About
About
Big Al Gruswitz
Big Al Gruswitz has been selected five times by Lürzer’s Archive for its “200 Best Digital Artists Worldwide” Annual — in 2013, 2021, 2023, 2025, and 2027. In Lürzer’s ACE Report (Annual of Creative Excellence), he was ranked #2 of the top 10 Digital Artists in the United States. (His selected illustrations appear below.) Digital Trends has also published a feature on his work with AI.
His career spans more than six decades in advertising. For 30 years he worked as an art director and associate creative director — in Detroit at Campbell-Ewald on the Chevrolet account, and in New York at Saatchi & Saatchi on a range of Procter & Gamble package-goods brands, New York Life, U.S. Steel, Tylenol, and eleven Procter & Gamble brands in Canada.
He was asked to start the Consumer Healthcare Division of Klemtner (now Saatchi Healthcare), where he won the inaugural account, Rogaine, and led the brand’s medical, consumer, and international launch.
In 1994 he founded his own company, Boundless Creativity by Big Al Gruswitz, shifting from art directing to illustration and retouching — work he has now done for 32 years. In June 2022 he began working with Midjourney and has since become an enthusiastic user of that and many other AI platforms. At 82, he remains in full-time practice, with undiminished enthusiasm for the work. To hear more about his decades in advertising, listen to his interview on the FireDEV podcast.
Because Big Al was an art director and ACD before he became an illustrator, he thinks like one. Meeting and exceeding an art director’s expectations means getting inside their head — asking the right questions and making sure you’re both on the same page. “I love it when an art director says, ‘Big Al thinks just the way I do!’ ” he says. “I take great pride in getting the job done right the first time. That means working as a member of the agency’s team and keeping everyone informed every step of the way, so there are no surprises.
Because Big Al was an art director and associate creative director in NYC prior to becoming an illustrator, he thinks like an art director. To meet and exceed the art director’s expectations, it takes getting into the AD’s head by asking lots of questions and making sure that you are both on the same page. Big Al comments, “I love it when an art director says, ‘Big Al thinks just the way I do!’ I take great pride in getting the job done right the first time. That takes working as a member of the agency’s team and keeping the agency informed every step of the way so there are no surprises.”
Boundless Creativity
Specializing in 3D and 2D photorealistic illustration, medical illustration, difficult retouching, and AI imaging.
Clients are primarily ad agencies in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, though projects have come from across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In 2010, Big Al produced 33 photorealistic 3D dinosaur illustrations for the Discovery Channel’s “Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs.”
Big Al is available for both finished art and comps. As a former agency AD and ACD, he’s a team player who works to meet and exceed your expectations.
Many assume “Boundless Creativity” and “No Limits” refer to the sheer range of subjects Big Al produces. But it’s really about you — the creative professional, and the concepts you develop and present. Don’t throw away a great idea because you think it can’t be produced, because you can’t find the right stock, or because you don’t think it fits your budget or deadline.
Limitations stifle creativity. You start producing what’s “safe” — what you know the client will buy. Big Al has watched it happen to many talented creatives over his career: their work suffers, they stop enjoying it, and others begin to notice.
What Boundless Creativity offers is freedom. With deep experience as both an art director and an illustrator, Big Al brings the know-how not just to execute your most ambitious concepts, but to collaborate with you in taking them to the next level — whatever the subject, deadline, or budget.
AWARD WINNING WORK
Big Al has won numerous awards as both an art director and an illustrator, and his work has earned high readership scores. His illustrations have been selected by Lürzer’s Archive for the 2013, 2021, 2023, 2025, and 2027 “200 Best Digital Artists Worldwide” Annual, and Lürzer’s ACE Report ranked him 2 of the top 10 Digital Artists in the United States.
©2026 Boundless Creativity by Big Al Gruswitz