"You learn something from every creative piece you put out there… you always have to make sure you are testing yourself. Fail and fail often.”

Grange Wallis is a Commercial Illustrator, Concept & Comic Book Artist & Design Consultant based in Melbourne Victoria.

I first became familiar with Grange’s work in the early twenty-teens when unofficial AFL and NRL humanoid anamorphic mascots starting filling my facebook feed. Today Grange has worked with organisations such as  AFL, NRL, BLK, William Hill, Licensing essentials, Team Coach as well as his own illustration collection; the “Grange Range”.

Grange’s illustration  journey heats up when he is made redundant as a Graphic Designer at the Yellow Pages and uses the redundancy package to fund a trip to Comicon in the United States. 

Bringing his learnings and inspirations back home, the discovery of some vintage stickers of 90’s AFL mascots during a spring clean plants the seeds for Grange’s path as an iconic commercial artist in sport and comics.

We chat with Grange about his work and the life as a self-employed creative, navigating the uneven flow of work throughout the year. We talk about life pre and post children and the juggling act of being a parent and an illustrator. 

Grange shares the hustle of getting his artwork endorsed by clubs in the early years of social media and how that grew his portfolio of partners and the effect ai now has on his work and the industry.

We talk about the concept of silent competition and how that continues to drive and challenge him creatively. 

Grange shares some of his creative idols and where he looks for inspiration and feedback. He also shares his perspective on the industry and advice he would give to anyone interested in working in the arts.

You can catch grange at @grange on instagram.

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