Franklin Alumni Feature

Tobias Sugar '01

Tobias Sugar ’01, a freelance graphic designer living in Santa Cruz, California, has been interested in art since he was young. “I always used to draw as a child and often incorporated words in my illustrations. So I suppose I always have been a graphic artist,” says Tobias. However, he did not realize his predilection for graphic design until coming to Franklin College and earning his B.A. in Visual and Communication Arts.

The decision to come to Franklin was an easy one for Tobias. Like many Franklin students, he was already a “world citizen.” He was born in Rome to a Hungarian father and English mother. He moved to the United States when he was five, growing up outside of Boston, but he returned to Italy and Europe almost every summer. He was attracted to studying at Franklin because he saw it as “an opportunity to reconnect with my Italian roots.”

At Franklin, Tobias began as a studio art major, so he was always painting. He also enjoyed literature classes with Chris Matthews. He took art history classes with Brian Stanford, who inspired Tobias when he advised the class one day that to be an artist you must always produce work. Even today, Tobias tries to follow that advice. There were only limited web design and design program classes at that time as much of the technology was still relatively new, but Tobias felt the liberal arts education was more important than technical know-how.

“I’m a strong believer that a good designer is a true artist at heart,” says Tobias. “Knowing Photoshop inside out will not make you a good graphic designer unless you have an artist’s vision and good sense of aesthetic. From Franklin I gained more of a sense of the history of art and design than my day-to-day skills.”

Outside of art, the impact of his four years at Franklin was influential in other ways. “My interaction with students from around the world did a lot to shape my world view,” says Tobias. He felt that he got outside of the “bubble” by experiencing other cultures and crossing cultural barriers, and he enjoyed his Academic Travels to Sicily, Germany, London, Spain, the Netherlands and Hungary/Austria.

Tobias started his graphic design career the summer before his senior year at Franklin. He had an internship with a small design firm in Boston where he designed promotional fliers for night clubs. After graduation, he worked in Vermont at an architecture firm and took freelance work on the side, producing posters for Burlington’s active music scene. He continued to work for various firms, learning Photoshop and other programs along the way, eventually moving out to California and working as a creative director for a software company. His side work on graphic design projects continued. “At a certain point I realized that if I dedicated all my time to marketing myself, the opportunity taken outweighed staying at one firm,” says Tobias.

Since he began his fulltime, freelance business, Tobias has worked hard to make networking connections for design opportunities and to use referrals to build his business. He focuses on doing the best job he can on projects so that clients recommend him or use him for other projects and also to build his reputation as an artist and designer.

His work is influenced by the 3D industry in California and films using computer-generated graphics. His specialty in graphic design is working with Flash animation, and he researches the web to get ideas for new and energetic designs. Tobias hopes to expand his reputation internationally and become an international design consultant. He also hopes to found his own studio eventually.

Tobias encourages Franklin students to stay all four years at the school and to make the best of the education and opportunities the College provides. He says that having Franklin on his resume has always given him a leg up with employers and clients. Looking back on his time at Franklin, Tobias notes, “Franklin is an excellent school with excellent professors, and the education you receive will never hold you back no matter what career path you choose. I look back now almost 10 years since I graduated, and I wouldn’t have changed anything.”

His website, www.tobiassugar.com, provides a comprehensive look at his work.

April 2009