Rozz Zimmerman’s Superpowers:
- Reading tarot and palms
- Cooking eggs in a myriad of different ways
- Insatiable love of dissecting aesthetics in horror movies
Rozz Zimmerman ’19 is an Animation & Game Arts alum working as a freelance animator under her own entity, Rozzdower LLC, where she creates work she describes as “mainly mixed-media/experimental animation.” Zimmerman also works closely with Deux Wave, a Philadelphia animation studio consisting of a network of freelance artists and designers.
Since her time at Moore, Zimmerman has been working consistently as a freelance animator, but her career path began while she was still in her senior year, after her internship with Deux Wave. She was given the opportunity to contribute to a YouTube Artist Spotlight Story focused on musician Billie Eilish called “A Snippet into Billie’s Mind.” This opened up numerous other opportunities to collaborate on mixed-media videos for celebrities including Bad Bunny, Ilana Glazer, SZA and more.
Working as a freelance animator has given Zimmerman a chance to explore her other interests, including an opportunity to direct a music video called “Emerald Pools” for the artist Kalyptra Keres. Directing a music video has always been a dream of hers. “It was an amazing experience to be able to steer a video from start to finish!” Zimmerman says.
When thinking about her time at Moore, Zimmerman emphasizes how she learned to find a balance between keeping an open mind and following her passions. She began as a Fine Arts major before switching to Animation & Game Arts. Moore’s learning environment helped her to prepare for her future, granting her the opportunity to take her time getting to know what she wanted to pursue.
“I wasn’t sure exactly where I would land post-grad, but I had an internal vision board about where I wanted to be,” Zimmerman reflects. “Even it if started as a fairly vague idea (i.e. this is the work I like to do), keeping that vision alive really helped me align my conscious decisions. The professors at Moore were wonderful at dispersing knowledge [while] giving you the space to figure out how you carve out your own creativity. Exploring my various interests and opening myself to the opportunities and people that came my way helped me hone in on what I wanted.”
Similarly, being surrounded by creatives in various disciplines and becoming invested in their different art-making forms helped Zimmerman see the possibilities that were out there. “Collaboration can make something good even greater,” she says.
She also notes how much she got out of Moore’s emphasis on learning about art and the humanities, alongside studio classes. “This really helps in cultivating your tastes as an artist, while making culturally, historically and contemporarily informed decisions,” Zimmerman says. “Knowing what art you like and why you like it is a very powerful tool to have in making art that you’re proud of.”
Her biggest advice for Moore students is not to box yourself in. Exploring outside of her program of study helped her to create a large network of creatives and to strengthen her personal practice.
“I think it’s incredibly important to shape a ‘confused,’ jack-of-all-trades mindset and transform it into a multidisciplinary mindset,” she says. “Experimentation really yields some incredible successes that you may never have planned for,” Zimmerman says. “Never let the little mistakes or failures within an experimental process bring you down.”
