Today we’d like to introduce you to Ricard Jorge.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Ricard Jorge; I’m an illustrator, father of Pol, and cooking enthusiast. I grew up in Barcelona and attended in graphic-design studies. After ten years of studio career, I started my solo adventure as freelancer in commercial illustration. As an independent creative, I found my path solving out communication needs in several fields such as advertising, branding, and editorial commissions.
My passion for illustration came when I was a child, and I could found a professional via of development on graphic design studies. Visiting a fare about educational programs, I was impressed by some car-design roughs hanging on a wall. The stand was promoting a post-degree in Automotive design. Was a condition of access to get graduated in a design field, so I started my studies in ELISAVA school of design in Barcelona. Finally, never studied automotive and specialized as a graphic designer. Was on the following years where I could find my place as a senior designer inside a creative studio.
During this studio stage, I worked both in illustration and graphic design and could learned better the processes and the workflows of the professional market. This was essential to some years later start my own business as an independent illustrator.
One of the things from my job that I value the most is that I have the chance to work remotely. The digital nature of my illustrations allows me to work worldwide and provide my services to different ad agencies based in several countries. This is wonderful in terms of personal-life compatibility, specially to raise a baby during his first year. With my family, we recently moved out of the city, and I feel that I’ve found a good balance between my professional and family life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Frequently a big obstacle is not having clear what you want. I always work better when I have clear my goals. When I was attending high school, I felt no one of the educational programs gave me a route to developed my creative interests. The most of the studies plans where about taking traditional careers and I was close to start architecture.
Besides, the most of my family studied legal, so it seems I became the most exotic member on them.
Many years later, stablished as a professional designer, I felt stuck in some other ways.
The studio where I was working for a decade had its strong creative lines. This is absolutely normal, so with the pass of time, I felt the need to start something new by my own. A new start it’s always a challenge, and the road is always full of concerns on the first steps. Otherwise, the passion in what you do and not being afraid of hard work ultimately brings positive results.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work is a geometric, bold, and colorful following the mid-century poster styles. Characterized by taking the artwork to contrast between minimum expression and detailed environments. Getting rid of the needless and emphasizing the basic shapes that brings the essence of make things to bloom. Using few digital vector tools to give volume and depth to flat geometries and giving a realistic or schematic look depending on the purpose of the commission.
Between the themes, I pursue in my work you can find landscapes, product illustration, human figure, or automotive for example. I’m always pushing on to handle any type of drawing and have the possibility to learn from different fields.
On my commercial work, I am count with the unvaluable help of my reps team. My experience working with them is highly positive and recommendable, so they bring me support in many areas and allowing me to be focused on the creative process. Along these years of job adventures with them, we have worked for international clients as Apple, National Geographic, Audi, Amazon, Volkswagen, Pfizer, and collaborations with agencies worldwide such BBDO, Wunderman Thompson, Saatchi, Mucho or DDB.
How do you define success?
It has a very personal meaning. Often it changes depending on the needs of the moment, but a definition easy to share could be the accomplishment of your primary goals. Everybody recognizes the success when it starts bringing you more than what you initially expect. More public recognition or be remarkable at social media, but I think is important to be aware that your success comes from your daily work and keeping the stability along the time.
Contact Info:
- Website: ricardjorge.com
- Instagram: ricardjorge_studio
Image Credits
Ricard Jorge
