Meet Ian Cole | 2D Animator & Visual Developer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ian Cole and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ian, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
When I was in middle school, whenever I was asked what I wanted to be, I would say “I want to make cartoons”. That motivation came from watching too many cartoons whenever I could, all the time, while I was growing up. Before that point though I didn’t understand how they were made; it made sense that someone had to actually draw all of it, but I never really considered the process because I didn’t know what that was. Making cartoons seemed like what I wanted because I was already an art kid and I loved animation, so I felt like that was perfect for me. It took me a while to understand that I wanted to pursue animation as an artistic career because that felt natural to me. I wanted to create things, I wanted to draw characters, and I always had a curiosity about performance and theatre despite never being interested in doing any of the performing. I have a family that’s been immersed in the arts for a long time; my brother and dad being artists, and several cousins and uncles being in the performing arts. It made it hard to ignore that what I wanted was something similar. Animation was a creative outlet that was so much more satisfying to me that just drawing or painting because I felt like it was art that I could finally put personality into.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It’s about a lot of different things for me. I’m not always sure what sets me apart from others. I feel like my artistic interests lean into the grotesque and unsavory a lot of the time. Anatomy, gross things, things melting, and strained expressions are all very fun to draw and ‘ve been drawing them for a very long time. I wanted to get into animation because I liked the idea of making all of that stuff move and function, making art that wasn’t static. I eventually found that what I really loved about it was the process of recreating mechanics of movement. It’s exciting to me because it feels like fulfilling the daydream that every kid has of making their doodles move around on the page and do whatever they want. It feels like bringing something to life.

Where I am professionally at the moment isn’t much different than where I was during my education honestly, though I’d say I have much more of a social media presence now than I did before. I’m not too far out from having graduated, but I’ve learned since then is that how and when you present yourself can often be much more important than your work itself. Sometimes you can do everything right and still not get hired because your submission was right behind someone else’s. It’s certainly not easy right now, but doing as much as you can to keep improving will always help make you a more confident candidate.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m a bit of a home body myself but for places to eat I’d say The Works or Ponce City Market, they both have a lot of variety different options so they’re great for trying new things. The Botanical Gardens or either Fernbank Museum are fun places to visit too, and if they’re up for trivia then Battle and Brew has been a great place for that.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family has been a huge source of encouragement throughout my life, especially my parents for their support and my brother as a creative partner. Art wouldn’t be such a huge part of my life without them. I also want include my peers and professors at SCAD, because, as someone who’s dealt with a lot of confidence issues around his art, having their critique and guidance during and after Grad school has been immensely valuable in improving that and developing as an animator.

Website: https://www.ianhcole.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ian_h_cole/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-cole-animator/