Judge Profile: Pete Oswald ‘99, Best Selling Author and Illustrator

By Sam Oswald ‘22

As my time as a Judge student comes closer to an end, I’ve been reflecting on the experiences and lessons I’ve learned over the past 3+ years. I am fortunate enough to have an older brother who has also gone to Judge, and we spent some time discussing his own experiences. My brother is Pete Oswald, a class of 1999 graduate, who is now a #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator for children’s books. He also works in animation as a production designer and art director.

“I spent most of my time on the fourth floor with Mr. Bettin, where I took a ton of classes for all sorts of types of art, from painting and drawing to ceramics. I loved Judge because I was able to take a lot of different types of classes, and it helped me get such a great understanding of what subjects I was truly passionate about.”

It was at Judge where Pete decided that his passion for art would become his career. So upon graduating from Judge, he attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, majoring in animation. At the time, it was one of the few schools offering this field of study. Pete got his first job in the animation industry through his professor at LMU, who offered him a position as a Production Assistant at Cartoon Network.

“It’s the lowest level entry you can get on any production whether it’s TV or film, I wasn’t good enough to get an artistic job at the time. I just wanted to find a way to get in anywhere, so I took the job and spent around two or so years getting coffee, running errands, delivering mail, all that stuff.” “

Honestly, I loved it because I got to interact with every single person on the production team, from the directors and producers to the artists and the other production coordinators. So I really got a sense of how production works. And, I continued working on my own portfolio and was lucky enough to get a shot as a designer on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, which was my first official art position.” From there, Pete’s animation career took off. He’s now worked on over five movies for Dreamworks, Sony, Laika, and Warner Brothers.

“One of the most unique experiences I’ve had was with Laika, a stop-motion film company, where we worked on ParaNorman. That was so cool because I was so used to looking at everything on the computer, but here they were making everything by hand. It was so cool to see all the stop motion puppets and walk around and look at the sets and even go to the costume department and look at these tiny little jackets and the little converse shoes they were making for the characters, that was really fun!“

“As an animator, one of the biggest roles you can land for a film is as a production designer, who basically acts as a second director, in charge of the entire looks and visuals of the film. I was fortunate enough to land this role for the movie adaptation of the Angry Birds franchise. This was no easy task at first but I’ve really come to value the things I learned while during the process.”

“Right now, I’m currently working as the production designer for the Garfield movie, which is very early in development. I can’t tell you too much about it. But I’m excited that I get to work on one of these characters that influenced me as a kid. Jim Davis’s comics were a huge part of my childhood and growing up, and it’s great to be part of the project that will be introducing Garfield to a new generation, including my own kids.”

“My illustration career bubbled up almost simultaneously with my animation career. I’ve been really fortunate to both work on my own projects while also collaborating with other amazing artists. My biggest series has been the five “Food Group” books that I’m collaborating on with author Jory John. Our first book of the series was The Bad Seed and we just published our newest book, The Smart Cookie. They’ve all been on The New York Times Bestseller List and The Bad Seed was the number one book sold on Amazon, not just for children’s books, but all books, which is just truly amazing to me to see the support and love that these books have gotten.”

“I think that one of the most satisfying parts of a creative job is the collaboration. Whether it’s a huge team or just an author or editor. There’s a point where you think you’ve come up with the greatest idea ever, and then someone else can add to it and make it even better. That teamwork is just so fulfilling.”

There never seems to be a dull moment in Pete’s life. When he’s not illustrating or directing the art design for an animated feature film, he and his wife Allison are raising their three sons, all under the age of ten. So, it would seem that he’s got multi-tasking down to a science. When I asked him where he learned how to handle so much work, he said “Judge.”

Pete Oswald '99 with his three sons.

“Judge really taught me the importance of being able to live a balanced life. I was on both the Varsity Baseball and Basketball team, and I had to balance that commitment with my schoolwork and other extracurriculars to make sure I kept my grades up while also doing all the other things I loved.”

We ended our conversation with the people at Judge. And it was the people that Pete felt were the most impactful: “You know, every industry has its own quirks and customs, especially animation. And since it’s such a small community, maintaining relationships is a super important aspect of my job. And I really think that Judge gave me a real advantage...one of the greatest things about the student body was how diverse it was. I got to meet and hang out with a lot of different types of people. People that I’m still friends with today.”