Creative Director and production artist Jess Bressler has successfully worked on projects spanning multiple mediums. Her focus is on the story- and before you dismiss that as the latest buzzword (which of course it is)- understand that it’s a valid one, and there’s also more to success than knowing ‘story is king’.

For Jess, the first step to every project is to distill the narrative being told down to an essence (what should the audience know and how should they feel about it?). But everyone knows that at this point right? The next steps, though, are equally important: aligning that story within the context of the brand (tone, style, visuals), and then making sure every pixel, every movement, every color, and every shadow supports that story from within that context. Although we all love happy accidents, a decision still has to be made about what works, and what doesn’t- and if anything would work better. Jess Bressler makes a lot of decisions and can answer why for each and every one. She also loves to talk about it- so send an email, and even if you don’t currently have a project on which to work together currently, grab a beer/coffee/tea/water with her to chat about it.

Jess Bressler is currently available for hire. She works freelance, as a consultant, and will consider full time employment in Portland, Oregon.

If you’d like to know more about Jessoterica, LLC and Jess Bressler as an individual, here’s more (in the first person):

Only got a minute? Here’s the elevator pitch version:

I am a visual communicator. I love figuring out how to take a complex idea and making it visually simple- easily visually digestible. I care how things look, how they work, and how audiences respond – and believe you should care too. I have worn various hats including creative director, designer, animator, photographer, editor, compositor, lighter, and builder, among others. I can be a part of your team, or manage it. I have degrees in Fine Arts, Computer Art, and Neuroscience and have worked at studios such as Pixar, Dreamworks, and Digital Domain. I have been part or in charge of projects ranging from music videos to commercials to eCurriculums. I’d love to chat about your next project so drop me a line….

Hoping for more poetry? Here’s a 5 haiku version:

verbal, visual,
science and art; life, for me,
a kaleidoscope

jessoterica
started age 8 to sell art-
made a hundred bucks.

well educated:
Columbia, SVA
and 10 feature films.

Communication-
use the right tool for the job-
have to learn them all

must know the story
you are telling, and to whom
hire me to tell it.

Have as long as it takes and like as much data as possible (like me)? Here’s TMI (with pictures):

I started Jessoterica when I was 8 to sell soft sculptures and sculpee pins at art fairs. My stepmother came up with the name, and made me look up Esoteric in the dictionary.  Middle and high school were at an all girls prep school that along with sparking my passion for photography and metal-work also gave me a life-long fascination with high school experience movies (Breakfast Club, Easy A, – really almost all of them) since my experience was nothing like that- I spent all my time in the art department and the science lab doing extra credit (and proud of it!). My dual interest for science and art went from there to Columbia University and I studied psychology, literature, stop motion, photography and welding, – I was even pre-med for a year [my logic being I like sculpting, and I like brains so I may as well be a neurosurgeon]. I soon found out you practice on non-humans and that plan was scrapped. Instead, I graduated with a Major in Fine Art (concentration of photography and metal) and a minor in Neuroscience. Following the advice of a National Geographic photographer who I was lucky enough to strike up a pen-pal relationship with in high school (do those still exist?), after college I went out and had as many adventurous life experiences as I could muster. I made money by welding and light construction, and took that money and traveled– a pattern I repeated for 3 years. I discovered my passion for digital art and got an MFA in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts back in NYC. From there I went professional, so to speak, learning story, composition, color, and motion working on commercials, features, ecurriculums, and music videos with some of the most talented, creative, and knowledgeable folk across many disciplines. Starting by working on flame/inferno night crew commercially and moving on to Blue Sky, Sony, Digital Domain, Dreamworks, and Pixar, along with amazing outside of work projects, I learned all of the skills to be a unique creative director- the art of storytelling, the psychology of color, the nuances of motion, organization, mature creativity, teamwork, and management. Pixar marked my ninth movie and tenth year as a lighter, and I realized I was yearning to get back to a more varied, hands on, jump off the cliff adventure out on my own. Jessoterica was reborn; the name seemed to fit even more now.

I’ve lived in 9 different states (11 if you count Northern, Central, and Southern California as 3), visited 18 countries, and worked at all of the biggest feature animation studios in the continental US. Currently, I am in Portland Oregon and loving it (though haven’t been through a winter yet). While I am not creating, I am most likely to be found reading, hiking or swimming with my pooch, Posey,and my husband, volunteering at the Oregon Humane Society, or relaxing with a cold one and watching the trees rustling.