Episode 10
Recalibrating Life
with Seb Agresti
In this episode, I chat with the amazing Dutch illustrator and designer Seb Agresti. Seb just returned from a transformative experience at an artist residency in Japan. As you’ll hear in the episode, he decided to embark on that journey as a way to step away from his client work and focus on creating personal work again. The residency and what he learned in the process allowed him to recalibrate his life and gain new perspectives on his career after years of intense client work.
Seb and I discuss what’s inspiring him right now, what he learned from his time in Japan, finding balance and setting boundaries with client work, burnout, book recommendations, what the future holds for him, and much more.
Seb is quite thoughtful and introspective and it was a pleasure to be able to speak with him at this unique time in his life. He was sort of in between worlds when we spoke, and I’m thankful he was so candid about his experience. I think many of us can relate to the feeling of needing a change of pace or wanting to reconnect with ourselves. I’m excited to see how he embarks on this next chapter of his journey.
You can find out more about Seb by following him on instagram here, or find him online here.
Resources mentioned:
- Seb’s art residency in Japan Studio Kura
- It’s Nice That article “Seb Agresti picks the books that taught him more than art school ever did”
- It’s Nice That article “Seb Agresti tells us about his residency in Japan and the importance of reinventing yourself”
- We talk about Seb’s time working for cartoonist Joost Swarte
- Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
- Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo
- The World of Edena by Moebius