Meet Ege Alper: Art Director / Illustrator / Animator

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

Hi Ege, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I feel like when people are comfortable there is no internal need for taking risks. Risk taking comes from wanting something better, trying to change something, wanting to grow, and develop, live and experience. It is an internal journey which everyone goes through one way or another and I have had my fair share of it as well. I feel like the riskiest decision I have ever made was to move to Los Angeles from Turkey. Before I decided to move to LA, I was in Berlin after I had finished working for a short film festival in Detmold, Germany. In my eyes at that time Berlin was the epicenter of art. There was something new happening every moment. My plan was to stay in Berlin for good and produce my art. When my mother told me on the phone that the Green Card that we had applied for through my uncle in the States had been accepted and we had to go to the US as soon as possible, I had no choice but to leave Berlin. Once I was in Ankara, my hometown, my mother and I decided to move to San Fransisco where my uncle and his family lived. However, things didn’t go as planned and my mom and I found ourselves moving from state to state in the US for a while. We went to New York, New Jersey and then Boston. In Boston my mom decided to go back to Turkey.However, I decided to take my own path and move to Los Angeles with no real plan in my mind. Without that rash decision I would have never known what life had planned for me. Another risky decision I made in LA was not to budge till I got jobs that I really wanted. I was told by many people to basically accept any job that was offered just to get by even if it was not in my field. I feel that this would have strayed me away from what I wished to do. I believe working hard for a cause without getting distracted is the only way to achieve something. I feel like since the Covid 19 pandemic, I’ve been playing it pretty safe. When the whole world is surrounded by risk, the responsible thing to do is just to wait it out. even though it’s such a hard thing to do. The only risk I’ve been taking has been managing with social isolation. Being an extrovert, this last year has been the hardest year I have ever had to go through and the journey is not over yet.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I honestly wouldn’t know if I’d say my art is something special. If anything, it is special to me. I do love simple design and a limited color palette, so I tend to design and illustrate pieces that reflect that. I believe that it’s harder to master simplicity and making things have the feeling of the drawing then actually drawing something complex. Recently I’ve had the chance to illustrate some social pieces for Hunger Games which was really fun. Stylistically the color scheme was very simple yet the illustrations were detailed. I also had the chance to animate and illustrate for the FX documentary “The Most Dangerous Animal of All”. For that project I worked with the amazing Jean Kim and Ralph Smith. The research process was a lot of fun. We did a lot of experiments to be able to fill drawings with ink in seconds. To be able to do that you have to draw the imagery first with water, then drop the ink over it so that it spreads through the water. I haven’t been able to work with ink in a while and this project was a great way to get back into it. It’s not that easy to find time to finish personal projects. I find it difficult to balance between office life and my own personal artistic journey. I think that this is the biggest challenge these days in my field. It’s hard to find jobs that fit your style and also it’s hard to create a balance between creating time for personal creative growth and paying jobs. In the future, (which hopefully is soon) I would love to focus on my personal growth more. I’ve been working non- stop for over 7 years now. There’s always more to learn and I am excited to find out about it.

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.
First of all, l I love organizing and planning. I’ve done this for friends that were visiting from back home a lot. Especially whenever my mom visits I try to organize something special and new for her to see every time. I would love to plan this of course for a Covid-free world where all this would be safe. I think doing everything that’s touristy during week days is always better. Here is the plan: Maybe Monday going to Getty Museum and having a picnic there while enjoying whatever exhibition is happening around that time. Then definitely a biking day from Playa del Rey to Redondo and having drinks at Tony’s. On Wednesday we could hang out in Sawtelle, go to Giant Robot and then maybe Tsujita and get a bone broth ramen. On Thursday we could just hang out in Venice and Santa Monica and Friday we can go to Griffith Park, hike then go to Cliftons and Canters. There has to be a KBBQ day also. LA is not LA without KBBQ. Secretly though this might be a list of things that I’ve been missing out on during the pandemic. The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Emily Eckstein and Goktug Sarioz. Goktug gave me my first job when I moved to LA. I feel like getting a job when you have 0 connections in a new city is very hard but once you are in it, it gets easier. It would have been really hard to find my own voice in the industry without him believing in my work. Emily Eckstein is one of the most special motion designers out there. She has a 6th sense in knowing how everything should move. Working with her has always been amazing. I don’t even have to explain anything and intuitively we both know what the project needs. I wouldn’t have been the designer I am today without her patient mentoring and guidance.

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Image Credits
Cory Landroche