BFA, Cleveland Institute of Art
After graduating with a BFA degree from Cleveland Institute of Art in 1986, James Groman was hired by American Greetings Entertainment and Toy Concept Division: ‘Those Characters from Cleveland,’ where he worked on the development of brands like Care Bears, Popples, Madballs, Blurp Balls, My Pet Monster, and Ring Raiders. He also conceived and designed the toy line: Barnyard Commandoes for Playmates Toys.
After TCFC, James established his own freelance studio providing design, sculpting and prototyping on products based on Star Wars, Harry Potter, Stretch Armstrong, Godzilla, Universal Monsters, G.I. Joe, Jonny Quest, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Star Wars, and various Marvel and DC comics characters for companies like Kenner/Hasbro, Cap Toys, Galoob, Ertl Collectables, Playing Mantis, and Polar Lights to name just a few.
James worked for four years at Hasbro Toys Playskool group on their GoBots/Transformers, Major Powers and Cool Crew brands. While being design lead on the Star Wars Jedi Force toys James had the opportunity to travel to San Francisco and work with the folks at Lucasfilm on the development and design of the line.
Back at American Greetings Properties, James worked on brands like Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake and Madballs as well as new ventures like Sushi Pack and Tinpo for CBS, Twisted Whiskers, Maryoku Yummy for The Hub Network, Packages from Planet X for Disney XD. He is the Art Director for the Care Bears Hub animated series, as well as the new, Netflix series: Care Bears; Meet the Cousins. He also created the villains for the series, Beastly and the Beasties.
James had the honor of traveling to New Zealand to work with Richard Taylor and the team at Weta Workshop for a week on the film: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
When not teaching at CIA, James operates his own entertainment and toy design studio creating products for companies all over the planet. His partnership with the Japanese company Instinctoys on the King Korpse Vinyl Figure led to a Designer Toy Award for Toy of the Year in 2017.
James has most recently collaborated with DC Comics Collectables on a series of Batman figures and MGA Entertainment on Crate Creatures and Kingdom Builders toy lines.
