Graphic Designer, Artist, Writer, Science Fiction Illustrator

John began sketching at an early age. When he was 8, his parents put him in a drawing class at the Chicago Art Institute. After lessons, he wandered through the museum’s galleries, admiring its renowned collections. Sitting spellbound on the floor, he copied the iconic lines and shapes of many masterpieces, filling sketchbooks and hotwiring his brain.

After attending the University of Illinois and UCLA, he settled in Los Angeles, where he became a well-known graphic designer, creating albums, CDs, logos, tour books and advertising campaigns for the world’s foremost recording artists.

A partial list of John’s clients includes Madonna, Elton John, Janet and Michael Jackson, Shakira, Barbra Streisand, Enrique Iglesias, The Who, Josh Groban, Paula Abdul, Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, Wynonna, Neil Diamond, The Doobie Brothers, George Michael, Crosby Stills & Nash, Kenny Loggins, Steve Winwood, The Bee Gees, Alvin Ailey and the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

During the 20 years between 1984 and 2004, the ad campaigns and souvenir apparel that John designed for his clients’ international tours produced over $2 billion in ticket revenues and ancillary merchandise sales – a world record for a single designer. John designed the first Elton John Aids Foundation logo, and for 8 years, he created all of the materials for EJAF’s fundraising Academy Awards parties. EJAF has raised over $600M for HIV prevention, treatment, and anti- stigma programs across the globe. John also designed the USA For Africa / We Are The World album, which raised over $70M for African Hunger Relief.

Prior to becoming a designer, while studying at UCLA, John met George Lucas. The director was looking for student artists to create character sketches for Star Wars, in early development. John figured the best way to do this was to teach himself how to draw comic book action figures. Taking time off from school, he copied the work of Marvel Comics geniuses Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott, two renowned sci-fi character renderers. John put together a portfolio and presented 30 drawings to Lucas. The project greatly deepened John’s interest and admiration for science fiction, so much so that he started to write and illustrate his own sci-fi stories from the mid-1980’s onward.

#2 pencil renderings: two drwaings created for George Lucas presentation, also shown to Jack Kirby

Devising iconic new heroes by writing about them

AND graphically sketching them out

When Jack Kirby stopped by John’s design studio on Sunset Boulevard, an inspired conversation took place. Jack and John agreed that devising iconic new heroes by writing about them AND graphically sketching them out provides a resonance and legitimacy which writing alone can’t achieve. “If you can do both,” said Jack, “it makes the end result far more realistic. Your drawings inform your writing. And your writing gives your drawings wings to soar.”

John was surprised to hear that the comic book innovator had taught himself how to draw by tracing newspaper cartoons. In addition to learning freehand sketching at the Chicago Art Institute, John had repeatedly traced Tarzan figures out of books his father had given him to read. Hearing this, Jack said: “Copying someone else’s style is the best way to develop your own style. You can’t go wrong imitating the masters.”

Digital Rendering: Dr Jessica Stormcloud talking to the Snmartfish Mouwanda, from John’s novel, Time Doors

In 1996, John was invited by his cousin – Robert Liebeck, a senior aerospace engineer atMcDonnell Douglas – to a NASA/McDonnell Douglas Blended Wing Body Design Review. The BWB is an advanced long-range ultra-capacity airliner with major aerodynamic efficiencies and military transport applications. Its unique boomerang shape creates a 28% fuel-burn savings. Robert Liebeck was the BWB’s lead designer. Attending the Design Review impacted John greatly, stimulating him to write an outline for a First Contact novel. The finished novel – TIME DOORS – chronicles how astronauts travel aboard a Lightspeed Plus superluminal to meet ETs discovered living 11 light years from Earth. (See: NOVELS on this website.)

Many of John’s ideas start with a sketch. Drawing is far more than a visual art. It’s a form of thinkingas well. Freehand rendering predates human verbal language. For expressing spontaneous concepts and making ideas tangible, nothing tops doodling. John sketched dinosaurs and battleships from books his father gave him. At the Art Institute, he used sketchbooks to copy the art of the great masters, teaching his brain a visual system that reduces all objects to lines, shapes and colors. By doing this, he embraced one of Picasso’s oft-quoted expressions: “Learn the rules like a pro, so that you can break them like an artist.” Though he uses digital editing software constantly, John is convinced the best compositions begin with a #2 pencil.

John’s recording artist graphic designs, his photography and fine
art are at: www.johncoulterart.com