Brian Lutz’s younger self would scream with joy to learn about one of grown-up Lutz’s most prized possessions: an autographed portrait of late-night talk show host Conan O’Brien – created by none other than Lutz and published by New York magazine.

As a kid, the 2008 Pennsylvania College of Technology advertising art grad was always drawing – or immersing in movies, music, magazines, skateboards: “all these creative things,” he said.

“I was that oddball in the family,” Lutz joked, referring to the careers of his sister, a lawyer, and his parents, who are scientists.

“But my parents were really supportive of it,” he recalled of his upbringing in the suburbs of Philadelphia. “They were all about learning, curiosity. They saw that I loved drawing and painting – since I was 5 years old. They really just encouraged it.”

High school classes, on the other hand, he hated. After high school, he spent a year in the workforce. His parents encouraged him to “go do something” and reminded him of his love for drawing.

Graphic design, he decided, was the way he could make a living at it.

“I didn’t want to go to the local community college, but I also hadn’t taken my SATs. So I thought, ‘How can I find a respectable program that will consider me?’ Penn College was a really good choice. And when I got there, I was just blown away.

“I loved the small class sizes, and I loved how much passion the instructors had. They were really like: ‘You’re going to do this, and you’re going to do it the right way – or else.’ And I really responded that way.”

“Brian was a student who excelled in classes such as painting and art history, which could foretell his future career in illustration,” said Brian A. Flynn, assistant professor of graphic design and department head. “He was also enjoyable to have in class.”

Ben Kennerly, a user experience designer who earned a degree in graphic design from Penn College in 2010, met Lutz in one of those classes.

“We bonded over shared interests,” Kennerly said. “We both grew up in the Philadelphia area. We both loved Seinfeld. The observational humor connected with us and how we saw the world. We believed that design and illustration should have deeper meaning – not just about how it looks, but what it says. It’s tough to create a picture that both looks good and tells a clear story. Brian seemed to have a natural gift.”

After graduation, Kennerly moved to San Francisco to pursue work in the technology industry. (Among his work is an app that helps farmers determine how much fertilizer their fields will need.) Lutz pursued his interest in the fine arts, next earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art.

“I remember telling Brian that I didn’t have the guts to pursue such a competitive field; it was a bold move, for sure,” Kennerly said.

Several years later, the kid who hadn’t planned to go to college took his education a step further: In 2020, he completed a Master of Fine Arts in illustration from University of Hartford.

“Brian came into our program with a lot talent but very little experience in regard to the world of illustration,” said award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Bill Thomson, professor of illustration at the university and Lutz’s thesis adviser. Thomson described Lutz as a sponge: “absorbing everything.”

“With Brian’s talent, tireless work ethic, boundless enthusiasm, high level of intelligence – and most of all, his determination – Brian made the very most of his educational experience,” Thomson said. “Brian is the personification of the old expression: ‘What you put in is what you get out.’ He put his heart and soul into his work, and that has entirely transformed his career and his life.”

Part of that determination was bolstered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lutz had been working evenings as a bartender in a hotel while pursuing his MFA and doing some freelance work. When the hotel he worked in shut down to provide extra beds for COVID patients, he sharpened his focus on freelance illustration.

“That’s when I really started drawing nonstop,” he said.

Lutz quickly found success as an editorial illustrator, frequently producing portraits.

“I think it’s important to find a problem you can solve as an illustrator in order to get hired, and that’s one that I found that I was good at: doing likenesses of recognizable people,” Lutz said. “Which is pretty difficult, because if you have one little thing off, it’s going to be very noticeable. And you have to do these things under pressure. Sometimes you get 24 hours. You have to be really fast and really precise. I found that I had a knack for it, so I started marketing myself with that.”

He discovered the niche during grad school: He admired the style of C.F. Payne, an “illustration legend” and director of the university’s Master of Fine Arts in illustration. Lutz drew 100 sketchbook pages in 100 days to teach himself how to make work like Payne’s. Many were portraits.

While he enjoys all kinds of drawing, he continues to enjoy portraits: “I can do them quick, and it still feels like magic,” he said.

In addition to Conan O’Brien, some of the famous faces in his portfolio include Will Smith, published in Entertainment Weekly; Chief Justice John Roberts, in Politico; author James Patterson, in Coastal Living; and entertainer Joe Rogan, in Austin Monthly.

“I’ll never forget going for a morning walk in my California neighborhood and seeing a copy of Time magazine on the street,” Kennerly said. “I picked it up and saw several of Brian’s illustrations inside!” (Lutz created 29 portraits for Time’s 2022 “Most Influential People” issue.)

Lutz’s work is even featured on a Toy Machine skateboard deck, and his illustrations have been recognized in some of the nation’s most prestigious juried competitions, by organizations like American Illustration, Communication Arts, Applied Arts, 3x3 Magazine, Creative Quarterly and Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles.

“Brian’s work blends his outstanding drawing ability and bold sense of color with strong conceptual skills to breathe life into abstract ideas, creating wonderfully engaging images,” Thomson said.

It wasn’t long before Thomson asked Lutz to share those skills with University of Hartford’s newest group of illustration students.

“Brian was initially reluctant, doubting if he were ready or even cut out for teaching, but he proved to be a natural,” Thomson said. “Our students absolutely love Brian, and his work with them has exceeded my highest hopes. In addition to being incredibly talented, knowledgeable and enthusiastic, Brian has the most important quality that a great teacher needs: He genuinely cares about people and especially his students.”

“I didn’t expect to be good at it,” Lutz said. “I was super afraid of public speaking. But when you care about something as much as I do about illustration, it’s easy to talk about it.”

While continuing his own full-time work in illustration, the initially reluctant instructor now not only teaches part time at University of Hartford, but also at Tunxis Community College. He also provides demonstrations to art schools across the country.

Penn College will become one of them when Lutz visits in September to provide a demonstration for the college’s graphic design students and an artist’s talk for an exhibit of his work at The Gallery at Penn College. The exhibit runs through Oct. 4.

“Brian has a contemporary illustration style that can readily be utilized in other courses in the graphic design major,” Flynn, one of his former Penn College instructors, said. “I am looking forward to the demonstration he will be giving the illustration class. The technique he will be showing can be adapted to our illustration, packaging, senior project, as well as many other classes. I look forward to this exciting opportunity to have a working illustrator interact with our current students.”

Lutz is excited, too.

“Penn College had such a big impact on me,” he said. “That I am having this show at the college is a really, really big deal for me, because that’s where I found what I wanted to do. It took me a long time to get doing it professionally, but I found that I want to make pictures to tell stories and go along with text.”

Lutz has a long list of people he’s grateful for: His encouraging parents. His wife, Elizabeth, who remains patient and supportive when he has to work weird hours or is upset because a deadline hasn’t gone well. Also art directors, illustration professionals who visited his classes, artist friends whose talent pushes him – and faculty, like Thomson and Payne at University of Hartford, and Penn College’s Flynn, David Moyer (assistant professor of graphic design), Carol Schwartz, Kim Rhone (part-time instructors) and late Master Teacher Award winner Patrick D. Murphy.

“They had this old-school teaching mentality, and that really resonated with me,” Lutz said of Penn College’s graphic design & art faculty. “The stuff really sank in. I really wanted to do well, and I feel like I carry that with me to this day. And that’s especially with Pat Murphy. He was kind of an intense professor, in a way that’s very different from the way I teach now, because I don’t know if I have that level of passion in me that he had. But it was really inspiring.

“He was brilliant. I really wanted to do well in his class. He was my first illustration professor ever, and that’s where I fell in love with it.”

Between his encounters with Murphy and a 2008 show in The Gallery at Penn College by Brad Holland (once referred to by the Washington Post as “the undisputed star of American illustration), Lutz’s career passion was ignited: “I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but that’s what I want to do.”

Ultimately, he needed a graduate degree. Murphy wrote a letter of recommendation. When Lutz finished his thesis, he sent it to Murphy, who sent it back with “some really nice notes.”

“I’m still trying to impress him,” Lutz said. It was Lutz’s fond memories of Murphy that led to the exhibition of his work in The Gallery at Penn College.

Penny G. Lutz (no relation), the gallery’s director, discovered Lutz’s art when he tagged the gallery in a post about Murphy when the emeritus faculty member died in 2022.

She reached out with an invitation to exhibit his work.

“I remember Brian when he attended Penn College; he was here when we opened The Gallery at Penn College (2006) and came to see the exhibits,” Penny Lutz said. “I really enjoyed seeing his freelance imagery on Instagram and was thrilled that he accepted the invitation to exhibit. He is so enthusiastic about his work and is willing to share his knowledge with others. The show is going to be great for our campus.”

“Penn College laid the foundation for the fantastic artist and teacher that Brian has become,” Thomson, his thesis adviser, said. “I really hope your community takes great pride in his accomplishment and enjoys his exhibition!”

The show features about 60 pieces that focus on Lutz’s professional journey – milestone works and those that represent “full-circle” moments.

Kennerly, who did some of his first design work as a student working for the gallery and recently moved back to Pennsylvania, looks forward to attending.

“These days we frequently talk about gratitude and reminding ourselves that our current lives used to be our dreams,” Kennerly said.

“It’s such an amazing thing,” Lutz said. “Sometimes I think, ‘How do I get paid to do this?’ It’s so much fun. I’m really lucky.”