Meet Mark Page | Senior Concept Artist/Visual Development Artist

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

Hi Mark, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Well, I think while I’m still developing my actually brand. People do tell me that I have a recognizable style and I guess my style has become my brand so far. Or maybe my brand is that I try to be as broad as possible when it comes to the subject matter I design. That also I think has contributed to the success of my brand. When a client approaches me to create a character, or design an environment, or something else, I think it’s because they’ve seen the range of the subjects that I’ve worked on. I believe this makes them comfortable with me working on their projects. So this known as being a generalist. Many artists also have a very specific style and a client may want that artist’s style which also could be their brand. So I guess you can brand Yourself as a designer that can contribute to whatever the project is, or you can brand yourself based on your specific style. This however can limit the work you may be called on to do.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Well as I mentioned my art is broad in its subject matter and style and I think this has helped my career. I’ve been in the entertainment industry for decades and have worked at visual fx studios like Rhythm & Hues, animation studios like Sony TV animation doing background designs, creating graphics and packaging design for Disneyland, and for most of my career, working for the Disney company as a Disney Imagineer designing theme park attractions. Working as an Imagineer was fulfilling because you have to develop the skills to wear many hats. Whether it’s designing an animatronic character, or a facade for a restaurant, merchandise for the shops, or designing and art directing a full on attraction.

One of my mentor’s Steven Olds always ingrained this into my thinking. Study as many things as you can. Study how the are constructed so that are able to perform the needed function. I never forgot those lessons. They came in handy as I worked at Imagineering and even to this day as I design for clients in many industries.

I’m excited also about the possibilities that I think the future will bring for designers. I love playing around with different software’s as tools to express my artistic tastes. I can only imagine what artists will be able to create with virtual reality tools and software like Unreal. These new tools may present a challenge, as uncomfortable as it may be first to use them I’ve forced myself to do this in my career so that I could always be current with my skills.

No it’s not easy but it is well worth the effort. As for as challanges in my career, I’ve overcame them by showing my work to as many people as I could that I respected in my industry. Getting advice and direction especially from designers that we’re older than me and wiser than me so I could find out what obstacles they overcame and how they overcame them. Of course my mentor Steven Olds was very instrumental in helping me figure out ways to overcome obstacles. So my advice would be to seek advice from those you respect and those who probably have had some of the same obstacles that you face. The lessons I’ve learned along the way which I still struggle with is for one not to listen to the negative voice inside my head that tells me that I’m not good enough, that I’ll never be good enough, I’ll never succeed, and the inner voice that beacon’s me to give up! As artists we can’t let our own negative thoughts or comments from others distract us or disrupt our goal of always improving.

I think when it comes to my work as an artist, I would want the world to know that I tried my hardest to be the best designer, concept designer, illustrator, artist, that I could be. That I didn’t always like my work and continued to strive to be better but I realized that sometimes you have to be satisfied with what you’ve created or else you won’t create anything. NOBODY can be perfect, so why try to be? If you strive always for perfection you’ll never create anything because no one is perfect. Learn to be happy with what you create despite what anybody else says. That is part of your brand and who you are.

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.
Well I guess, I would take them to some of my favorite places which are right in LA although some are a couple of miles outside of LA. So for food we would journey to Crystal Cove in Newport beach California to an eclectic Mexican restaurant called Javier ‘s. It’s some of the best Mexican food I’ve ever had in my life but it’s not completely traditional. Next for drinks we would go to a place called the Edison, which is a old Edison electrical building in downtown LA. The Edison was beautifully restored and refurbished to become an amazing night club with amazing throwback drinks dating back to the 30s. Unfortunately I believe it’s closed due to the Covid pandemic. Next, I would have to take my friend to a beautiful hillside museum re-created to look like a house that a royal Roman citizen would own. This would be the Getty Villa museum in Malibu California. This place is amazing. Not only is it meticulously re-create it to look like an authentic Roman palace, but it’s filled with works of art and usually has a traveling show that is extremely interesting and rare. Given my career of course we’d have to make a stop at Disneyland and enjoy all that the resort has to offer. Unfortunately this is another place of course that has been affected by the Covid pandemic. As far as interesting and exciting people, I think I’d try to do whatever I could to arrange to hang with Leonardo DiCaprio. I think he is an interesting person because he’s such a great actor and yet he’s managed to keep his life private.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have to give a shoutout to my friend and mentor Steven Olds , who helped me become the designer I am today. Steve is a self taught, brilliant designer. If you’re a gamer and you know the Oddworld’s Abe’s Odyssey video games, you’ve seen the brilliance of the mind of Steven Olds. He’s worked on so many high profile projects yet you probably haven’t heard of him because he is a man of humility and never tries to steal the spotlight. Steve engrained in me the notion that a competent designer should be able to try his or her best to design anything that could improve the project. Also Steve made sure that as I grew as a designer myself, that I gave him a reason for my design choices. These choices couldn’t be arbitrary to Steve because everything is literally designed with a purpose in mind. By including this type of thinking when you create your artwork it will be that much more believable because viewers will easily see the functionality of of your designing. Lesson’s like this prepared me to ultimately be an art director for the Walt Disney Company as an Imagineer.

To see some of Steven’s work check out www.oldsdesigns.com

Website: www.markpagedesign.com

Instagram: markjpage

Linkedin: linkedin.com/n/markpagedesign

Twitter: @mpageca

Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC6obXtTmeDprNIkeK_OTQdA

Other: www.ArtStation.com/mjp23 www.kanasisland.com