Designer Spotlight: Michael Kingery
Location: Omaha
Education: Associates at Metropolitan Community College
Employment: SkyVu pictures
Website: http://www.michaelkingery.com/
Biography: I grew up drawing in Lincoln Nebraska, wherein my parents would buy rolls of newsprint from the Journal Star for me to roll out on the dining room table and draw on. I didn’t think about pursuing a career in art however until late middle school/early high school, when I found out about the field of concept design. After graduating from Lincoln Southeast I started up classes at Metro where I completed my Associates two years later. As of March of this year I have been employed at SkyVu pictures as a concept designer – a blessing I can’t begin to approach with logic.
How did you realize you wanted to be a Concept Designer?
When I grew up nobody ever specified what fields of art there were that I could enter. I drew dinosaurs like every normal art cursed boy and built stuff with legos, but it never dawned on me for a comically long period of time that people got paid to design and create elements in TV, video games and movies. I was always more of an illustrator then fine artist so I had to find my own way in many of those regards. I took a few classes at ITFP (information technology focus program) through LPS, and made the decision that blowing off most of my normal class work to draw on the backs of assignments was more valuable a use of my time than worrying about my parents freaking out at every report card.
How would you describe your style or approach to your work?
My style is usually dictated by what I am tasked with creating. When presented with something to design you will almost always have a general aesthetic ‘brush’ that you must paint in, but the lines must all come together with the intention of realizing what this concept must do in its environment. In terms of artistic style I suppose I have one – I have been told I do, but I never think about it. The line weight and shadow over form is what I am ultimately striving to convey, and it is very rarely that I paint out a full composition. I enjoy my work when I create something new that looks compelling, interesting and cool, and if you have done your job right the rendering of it is second in importance in my opinion.
Where do you draw inspiration for your work?
The pure answer is that I shouldn’t because I am always striving to keep things unique and different from what has gone on before. However this is of course impossible and impractical. Since I focus my art on industrial design a childhood filled with legos helps, but so does being interested in the subject content. When I walk by construction equipment I am usually looking at how joints are powered and how rust is landing on metal. Back when I watched TV, Modern marvels on the history channel among other things kept me thinking about past, present and future design directions and now that I am more aware of my artistic surroundings I really enjoy the work of some fellow artists as well as online communities I frequent.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
I don’t think I have an overlying thought or quote that has helped me come this far. As Iain McCaig says loosely you must be ready to kill your babies. Never become so attached to a design element that you make it an immovable foundation stone.
What is your best way to break out of a creative rut?
I have a really frustrating cycle of creativity where I will work more freely in certain medias and systems. For the same reason that I drew through all school, when I have the freedom of home I will almost never draw. Luckily I get bounced around allot within the structure of work but my best advice to keeping everything regular is to take up the daily sketch group (DSG) at conceptart.org.
The DSG focuses on randomly generated and simple topics that open and close to the public over the course of a day. Similarly if you want a more specific and rewarding experience, conceptart.org has an activities page that hosts content specific challenges over weeklong stretches. There is something there for almost anybody and the critique you get from other artists at the end of each round is invaluable!
