Based in Costa Mesa, California, Roger has illustrated for many leading companies including AT&T, Bell South, DirecTV, Euro Disney, McGraw-Hill, Sprint Cellular and others. We wanted to find out how this award-winning illustrator got into the business and what he sees as the future of his industry. We think you’ll be interested too, so read on.

Hile Design: Roger, can you share a bit of your background and how you became a commercial illustrator?

Roger Xavier: I’m going to summarize this as much as possible: My earliest recollection of drawing was when I was 4 and started off with crayons. Then came my love of comic book art. The line drawings I grew up on in those comics would be ingrained into my psyche. I’d tried almost every medium used to create art, but pen & ink drawings have always been something that stayed with me.

Skipping ahead to college, I received my formal education in illustration, art history and design. In my senior year at college, I won a contest to create a poster for Molson Golden Beer. My entry became part of an exhibit and ended up gaining the attention of a book publisher in New York who not only hired me to do a couple of book illustrations, but also opened up an opportunity to work on a movie for MGM just 3 months after graduation. After that, I wanted to pursue the movie poster industry and started working for several Hollywood firms that specialized in entertainment advertising. During those early years, I tried everything from biomedical rendering to editorial art for magazines and working on any advertising job I could get. That was a time of growth and I didn’t really hit my stride until 1990, when I was awarded a project by Emmett Morava of Morava Design to create the annual report illustrations for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power.  Emmett had great vision and instructed me to go bolder with my pen & ink drawings. He showed me how to design with ink and create something more than just a rendering.  The LADWP annual report went on to win many awards.  It was then that I started getting some recognition. Read the rest of this entry »