HDC Illustration Showcase

HDC ILLUSTRATOR JON “JACK” HARGREAVES: BIO
“Basically, I’ve spent my time here doing anything that other designers couldn’t or wouldn’t even try to pull off.”
– Jack Hargreaves, HDC Illustrator

Back in 1987, Jack was in school at MIAD (Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design), when a young guest lecturer walked into his class. That well-dressed guy in the skinny tie and blue jeans was Ken Hanson. It didn’t take Ken long to realize that the brash, older kid Jack, who always gave it to you straight, had serious chops. He graduated from MIAD in May 1988 and, while quickly put to project work by then artist rep Tim Dodge, Jack was spending most of his time driving a truck and working on the paper cutting machine for a company called Knives and Blades (which makes sense if you know him.)

In September of that year, he drove by HDC, parked the van and stopped in on a tip that the original HDC illustrator was leaving. Later that month he started here at the studio.

While he was cutting his teeth — as HDC was — doing high-design print work such as t-shirts, posters, point of sale and packaging, he began to teach himself Illustrator and Photoshop. He notes that MIAD wasn’t even teaching these things back in the early ’90s. It wasn’t long before he became as adept digitally as he was with any of the traditional artist media.

Jack claims “he’s no specialist.” He has the ability to do any and every style. He’s skilled at pen and ink, pencil, brush and line work, airbrush, painting, and all kinds of mixed media. If he doesn’t know something, he learns it — silk screening, pastels… too many things to list.

Still today, he almost always starts with a pen or pencil, working through thumbnails and sketches (often worthy of publication from the start) that he can either hand- or digitally finish. Jack isn’t just one of a kind, he’s a gem — one of the real difference makers that over the years has helped distinguish our clients’ brands, delivering illustration and design that works.

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