This final week, Ting assigned a new and exciting task: interview an artist we admire or aspire to be. We went through the planning process, including developing potential questions and learning how to reach out professionally. I created a question bank and a list of potential artists in Notion for this assignment.
For this assignment, I reached out to Federico Piccirillo, a freelance 3D Motion Designer & Art Director whose work I have followed since my BA. Federico studied graphic design in Florence and transitioned into 3D through a university professor’s engaging lessons. He now works independently with clients including Google, Nike, Apple, Lego, IBM, and Oppo. His portfolio focuses on motion graphics and product work with organic textures, material depth, and tactile quality—exactly the kind of work I want to do, not character animation.
One of the most valuable insights was his approach to developing a visual style. He doesn’t actively seek one; he works, learns from each project, follows his instincts, and over time, a consistent aesthetic emerges naturally. Before this interview, I was spending considerable mental energy trying to figure out what my visual style is, treating it as something I needed to define before moving forward. Federico’s perspective shifted that entirely—that removes a lot of unnecessary pressure.
His advice about personal projects was equally clarifying. I had been thinking of my FMP as something that needed to be ambitious in scale to prove my capabilities. Federico reframed it: ambition should be about the quality of execution within a contained idea, not the size of the concept. A focused three-week project done with full commitment and craft communicates far more than an overextended one that loses clarity. That’s a direct change to how I’m approaching my FMP—I’ll be defining a tighter brief and prioritising depth over scope.
He also recommended treating the FMP like a real client brief with commercial-level intent, focusing on product or design work that aligns with the roles and studios I’m targeting. This confirmed my direction towards motion graphics or product ads rather than short films.
For the other class, we were introduced to what we will be doing after the holidays: acting and lip-sync. I am excited about this because it feels like a natural progression for bringing characters to life, but I am also a bit scared because it seems very advanced. Lipsync requires precision in both timing and performance, and I worry about whether my current skills are strong enough.
These were the emails exchanged:
