Best known for his work on the Black Panther movies, Phillip Boutté Jr. is a multi-award winning concept artist and artistic director who specialises in costume design. And when he isn’t busy working on films and music videos, he’s lifting up the next generation of BIPOC [black, indigenous, people of colour] talent with his company 9B Collective.
Ahead of his appearance at LightBox Expo, we caught up with him to learn more about his art and his story.
Hi Phillip, how did you get started as an artist, and what has your career been like so far?
My path to being an artist was a roundabout one. I began my career in the entertainment industry early at the age of three. I was a working actor until around 16 or 17, so I’ve always had a strong passion for the arts. I drew often as a hobby and decided in high school that I wanted to pursue illustration as a career path. At Cal State Long Beach [university], I studied illustration and I minored in film, which led me to becoming a production designer. While doing this, I found costume illustration at San Diego Comic-Con.
At the request of my mentor, Robin Richesson, I showed my portfolio to a panel of costume designers and they encouraged me to join the Costume Designers
