#SenecaProud

Pat Perdue  00:00

Hey I'm Pat Perdue and I'd like to welcome you to season four of the Seneca Proud podcast. Okay, so COVID isn't quite a thing of the past but it's going to be. And that's great news. Because we've got our sights set on an amazing future. And I hope you do too. Students will be returning to classes, little by little. Classes will be offered in a more inclusive way using leading edge technologies. And we're getting set for an incredibly bright, inclusive, equitable future. And the future is what Seneca Proud season four is all about. Everything from the near-term future of life at Seneca College in a post-pandemic world, it's going to be pretty great, to what life after Seneca means. And hey, if you're a student, I get that life after Seneca is something that's on your mind. What are you going to do? Are you going to measure up to the competition? And what can you do today to really set yourself up to succeed? To help with those questions, this season includes graduated Seneca students who have been out there doing their thing for at least a few years. We'll hear their ups and their downs, and what you can do to help set yourself up for success. So if you haven't already, subscribe and download. And join me as we consider the future and meet the people who are transforming dreams into reality. Because the next episode of Seneca Proud starts now. 

Hey, welcome back to another episode of Seneca Proud. As I record this in my studio, looking out the window, there's snow on the ground. Hanukkah is just getting started. So Happy Hanukkah. And this is a great episode. And they're all great. Yeah. And this is also great. This one is directed to the students of Seneca. I remember when I was in college, one of the dreaded questions was, “So what's the plan after you graduate?” Because who can answer that, right? Nobody. Well, I guess some people can. I'm just not one of those people. So the idea of life after school was always a little daunting. So if it's daunting for you, I get that. And what I found really helpful was talking to people who had graduated and were out there making it happen. And that's why I'm so excited about this show and our guest. Joseph Osei Bonsu is a graduate of Seneca College. You might have seen him around the city on some of Seneca’s Challenge Accepted posters. Joseph accepted the challenge at Seneca and has continued to accept the challenge in his life as a successful artist and illustrator. And in our conversation we get into what that's been like. The good stuff and the challenging stuff. Okay so let me tell you more about Joseph. Born in Toronto, Joseph Osei Bonsu has always had a fascination with the visual arts. His inspiration originates from comic books and animated shows that he grew up watching. His fascination with visual arts encouraged him to enroll in Sheridan College, their Arts Fundamentals program, and Seneca College in the Digital Media Arts and 3D Animation programs. Since graduating, Joseph has provided illustration work for companies like CBC, CIBC, TD Canada Trust, Art Experiential, the City of Toronto and so much more. Joseph is also the co-founder of Heroes of the World, with his longtime friend, Mark Williams. The comic-inspired brand features heroes and villains that represent different countries around the world, which you can totally find online and on Instagram. We talk about the socials at the end of the interview, and I have links in the show notes. Joseph also illustrated the children's book Race With Me with authors Andre De Grasse, famous Canadian Olympic sprinter, and Robert Budd also known as “Lucky” Budd. Just in case you're not familiar, a little about Andre De Grasse…Andre is a Canadian sprinter from Scarborough. Shout out to Scarborough. He's a huge Olympic champion. De Grasse is right now the reigning Olympic champion in the 200 meters. And he's the eighth fastest human in history in the 200 meters. Robert Budd best known as Lucky Budd is a fabulous best-selling Canadian writer and CBC Radio host. If you ever get a chance to listen to Voices of BC, absolutely do it. His books, British Columbia: Stories From Our Frontier and the follow up to that Echoes of British Columbia, are stories of British Columbia taken from original pioneer audio recordings. Super cool. Okay so back to this show. In our interview, we get into how Joseph got connected with Andre. And how they created the children's book Race With Me together. I'll leave a link in the show notes of where you can check it out. And what a great holiday present–just saying. I'm so glad to share this interview with you. We start off talking about what it's like to be on a poster in the city. And then we get into what Joseph did as a student at Seneca to succeed while he was here. And then we talked about life after Seneca and the launch of Heroes of the World and a lot more. Okay here's Seneca College graduate, professional illustrator and artist, Joseph Osei Bonsu.

You are one of the faces of Seneca College’s Challenge Accepted campaigns. So you're actually on the posters, right?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu

Yeah. 

 

Pat Perdue

Have you ever been on the bus and you're staring at a poster of yourself?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  05:37

Not yet. However, one of my good friends…one of my homegirls, Naya– she goes by Miss Naya, awesome hairstylist and loctician–she was on, I think, around Keele and Dundas around her area and she stumbled upon my ad. The Challenge Accepted ad. I believe it was myself and another woman that were on the ad. And she sent an Instagram message to me. She was like, “Look who I just stumbled upon?” And I'm like, “Oh my gosh, it's already out.” Right? I figured it would have been out like next September. Around the next recruiting season but they have it there at the bus stops. It was pretty crazy.

 

Pat Perdue  06:18

I think you've heard of Where's Waldo? right? Where we should have a Where's Joseph? thing where everybody in Toronto can go find where your ads are…or where your billboards are…take a picture and maybe send it to you on Instagram. I think that'd be pretty cool.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  06:33

That'd be hilarious. That'd be so funny. Like Naya being the first but then there's probably going to be many others that are going to stumble upon the ad.

 

Pat Perdue  06:43

I think so. Well, I think you need a selfie of yourself in front of yourself.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  06:46

Hmm, yeah, you know what? One of these days I'll probably go by that area. And take a photo. Do a little selfie, just because…

 

Pat Perdue  06:53

Yes, you’ve got to do it. It's got to be done. So can you walk me through a little bit of your time at Seneca? Specifically, what you studied and how you got there? How you found your way there?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  07:06

Yeah, so Seneca College…what ended up happening is that I was trying to get into the Illustration program at Sheridan. And I got put on the waiting list for that program. So at the same time, I applied for Digital Media Arts at Seneca. Didn’t get into Sheridan but I ended up getting into Seneca, which was awesome because like I said it was closer to home. It was the Seneca York campus. So yeah, it was closer to home. I had easy access, I could easily get there by bus, because I'm a commuter. And yeah, it seemed like the perfect situation. So going there, I didn't really know anybody. Only knew a few people that went there. And they were all in different programs. But I went in there. I didn't know anybody. I ended up making a few good friends there. Which I still know to this day. Actually several good friends that I still know to this day. And as far as the program, I went there for Digital Media Arts or DMA as it was called at the time. Where not only was it about the drawing aspect of things, but I learned other skills such as graphic design, photo editing, web design, CSS. Yeah, I learned a lot of those other skills.

 

Pat Perdue  08:20

Wow super comprehensive.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  08:22

Yeah, as well with Digital Media Arts what was cool is that not only did you learn the design and art aspect to things. You also learned video editing, sound editing and all that other good stuff. So extra skills that I was able to learn on top of the drawing. Which definitely came in handy later on down the line in my career.

 

Pat Perdue  08:42

One thing that you mentioned was when you first started you didn't really know anybody. That can be super intimidating for people starting a brand new school. And Seneca is not a small institution. It's huge. So did you do anything strategically in terms of getting involved in associations or groups? Or how did you get to know people?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  09:04

Honestly, I got to know people by just being myself. I remember being in my very first class. And meeting this dude Miguel, who I still talk to…to this day. And then from there I met another kid…another dude Sid and then we became good friends. And then from there we met a larger group of people. So I just…me being a slightly…I know I could be socially awkward at times. But when I open up, I am a bit more social. So me meeting those two guys. And then with them meeting other people in the class, we just ended up forming a big group of friends. And then later on down the line. Some of my older friends that went to school with me from Sheridan ended up coming down. I remember later on, one of my best friends Aaron Ong. He ended up coming to Seneca as a professor for the gaming course. So I would hang out with him every now and then. I think that was around the time I started 3D Animation. So after DMA I went to 3D Animation for a postgrad-type-of thing. And that was a really cool experience. Because not only did I learn Maya, and a little bit of 3D Max through Aaron, but I also got reintroduced to things like life drawing and all the other fundamentals I learned at my previous school.

 

Pat Perdue  10:20

Very cool. And you gave me a great segue to my next question. Because a big theme of our conversation today is life after Seneca. And I think you graduated in 2007 from Seneca, is that right?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  10:32

Yes. 2005 from DMA and then 2007 from 3D Animation.

 

Pat Perdue  10:38

Okay and then what? Then you jumped into the wild world?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  10:41

Yeah, it was challenging. I'll be honest with you. After 3D Animation, I spent months developing my demo reel and shopping it around to different studios. And the industry is competitive, right? So I felt like I was falling through those cracks. So meanwhile, I figured, I tried to do stuff to make myself some money. It was a challenging time, too, because I was a student with barely any money. Barely any money doing the odd jobs here and there. Trying to start up…my friends and I are trying to start up projects on our own. Present at different comic book conventions. And there was a bit of an emotional slump around that time too. A bit of a depression happened around that time as well. And then the idea of Heroes of the World came about. And this was where one of my best friends, Mark Williams, came to my house one day when I was just drawing this character, Captain Ghana. He came in. He was like, “Okay, Joe, what's going on? What's this?” And I'm like, “Hey, this is Captain Ghana. Just something I'm doing for fun while I'm taking a break from another project.” And while I was drawing this character, Mark was like, “So you know…”--Mark was in the same position as I was, where he had just gotten out of 3D Animation. And he was looking for jobs in that industry as well. And his sister had suggested an idea for us to make money during the Caribana Parade with our art skills. She suggested we do face-painting or draw these kids with Caribbean flags on their hats. And I remember that's something that… we're not face-painters, Mark and I aren’t face-painters. We're not cut and paste illustrators. We're actual artists, right? So the idea with those kids with the different Caribbean hats, and the whole theme of Caribana, we had lingered in our minds. And I remember Mark leaving, and then coming back and being like, “Yo, wait a minute, just wait a minute…the idea with Captain Ghana, what if we took that and applied it to all the Caribbean islands?” So what ended up happening is that he created his set of Caribbean heroes. I created my set. And then later, I think the day of the Caribana Parade, we simply just took two lawn chairs that we got from IKEA. We took a table stool that I had laying around around my house. And a big drawing board that he had. And we got our art supplies, zipped down to Staples, printed off all these characters. And then right afterwards, just zipped down to the parade. No, I think we took a bus and a subway down there. And once we got there, we just snuck through the crowd. Usually in Caribana it's gated off. But it wasn't. I remember, at that time, it wasn't that restrictive I think. So people were able to sneak in through places. So Mark and I–disclaimer, I suggest you don't sneak through–hopefully we get it back. But yeah, Mark and I were able to sneak through. I remember us setting up shop near a Grenadian food truck and a garbage pail. And laying down everything. Setting our prints there and just selling these posters of these Caribbean heroes for five…$10 a pop. And the feedback was astounding. It was just crazy how people were just all over it. And years went by and the demand grew. I think 2016–no, no, not 2016–2006. So 2005 was when we first started it. 2006 was when we went the second year, the second Caribana with Heroes of the Caribbean as it was called at the time. And the demand grew for more characters, more countries. So people were like, “Okay, if you guys have the Caribbean, then what about Brazil? What about Ghana? What about Italy?” And then around that time the World Cup was happening. So we ended up creating characters for those countries too. So it just kept on going and going from there.

 

Pat Perdue  14:26

What I love about that story is when you first went to Caribana and set up it wasn't yet going to be Heroes of the World. But it just sort of grew organically based on a conversation you were having with your audience. I think that's so cool.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  14:42

That's it and honestly the audience…Mark and I owe the audience for a lot of the things that make Heroes of the World what it is, I would say. Just because you want to…when we research these characters we want to get them right. Representation matters across the board, right? So you don't want to make characters that are kind of a parody or a caricature of that country. You want to be authentic and true to their culture when you create these characters. And in speaking about the name changes…the evolution went through different stages, as far as the name change. I think around 2008 or 2009, Mark...so Mark was also an actor and dancer, on top of being an illustrator. So his agent, Sean Cuffie, around 2008 saw us at one of the Caribana Parades and was like, “You know what? I need to get on board with you guys and help build your brand.” Because he saw the potential in this. He saw that this brand can be like another mega brand like Marvel and DC. So when that happened, we changed our name from Heroes of the Caribbean to Superheroes Unite because of the other heroes. And then when it came to registering the business, we wanted to use Superheroes Unite but we couldn't. We had launched it, we did like a big party, a big launch for the brand, which was pretty cool. But then, as far as registering the business, we couldn't use Superheroes Unite because the term Superheroes was used by Marvel and DC. It's trademarked by Marvel and DC. So we had to rename it something different. And under Superheroes Unite, we always had a tagline called Heroes of the World. So Mark, Shawn, and myself were like, “You know what? Why don't we just call it Heroes of the World and call it a day?” That's what it is, in a nutshell. Right? Heroes from every country around the world.

 

Pat Perdue  16:27

What I really like, as I listened to this, and just the whole evolution of that, and I know that in your LinkedIn profile, you use the word art-trepreneur.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  16:36

Oh, yeah. So art-trepreneur, that was something my cousin Stephanie in London, England gave me. She gave me that tagline.

 

Pat Perdue  16:44

Love it. What is an art-trepreneur? I think I know the answer. And I think our listeners know the answer already from hearing you talk. But just walk us through what it means to be an art-trepreneur.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  16:54

Man, I would say it's an illustrator…part illustrator, part business person, right? As an illustrator, as a freelance illustrator, you're an illustrator and you're a business person. Business person, in the sense with a little or a lot of knowledge that you have about the business. You're balancing the two in order to serve your clients. That's how I see it. You're not only doing the art but you're also putting together the contracts. Or developing the quotes. And doing all the consultation and the meetings. So that's all in the budgeting as well.

 

Pat Perdue  17:29

That's the preneur part.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  17:30

That's the preneur. Yeah, that's what it is.

 

Pat Perdue  17:35

Some of the folks who are listening to this right now, are you in 2006, right? They're out there at Seneca College, they might be in a creative program, and maybe they're feeling pressure. It's a big leap to commit to a creative life. That you've done. What’s some of the guidance you would have?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  17:57

I would say stick to your passion. Stick to your passion but be strategic about it, right? I remember having a conversation with my brother, my oldest brother, about this. And he was one of my biggest supporters. And he was telling me, “Honestly, what you're doing with Heroes of the World, what you're doing with your art is amazing. But be practical.” If you’ve got to pursue your passion and get that part-time job? Why not? Make sure that part-time job or whatever you're doing funds your dream. If that part-time job is funding your dream, use that part-time job to fund your dream. But at the same time, too, if you have that art skill, you have that…if you're working on that demo CD, or if you go into those auditions, go to those auditions. Never let that dream slip. Keep going for it.

 

Pat Perdue  18:52

And never let that part-time job become the full-time job.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  18:55

Exactly. Never let that part-time job supersede your passion. Because it's an ends to a means. I've heard of…I've seen a few people throughout my experiences have…they have or had a passion and then all of a sudden life happens. And they have to put that passion all the way to the side. And pursue something that they've never really wanted to do. And you know, you see the misery. You see the misery in their eyes, right? At the end of the day. You’ve got to…I don't know. I always feel it's about balancing that stuff, right?

 

Pat Perdue  19:28

For sure. For sure. So right now, what's the big thing in the art side of your world? What's the big project that's driving you today?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  19:40

Oh, the big project. So obviously, yeah, Heroes of the World. Trying to keep the social media relevant. Trying to pitch the brand as an animated series. I think that's one of our biggest goals. A lot of the freelance work I've been doing, recently, it's been the children's book Race With Me which I've done for Scholastic. It's about the Olympic sprinter Andre De Grasse, authored by Andre De Grasse and Lucky Budd. So that has been an amazing experience.

 

Pat Perdue  20:09

And I'm really glad you brought that up because I did want to talk to you about that. How did that come about? How did you make that happen?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  20:15

Oh man Race With Me? That was a by-chance thing. So it was one of those things where I got the job during the height of the pandemic. And little backstory, I’d just come back home from taking a trip to London, England to visit family. To visit my cousin Stephanie and Richard and all of my family down there. And I come home, and we're in lockdown. I had to quarantine for 14 days. And I was afraid that A) I probably caught COVID while I was on the plane and B) I wasn't going to get any freelance work. Because nothing was happening. Nothing was going down. So I was just like, oh my gosh, how am I getting money? My part-time job…I had to take a hiatus from my part-time job because they had laid off people temporarily. And I was just worried about where the money is coming and how things are going to come about. But luckily, I kept myself creative. And, luckily, while that was happening, a lot of freelance work was coming in. A lot of art commissions. A lot of projects were coming in. Oh, I did one minor children's book project for somebody. As well as a posting for Heroes of the World that got us an article in the Toronto Star. But at the same time, somebody from Scholastic emails me…Yvonne Lam, who was my art director for the book. And she was like, “Hey, I stumbled upon your Instagram and your website and I want to pitch your artwork to Scholastic for a children's book geared towards an athlete. A Canadian athlete.” And I'm like, “Oh my gosh, okay, wicked.” So I ended up gathering a bunch of pieces that I had from my own stuff and from Heroes of the World. And I sent it to Yvonne, and then she ended up pitching it to the team of this athlete. So in my mind, I was like, Okay, who can this be? Is this a Raptor? I didn't know. I had no idea. No idea who this was. Is this a Toronto Maple Leaf? Is it one of the Leafs? Is it one of the Raptors? Is it some Canadian personality or athlete? And then I think three weeks afterwards, she mentioned that I got the gig. And she's like, “Okay, yeah, you got the gig. They were very pleased with your artwork. And the athlete that you're working with is going to be Andre De Grasse.” And I'm like, “Oh my gosh, wow. Okay.” This dude's a big deal. So I’ve got to bring my A-game. So I spent…Yvonne and myself spent at least six months, from May ‘til January. Yvonne and I were going back and forth on the illustrations. I'll do all the rough linears. Sent it to her. And then she would give me her tidbits on what Team Andre liked and what Team Andre didn't like. And they would bring it back to me. And the whole thing was smooth. The whole thing was really smooth.

 

Pat Perdue  23:03

And I've seen it, it's beautifully illustrated. It's spectacular. You did such a great job. And you mentioned in your story…when you were explaining how that happened…you said “Well, it was a bit of luck because…” I'm going to gently challenge that because she found your Instagram. She found your website. And her thinking was Yeah, this person can probably do it for us. When I say that, what does that make you think?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  23:33

Oh man. Makes me think that I was doing something right? Half the time I'm thinking, Is my art good enough for the masses? Is it good enough to be on a comic book? Or Is it good enough to be in a children's book? Because even though I put out all this work, in my mind, I'm always thinking there's tons of work to be done. I have so much work to do.

 

Pat Perdue  23:53

Would you say that you're your own worst critic?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  23:56

I'd say so. I always feel I'm a work in progress. When it comes to my sketchbook. When it comes to life, I’m a work in progress. So I just figure I’ve always got tons of work to do. And for somebody like Yvonne Lam and the Scholastic Team to bring me on to the Race With Me project says a lot. So yeah, I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for even the stuff I'm doing with your boy…Heroes of the World with Mark and Shawn and the rest of the team. Going to those conventions with those guys and working on the comics and all the art pieces that go up on Instagram. That definitely brings me joy and makes me or makes us feel that we're doing…we're impacting people's lives and impacting the world. And that's all I want, really. It's just to change people's lives and touch those lives with my artwork. Whether it be with Heroes or with my freelance stuff.

 

Pat Perdue  24:55

Amazing. And you're such a great ambassador for Seneca College. And I'm sure a lot of folks who are at Seneca College now, a lot of students, are like,“What am I going to do?” You know, it's all great. But then the real world gets pretty real.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  25:12

It does, it gets real, it gets super duper scary. The real world has made me and has broken me. You don't even know man, I've learned so many things. Made so many mistakes. But I don't regret it at all. It's what's made me who I am today. And like I said, Pat, I'm still learning.

 

Pat Perdue  25:34

Does it feel like big things are right around the corner for you?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  25:37

I would say so. I would say yeah, big things are about to happen. I'm calling it out secretly. But I feel like there is going to be a big change in my career with Heroes of the World. With people around me. There's going to be a big positive change and big breakthroughs for myself and everybody around me. So…

 

Pat Perdue  25:56

What a happy thought to end our conversation on. Joseph, I think it's great to talk to you. It's great to be able to talk to somebody who's committed to a life of changing the world and improving people's lives through their art. I can't think of a more noble profession than setting out to do your thing. And just for the purpose of making people's lives better.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  26:21

Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Pat. Honestly, it was a pleasure talking with you and vibing on this Friday afternoon.

 

Pat Perdue  26:27

Yeah, we're gonna put your socials in the show notes. So people can follow you on Instagram. Instagram is your main social media? Or where else do you… where else can people find you?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  26:37

I would say Instagram, Facebook, are my two main ones. And then if you want to check out the Heroes of the World, there's a www.theheroesoftheworld.com. And our Instagram which is @heroesoftheworld. And then there's also the Facebook which is facebook.com/HeroesOfTheWorldInc.

 

Pat Perdue  26:56

Which may change because it's Metaverse now or Meta?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  26:59

Yeah, apparently Meta is the name of the company but Facebook is staying the same from what I heard. I don't know. It’s weird.

 

Pat Perdue  27:09

It's all weird. All of it is weird. Awesome Joseph. Well this has been a great conversation. Thanks so much for joining the Seneca Proud podcast. Really appreciated your time.

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu

Thank you for having me, Pat. It’s been amazing. All right. Take care. 

 

Pat Perdue

Okay, don't hang up yet though. This is great, thanks so much. Great conversation. 

And that was Seneca College graduate, Joseph Osei Bonsu. Artist, co-founder of Heroes of the World, illustrator of Race With Me by Andre De Grasse and Robert Budd. I'll leave links to all of that in the show notes. Plus links to his Instagram if you want to give him a follow. And if you see his Challenge Accepted poster…you know what to do, right? Super thanks to Joseph for spending time on the Seneca Proud podcast. And thanks to you for listening. I'm Pat Perdue, and I'll see you next time. Until then, stay proud Seneca.