Jamie Hewlett:
Jamie Hewlett developed an interest in drawing and comics from a young age. He attended Northbrook College in Worthing, West Sussex, where he studied art and developed his illustration skills. While studying, he worked with fellow students Alan Martin and Philip Bond to create an independent comic fanzine called Atomtan. This helped him gain experience creating characters and comic artwork. After leaving college, he and Alan Martin were invited to contribute to Deadline, a British music and culture magazine, where they created Tank Girl in 1988. The comic became popular and helped establish Hewlett's professional career as an artist and character designer.
Following the success of Tank Girl, Hewlett worked on various creative projects, including comic illustrations, advertising, record sleeve artwork and animation. In 1998, he began collaborating with musician Damon Albarn to develop Gorillaz, creating its four fictional band members and the visual world surrounding them. This project allowed him to expand his character design work into music videos, animation, live performances and merchandise. He also worked on projects such as Monkey: Journey to the West, demonstrating how character designers can work across different creative industries and mediums.
Hewlett's career shows that becoming a character designer can involve studying art and illustration, creating independent projects, collaborating with other artists, building a portfolio and developing characters that can be used across comics, animation, music and other media.