Artist Spotlight: Jason Curry

Meet Jason Curry–a digital designer, videographer and musician who splits his time between Lancaster and Charlotte. A Lancaster native, Jason is the creator of Curry Media and stays busy with work as a graphic/web designer, several music projects, and various other projects such as the upcoming Battle Beasts documentary and recently illustrated children's book, Kessie's Tales...

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What do you do? I'm a digital designer. I really don't like to be pigeon holed into one form of media, but I primarily concentrate on three areas: graphic design, web design and digital video. They all really go hand in hand.

Any artistic influences? Shoe designer Tinker Hatfield, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Salvador Dali, comic book artists like Bill Sienkiewicz and Mike Mignola, and film makers David Fincher, Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese.

Try to remember your earliest artistic undertaking- what was it? I think it was trying to draw the USC letters perfectly in 1st grade... I know, it's weird.

Describe your design style: I like space and colors. I'd rather design things that I've never designed before. For instance, I have designed a wide array of products like: coins, billboards, a user interface for an intranet, shoes, magazines and promotional puzzles.



When did you first discover your artistic inclination? How did you hone your skills? Well, my mother is a very creative person and I didn't realize I had those skills too, until–in 1983–we were on a Wrightsville Beach trip with our church and everyone had to to submit something to go into a scrapbook. My mom submitted a drawing and she used shading techniques to give it depth, and I was blown away. So naturally I tried to emulate what she did. My brother and I started collecting comic books from there on and we learned about color, space, form and everything else from comic books and we started copying them.

How long have you been a graphic & web designer? I graduated from Lancaster High in 1994. I spent 3 years at USCL undecided before I figured out that's what I wanted to to. I studied art and design at USC Columbia for 2 years, graduated in 1999 and I've been doing it ever since. When I got out of school I found out that web design was the next big thing, so since I didn't get any training from USC in web design, I bought books and studied it on my own and got a job doing web design full time in 2003. I then began to design on the side and, in 2005, created Curry Media, providing design services for Small to Medium Business.

You recently illustrated a children's book (Kessie's Tales). How did you become involved with the project? Ms. Kitty got me involved in volunteering at the Brattonsville Plantation and–during one of the shows–she introduced me to Lucinda Dunn, who ran a small local newspaper. I told Lucinda what I did full time and she began using some of my services for her newspaper... then she came up with the idea to put Ms. Kitty's performance stories into a children's book. When she asked me would I do it, I was like "of course!!" I've known Ms. Kitty since I was in elementary school.


Describe the style of illustration for Kessie's Tales I wanted the book to have a warm feeling, and have vibrant colors, but still have an almost painted, vintage look. Also, despite the heavy subject matter I didn't want it to come off as a dark children's book. I used my daughter Kali and her cousins as models for the characters. I took digital pictures of them and brought them into Adobe Illustrator, a digital illustrating program, and used the photos as templates for my illustrations.

What are some of the graphic/web projects you've worked on? Dirty Soul T Shirts, Urban League Young Professional Awards, Urban League WMY Awards, Charlotte Literary Festival, Various Posters for the Sol Kitchen, Rushmore Drive Limited Edition Barack Obama Wallpaper, 2009 Stellar Awards Web Video Editing for Rushmore Drive, Flyers for MEAC, King of the Street Motorcycle Race, Generation Engage flyers, Battle Beasts Documentary (coming this year), and a lot of other things.



You're also a musician- what's your musical style / influences? Music is more of a hobby for me, but I love music of all kinds. I am really influenced by Hip Hop, Soul, Indie Rock, UK shoegazing, motown, Trip-hop, Classical and Jazz. I really like to take existing styles of music and combine them with other elements of music and coming up with something different.

What's your instrument / software of choice? I play a little piano, I mostly work with Reason on the computer, turntables, samples.

Currently working on any music projects? Any collaborative work? Ive done a few instrumental albums with Charles Crawford (of Battle Beasts fame) under the name "Holy Ghost Enema" (Untitled, My Space Is Dead). I produced an EP for Gerald Flowers aka King G (God's Will). I did a little solo work under the name "Everything Is Temporary." Also did a track with guitarist Chris Horton: parallaxdecision.

What was it like growing up in Lancaster? It was slow country living, which I appreciate now. My mom and dad were very forward thinking people. The hot thing to do? Hmmm...Probably go to the football games, "The Campground", or leave and go to Charlotte...

Anything else we should know (ever been abducted by aliens or anything like that?) No, But I can still do a front flip.