My new motion design demo reel for 2026. In addition to the animation, about 90% of this work was also designed, illustrated, composited and edited by me.
There’s not a single frame of AI content in this video, although I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to the line with that. I still believe in human creativity, care, craft and effort.
Also, bonus points to anyone who recognizes the song that I remixed for this reel…
#motiondesign #artdirection #graphicdesign #aftereffects
This was a really fun project for @scottsdalerealtors
It’s the header for their educational website , a guide for sustainably developing the city. If you’re in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area you’ll probably notice some iconic buildings and architectural styles in the Valley.
I channeled my inner Chuck Jones and included a roadrunner and a bunny that should have taken a left turn at Albuquerque.
#motiondesign #realestate #illustration #phoenix #scottsdale
@smart_hannahm asked me to be part of a literary zine she was creating, featuring essays, fiction, poetry, and visual artwork by my some of her favorite creative folks. My role was to design the cover.
The theme is EMERGENCY - living in a time of unprecedented emergency. How can we as individuals find meaning and hope in a world that seems hellbent on making us feel helpless?
I turned it into a self portrait - reading with a cat on my lap is my happy place. I’m not ignoring the state of the world, but it’s necessary to carve out some time where you can decompress.
I’ve been designing the branding for the David Foster Wallace conference since 2014. Sometimes the idea comes easily, sometimes it doesn’t.
This year is the 30th anniversary of Infinite Jest, so the design had to be something extra. For 15 years I have illustrated so many different aspects of Wallace’s work that I felt like I had exhausted my creativity, and was wary of repeating myself.
I used the smiley face before, but this time I wanted to push it further. The distortion is meant to evoke the analog video technology of Wallace’s time, but also could be read as the effects of drugs.
There’s a very subtle overlaid texture that comes from the RGB colors in an interlaced CRT image. You may not realize it, but when you watch an old school tube TV, the refresh rate is so frequent that it’s like a form of hypnosis.
The asterisk worked well to represent the concept of Wallace’s beloved footnotes - in this case denoting the IJ anniversary. I also liked repeating the asterisks in the eyeballs, as either a cartoon signifier of death, or a trancelike state similar to death - the kind of experience one gets from watching The Entertainment.
I’m also obsessed with the idea of circles, visually and symbolically. Infinite Jest has a circular, recursive structure, so I’ve maintained the circle as a motif in every version of the conference logo I’ve designed over the years. This led me to exploring other circular images - tennis ball, skull, ONAN seal, and a nuclear hazard sign. None of these were strong enough to be the main logo itself, but I created a system that supports variation, especially when animated.
No AI was used in the creation of these images, but I did use @blackwing pencils, which is a superior tool
#infinitejest #davidfostereallace #dfw #dfw26 #logodesign
I joined Austin Dharma Punks in the spring of 2025 and I’ve found them to be a great, supportive community. We meet for public meditation at Austin Zen Center, Sunday mornings at 11am.
The group didn’t have any visual branding, so I happily made this for free.
#meditation #austin #buddhism #austinbuddhism #zen
Poster I designed for a short film. It should be available to watch in January. I was really happy with the final concept for this. #movie #movieposter #movieposterart #posterdesign #movieposterdesign
I designed this enamel Olympics pin for KXAN. Our reporters will take these to Italy and trade them with people from all over the world. The design challenge was to combine an aspect of Texas with winter sports, so my solution was a cowboy boot ice skate. My favorite concept was actually an armadillo on skis, but that one was deemed a little too silly.
#olympics #graphicdesign #kxan #winterolympics #illustration
Every now and then I’ll be looking through my art supplies and come across my failed graphic novel. I wrote over 100 pages and drew 12 pages.
It was a romantic ghost story, partially inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Oval Portrait” as well as some nihilistic French New Wave films I had been watching.
Back then I had the energy to come home from 8 hours of work and then sit at my drawing table for another 3 or 4 hours. If I have one piece of advice for my younger self it would be to get up and stretch. It will really save on chiropractor bills later.
I didn’t finish this because I had a major life change at the time and I didn’t feel like the same person who had begun the project. Every time I’ve tried to accomplish long term projects I’ve gotten stuck, abandoned them or got interested in something else.
I’m trying again, though. Drawing on real paper again. I had forgotten how much I liked to do that.
This was a really fun project to turn our @kxan_news Investigative team into a film noir movie poster for our partnership with @austinfilmfest
I thought I’d show some of the process.
1. Sketches to get the layout and lighting down
2. A mood board for lighting reference, featuring classic and modern film noirs…The Third Man and Sin City
3. A mockup using stock photos (and myself) to create lighting references for the photo shoot
4. Photo shoot of our reporters, using the talent of our marketing department to light and photograph
5. Custom hand-drawn typography
6. I used a tiny bit of AI help to give the image an illustrative quality. Normally, I’d want to do the illustration in Procreate, but we didn’t have time
#movieposter #movieposterdesign #filmnoir #kxan #austintx #austinfilmfestival #cinema
Ten years ago I entered a contest to design the 20th anniversary edition of my favorite novel. I ordered hundreds of used tennis balls on eBay, placed them individually on a Phoenix tennis court in 110° August heat, and photographed them at sundown to get the long shadows. The idea was to evoke the hundreds of named characters in the book, all separated from each other, but connected by their environment.
I didn’t win, but I think I understand why. Someone offered a valid criticism that maybe they didn’t want it to seem l like it was a 1,000 page book about tennis (although tennis is a large part of it).
I spent a lot of time thinking about how the design had to be either maximal or minimal, but I couldn’t figure out how to do both.
I think they actually solved it with the 30th Annversary edition. (Second pic)
#infinitejest #davidfosterwallace
I’m still trying to decide if AI is the end of civilization or a useful creative tool…
Anyway, I experimented with bringing one of my designs to life with Midjourney.
If you want to buy the non-animated version of this poster, you can find it here: /poster-and-art/20597799-chungking-express-alternative-movie-poster
When I first got into podcasting in 2016 I thought, “I’m a visual guy, not an audio guy. How do I combine the two?”
I always wanted to have a visual component to promote each episode, but it’s time consuming.
I recently started a new podcast about R.E.M. - @podfellowslocal151 - and I considered doing paper collage but that seemed like a ton of work for a podcast that releases episodes as frequently as we do.
Then I found the public.work website, a repository for public domain images and I had a lot of fun creating digital collages that felt appropriate for the timeless quality of R.E.M.’s music.
As a creative it’s easy to get burnt out and exhausted by your 40 hour a week job, but I never want to lose sight of the reasons I got into the creative field in the first place.
#rem #r.e.m. #michaelstipe #podcasting #graphicdesign
