Julian Glander is an animator, illustrator and art person based in the USA. His work has been featured on It’s Nice That, WIRED, and Fast Company, and in 2013 he was a winner of the ADC Young Guns competition.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. My name is Julian Glander, I’m 25, and I’m a visual artist/3D animator. That’s it!
How has living in Brooklyn affected your work? I’m still settling into my new home in New York after moving here last week, and it’s been on my brain and in my work a ton. Specifically, the drawn-out process of packing up everything I own into a little cube, deciding what to keep and what to trash, and spending money on new things for the new studio. It’s really brought a sharp focus on the super materialism that consumes a lot of my life, so a lot of my recent subjects have been furniture, home goods, plants. Maybe with a bit of a critical eye toward how much I love it.
What kinds of things are influencing your work right now? This week: Haribo candy, old claymation and stop-motion from the 50s that gets uploaded to YouTube, the new Daniel Clowes book, IKEA, the new Pee Wee movie.
What are some recent, upcoming or current projects you are working on? The “big thing” that I have been gearing up for and finally getting started on is an animated series, hopefully coming soon. Other than that, lots of the same — small video games, animated GIFs, just more and more trash getting dumped into the web.
Favorite pizza topping? Prosciutto. (I’m doing the chef thing where you kiss your fingers right now).
How did your interest in animation begin? Probably in grade school in some really boring way.
If you could go back in time and experience one day in history, which day would that be? I’d like to go back to Dinosaur Times and like, leave my phone there or something. And then people in the 1500s would find the phone and be so so so confused.
How long have you lived in Brooklyn and what brought you there? I’ve been in Brooklyn for two weeks. I moved here with my girlfriend for work stuff but also to be closer to my friends and all of the cool artists living here.
What’s your absolute favorite place in the city to be? I got to go inside the Statue of Liberty’s face a few years ago. It was so weird but comforting because of how tiny of a space it is. And you can see the whole city through the eye holes. I’d go back there every day if it wasn’t such a trip.
What do you collect? Squished pennies.
What was the last lie you told? I don’t know if this counts but a few minutes ago I pretended not to be home because I didn’t feel like getting out of my chair to sign for a package. I feel so guilty typing it out, I should have just answered the door!
Can you share one of the best or worst reactions you have gotten as a result of your work? By far the most common comment I get is “what software do you use?”. Not really crazy about that one. My favorite reaction is when people say they want to live inside my work, or even better: eat it.