Zac Lundstrom

My Story

The Beginnings

The year was long ago (think around the early 90’s), I was just a child. Like many, I was working through the great challenge of “What will I be when I grow up?” I was torn, shattered really, between my love of art and becoming a debonair super spy. I did lots of reading, picture books to start, and then found my way into the young adults section of the library. It was there I soon discovered a crushing realization; all the best spy’s are from England. Thus begins the story of how I became an artist.

Now that it was settled - I’d be doing something creative, I, like many kids my age, knew instantly what I was destined for. I was going to design video games. This would come naturally as I just so happened to play video games.

Career Discovered

I took concurrent enrollment classes at Century College throughout my high school years on courses for interactive media. It was through this program in my junior year of high school I became fascinated by animation. I ditched the idea of video game design as I had to learn more about this crazy art-form known as “animation.” I had grown up watching the Simpsons and had never really thought about what went into what I was seeing. Were they hand-drawing each frame? Thats crazy. Were they using a software that did it for them? If so, how so?

Entering into my senior year of high school, I began to follow this full throttle. I continued taking classes at Century College now in subjects like 3D modeling, 3D animation, concept art and storyboarding, and a class on Adobe Flash. Most of my friendships had dissolved early in high school, so instead of going out with friends after school everyday I had my own routine. I would go home, pop in Lord of the Rings on DVD, drink some Dr Pepper, pull out my sketchbook, and draw like there was no tomorrow.

College

For undergrad I decided on Northwestern College (now, University of Northwestern St Paul (upgrade!)). I entered into college with a desire to become the best at my craft and a mindset focusing on learning. I wanted to learn anything and everything I could, so I didn’t just take classes on animation, but I studied design, video, theology, and studio art as well I graduated in 2016 with a double major, Bachelor’s of Science degree in Digital Media Arts (Animation) and Bible. Bible? Yes Bible! …It was actually an accident, I somehow managed to accidentally get another major… (I’m not joking). On top of this I had come just a class or two away from a minor in video, had joined a video club, a life-drawing club, and started an animator’s club at school. As I said, I was determined to learn as much as I could.

Post college scramble

Now with undergrad behind me, I was left with the tricky phase; starting a career. When I had first entered college I was planning on becoming a 3D modeler, but by the end I had become more interested in 2D animation and illustration, working with softwares like After Effects and TVPaint. I had applied to several studios and agencies my first month after graduating, but only was interviewed for one that I wouldn’t end up getting either. Meanwhile, I was continuing to work at a summer camp that I had worked at since 2011. Finally, I had a breakthrough in fall of 2016; I had applied for an internship animation job - didn’t get it - but they liked me enough to refer me to a sister company for an animation internship. The internship, was mostly unpaid, making animations for a digital billboard in Hastings, MN. It wasn’t making me money but I finally had my foot in the door to the field of animation. I worked at this small advertising company for several months while also working in call center for Target to bring in money.

Early Career

Through my internship at Yourspace Advertising I had managed to get started in the field, just several months after starting there I would meet up with an old friend who was working at a different marketing company that was looking for some animations. February 2017 I began working on some simple icon animations for this other marketing company, One Wheel Marketing. This simple little job completely changed my life and career. Through One Wheel Marketing I began learning web design, I got to follow my dream of becoming an animator, and I met my wife who was a client of the marketing company (conflict of interest?). Because One Wheel Marketing was a small but growing company I learned to where multiple hats - I was now no longer just an animator, I was an animator, illustrator, video editor, graphic designer, and web designer. I continued working at One Wheel Marketing as a contractor for about a year and half until I became an employee for about a year and then decided to step back into contract. Why step back to contract? In 2018 I had decided to stop by my old college and through a fast series of events learned of an opening for an adjunct instructor at Saint Paul College. Teaching had become a passion of mine and I had hoped to become a professor one day - many years in the future; yet, now I had been presented this opportunity to become a professor much sooner. I was beyond excited to follow this dream and began teaching on animation and web design in the fall of 2018 at Saint Paul College. So, back to why I chose to move back to contract at One Wheel Marketing, I was now teaching several classes a semester, but it wasn’t predictable, which was tricky as an employee at the marketing company trying to balance my days and time off to teach. I took a leap of faith and moved back to contract to have more control over my hours and flexibility with schedule. This allowed me to flex depending on the classes I taught and I could slowly start to ween off as I taught more classes and I was able to begin finding my own clients and move into running my own creative business.

Today

Today, I now am doing several things all at once and loving it. I continue to teach as an adjunct at Saint Paul College, I continue to work as a contractor for One Wheel Marketing, and I am now bringing in a steady stream of my own clients as I start Lundstrom Creative. I mostly work in Web design as my main field but love when I have an opportunity to do more with animation. Working this way allows for a lot of flexibilty with my schedule so I can meet with clients, and also pursue side projects for constant growth. I have also started to extend my teaching to Youtube and will be attempting to put out more and more lessons on the platform.