Students of Design

Josh Lewis – DNA, Strategic Personal Projects, and Lego Little Golden Books – Ep28

Episode Summary

Josh is an art director, illustrator, and author in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He's a sucker for LEGO minifigures and thought he'd never get a chance to illustrate a Little Golden Book—until he worked on four of them for LEGO! Josh has also worked with Scholastic, Highlights for Children, Discovery Education, Orion Telescopes and Binoculars, and other EdTech companies. He's spoken on stages like Creative South and ICON: The Illustration Conference and knows a thing or two about classic cartoons like Loony Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and Popeye. One of the most fascinating parts of his story is the parallels with his great-great-grandfather, Von G. It turns out that writing and illustrating kids' books is (literally) part of his DNA. Tune in for a talk about exploring his ancestry, being strategic with personal projects, and the difficulty of bringing LEGO minifigures to life in a kids' book. Follow Josh on Instagram @joshjlewis and LinkedIn, and see more of his work on his website joshjlewis.com and Dribbble.

Episode Notes

Josh is an art director, illustrator, and author in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He's a sucker for LEGO minifigures and thought he'd never get a chance to illustrate a Little Golden Book—until he worked on four of them for LEGO! Josh has also worked with Scholastic, Highlights for Children, Discovery Education, Orion Telescopes and Binoculars, and other EdTech companies. He's spoken on stages like Creative South and ICON: The Illustration Conference and knows a thing or two about classic cartoons like Loony Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and Popeye. One of the most fascinating parts of his story is the parallels with his great-great-grandfather, Von G. It turns out that writing and illustrating kids' books is (literally) part of his DNA.

Tune in for a talk about exploring his ancestry, being strategic with personal projects, and the difficulty of bringing LEGO minifigures to life in a kids' book. Follow Josh on Instagram @joshjlewis and LinkedIn, and see more of his work on his website joshjlewis.com and Dribbble.

Questions for this interview.

• How do you approach giving constructive feedback to someone early in their career?
• Which do you weigh more heavily, concept and process, or execution and craft?
• Have you ever received a review that changed your feelings about your work?
• Would you be an author and illustrator of kids' books if you had never had children?
• How and when did you learn so much about classic cartoons?
• How did you discover Oscar Hunt Von Gottschalck is your great-great-grandfather? Was that information passed down to you by your mother, or did you find it yourself?
• Is Von G the oldest ancestor you've uncovered in your family tree?
• How did it make you feel to learn about your great-great-grandfather?
• Can you explain the idea behind Bite-Sized Books?
• How does treating a personal project like a real project help you, and how can someone do that for themselves?
• Which do you want to learn how to be the most? A pirate, a knight, a unicorn, or a ghost?
• Do you remember how you felt when asked to illustrate your first Little Golden Book?
• How difficult was bringing LEGO plastic minifigs to life in those books? Especially their expressions.
• What kind of feedback have you gotten about your book, Ray's Big Day?
• What makes a good picture book? What should it have, and what does it need to do?