. A lot of clients find me on Tumblr and Instagram and I have met a lot of other cool people through DM’s etcetera.
Do they condition in any way your work’s content?
Probably subconsciously.
If you had to put together your all-time top 3 favorite projects, which would they be?
The Susan Something comics.
The hit video game Lovely Weather We’re Having.
Experimental animations I got to make for Disney.
Who or what inspires you?
Barbara Kruger, Gumby, candy wrappers, David Hockney, flowers and plants, IKEA catalogs, clouds, baby toys from the dollar store, Misaki Kawai, Ed Ruscha, day-glo colors.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Making clients and my social media audience happy while also making work that I’m proud of and feel internally fulfilled by. Good problem to have, I know. Also, money stuff.
How do you see yourself in 12 months?
I’m so happy with how everything’s going right now I just wanna keep doing this for a while! I have been kicking around plans for some bigger and more ambitious projects though, so it would be sick if I was working on those.
How do you see yourself in 5 years?
Retired!
Bonus track: Could you recommend any TV series / comics / movie / song / artist?
Kind of old but I just saw the movie Mindgame and Ican’t stop thinking about it!
