Where you’re from? Tel Aviv, Israel. For the past seven years I’ve been living between NYC and Tel Aviv, and now living in Philadelphia.
What is it that you do and how long have you been doing it? I started a career in illustration, traditional animation and motion design seven years ago at a studio called Dress Code in NYC. I went freelance and over time transitioned more into being an animation director, leading small and large teams of animators. Most of my projects are music videos, commercials, explainers and animation in the documentary world (like “Explained” on Netflix).
Tell us a little bit about your dream? Writing my own animated TV show. I’m working on a pilot right now actually. The premise is a comedy about a young man with ADHD working at an ad agency, confronted with the surreal nature of clients, briefs and consumer culture. All framed within a very nonsense-y vibe.
What inspires you as it relates to your dream? Collaborating with other creative people, learning their ways through working together. Anything from learning new animation techniques to learning how they manage their time, how they budget a project, how they write, everything is inspiring when you’re collaborating with someone that thinks differently from you. It feels good to be in a forward momentum, it eliminates the incessant shame you feel when you’re not pushing yourself to get better.
What challenges have you faced in attaining success towards your dream? Mainly anxiety and procrastination, the inability to get started when writing on my own. Attempting to give myself rules and parameters to work within. When really every time I finally just start doodling storyboards on a piece of paper, ideas start flowing out and I realize I didn’t need to take myself so seriously.
What advice would you give to other dreamers out there? You don’t have to know EXACTLY what you want to do, try to find a studio or person that does the closest to what you want to do. Surround yourself with people who are really good at the craft you’re trying to learn, ask them to mentor you, and work on real world projects if you can. Years ago when I reached out to motion design studios to find an internship, I didn’t even know what motion design was. I just knew I sort of liked illustrations and animations, so I emailed a million studios that seemed to be doing that, speaking with specific people that worked there (rather than sending an email to the standard “contact us” email address on the studio website).
