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Main goals:
Ease feelings of confusion regarding identity and to push back against assimilation in a transformative way
Themes & Audience
Mexican-Americans
7-10 Year Olds
Create a fantasy world
Conceptual solutions:
Battle of Knowledge castle is a children’s book based off of the authors Father and Godfather. The story focuses on Raul and Jorge as they tackle the complexities of being mixed children in America. The plot thickens as the two must battle a beast which represents a metaphor for assimilation and work together to overcome its strength. The book is a mix between a picture book and YA comic that explores identity in a new conceptual light.
Main goals:
Illustrate the newest album cover for the Boise based Afro-Pop band the Afrosonics.
Themes & Audience
The feeling of rhythm flowing through your body
Music is a tool for unity
Music listeners in search of a diverse fusion of sounds
Conceptual solutions:
The main message behind the music of the Afrosonics is to create unity within their community through the power of music. In order to represent that I decided to create a multicolored pattern within a dancing figure, which represents the listener, to show the complex feelings that music can instill in someone. The pattern also represents the unique qualities everyone within the group brings to the recording studio.
Main goals:
Showcase the new sneakers by Diadora and Incorp[Her]ated by centering the shoe around natural environments..
Themes & Audience
Sustainability
Mid Teens to Young Adults
Ties between mental health and the outdoors
Conceptual solutions:
With the help of Foot Locker I was able to provide art direction and create a stop motion piece which highlights Diadora’s messaging. The concepts is that getting outdoors and staying active has a positive affect on mental health and is especially important for younger audiences. By having the shoe fall to a barren ground and a bloom of greenery emerge upon impact, it emphasizes the need to stay connected to nature.
Main Goals
Animate title cards to reflect various dishes for the HiHo series, Kids Try
Themes & Audience
Children aged 4-9
New or expecting parents
Exploration and curiosity
Conceptual Solutions
Kids Try is a hit internet show based around lending children an opportunity to explore cuisines outside of their comfort zone! The series features an animated title card before every episode that displays the food about to be revealed to the talent. Each title card is pushed beyond a literal interpretation and showcases the dish in a unique and sometimes fanatical way! This style is highly reflective of the fun and cute tone found throughout the channel.
Main goals
Design and illustrate deliverables for the music festival in Idaho known as Treefort
Themes & Audience
Ages 18-30
Music lovers
Party animals
Conceptual solutions
Redesign the look and feel of Treefort music fest to capture the vibrancy of the festival. I wanted to play with the aesthetic of nature so I personified woodland creatures and objects that embodied the feelings of people attending Treefort!
Main Goals
Entice users to click
Themes & Audience
Gen Z and Millennials
Entertainment
Open minded individuals
Conceptual Solutions
Thumbnails, along with titles, are the first visuals viewers see before making a choice to click or not to click. They must entice and stand out in a sea of other thumbnails! At Cut and HiHo, thumbnails are meant to be an honest reflection of the video to build brand loyalty, but also something that is visually interesting. These thumbnails are crafted to give a premium feel to the videos by incorporating conscious design decisions and paying close attention to layout. Although simple they are carefully made and go through a rigorous process before being finalized.
Main goals
Redesign the badminton teams logo to better fit the environment of the campus rec.
Themes & Audience
Members of the PSU Badminton team
College students looking for community
Casual sports players looking to avoid cut-throat competitiveness
Conceptual solutions
Inspired by vintage Italian design I set out to make the logo represent teamwork. By illustrating two individuals playing together I think that the message is clearly communicated. The scanned in charcoal lines, blocks of color and bold san-serif typeface make this logo feel appropriate to the era that inspired it yet not completely mimicking it.
Main Goals
To enhance the user experience of videos by providing visual aids to the viewers
Themes & Audience
Gen Z and Millennial internet users
Exploration of bias
Entertainment
Conceptual Solutions
Lineup is a popular internet series on the YouTube channel known as Cut. The show focuses on exploring people's biases and having a conversation around them. Talent will try and match or guess specific traits about a group of anonymous people. I.e. Guess my Age, Match Person to Job, Guess my Phobia. By adding in visual effects to the series it can help the viewer visualize the full scope of the situation or simply enhance the entertainment value.
Main Goals
Enhance the visuals for the channel landing page
Themes & Audience
Gen Z and Millennials
Entertainment
Parents and Kids
Conceptual Solutions
The banner that exists above a specific YouTube’s channel page is an undervalued piece of space amongst many content creators. It is not a necessity however it is a piece of art that can really help sum up the brand to new visitors. I have always advocated for more conceptual banners that feel more premium in nature and I feel like that vision was executed. The banner for Cut is a collage of photos, color and textures as a way to represent the beautiful chaos and diversity of the channel while the HiHo banner is an illustration of a fictional world through the eyes of a kid. Both distill the themes of each channel in a fun and visual way.
Who is Armand Hammer?
Armand Hammer is Hip Hop duo from New York City that consists of rappers and producers Billy Woods and Elucid. The two became friends in 2011 after Elucid was featured on one of Billy Woods’ albums which led them to teaming up and creating music together. Their first album, Race Music, was released in 2013 where their hit song “Shark Fin Soup” earned them rap song of the week in Spin Magazine. Since then the duo’s careers have flourished leading them to produce two studio albums, Rome in 2017 and most recently Paraffin in 2018.
Main goals:
Design and fabricate a costume under Lonervision that embodied the themes of the Armand Hammer song “Pergamum”.
Themes & Audience
As time passes things change
Young adults into Art Rap
Conceptual solutions
Since the song centers around time passing, Spencer Garland the founder of Lonvervision, decided to conceptualize an extraterrestrial being, named ASTA, who had gotten lost on earth. Even though ASTA stays relatively the same throughout the video, their surroundings drastically change over time. I was to render the character in a tangible and wearable way for the project.
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Main Goals
Brand and design a new series for the YouTube Channel Cut
Themes & Audience
Single Gen Z and Millennials
Entertainment
Human and AI interaction
Conceptual Solutions
Perfect Person is an internet series that follows the format of The Dating Game except one of the contestants is secretly an AI. For this series I referenced the groovy design of the original show but with more of a modern edge to it. Set design was a big factor so I ensured that the designs were flat so they were easily scalable. One of the biggest challenges was finding a perfect balance of old and new design but after many iterations with the director we landed on something that fit the theme just right.
Main Goals
Summarize a series with an animated titlecard to give context for the viewer
Themes & Audience
Gen Z and Millennials
Entertainment
Visual Interest
Conceptual Solutions
Before the viewer clicks on a video all they have to go off of is the title and thumbnail. Once those are nailed down then the viewer is greeted with a quick explanation of the video ahead, commonly referred to as the explainer. This can come in the form of a voiceover or text on screen. Either way it should be short and concise enough to not bore a viewer. With these various titlecards a multitude of techniques are used to summarize the plot of the video. By adding in some sleek visual effects it not only keeps the viewer engaged but can also help set the tone of the piece. By allowing each titlecard to have its own voice the explainer flows seamlessly with the piece and compliments the experience.
Main Goals
Create concept art for a fantasy children's book
Themes & Audience
Children dealing with the loss of a loved one
Being ok with uncertainty
Conceptual Solutions
Leone is a story that follows a young girl who has recently lost her grandfather. After taking a walk in the woods behind her house she stumbles across an unusual discovery that might help her family come close together in such tough times. This concept art showcases how that world might look and the characters that inhabit it.
Main goals
Design a visually interesting infographic using a data set.
Themes & Audiences
Casual space fanatics
Retro type and image treatments
Conceptual solutions
By using worn textures and grain effects I was able to achieve the more vintage space feel I had envisioned. As for the design I wanted to capture the shear size of space, which is what lead me to create a long format poster with generous amounts of negative space to compliment the data.
Main goals
Hand letter 4 phrases that are commonly said between everyday people
Themes & Audience
Anyone and everyone that uses these common phrases
Illustrate mundane phrases in a fun and refreshing context
Conceptual Solutions
When hand lettering these phrases I wanted the colors and structure of the characters to reflect how I perceive them. Even though all these phrases are commonly shared among the world, the meaning is a little bit different for everyone. Drawing these out instead of building the shapes in a vector based software allowed me to add a bit of my personality back into them.
Main goals
Animate a 2-5 minute short film
Themes & Audience
All ages
Artists and animators
Visual storytelling
Conceptual solutions
This animation highlights the beauty of 2-D animated visual stories. The lack of dialogue combined with slow paced music allows for the viewer to become immersed in the visuals and plot of the story.
Main Goals
Design a book around the contents of UFO sightings and alien abduction victims
Themes & Audience
UFO believers and conspiracy theorists
Those interested in getting a glimpse into the mind of a Believer
Conceptual Solutions
Since the content of the book focuses on more obscure and outlandish stories about extraterrestrials I wanted to translate the feeling of what it was like to try and explain an encounter of the third kind to someone who doesn’t believe in anything extraterrestrial. I achieved this by using illusion art, creative type and semi hidden imagery.
Main goals
Create a fictional magazine that revolves around the topic of all things jellyfish!
Themes & Audience
Marine biologists
Those interested in the knowledge of jellyfish but not the research
Ages 25-45
Conceptual solutions
I wanted to challenge myself by having fun and exploring such a mundane topic such as jellyfish. I challenged myself to avoid using cool colors such as blues or purples. For the cover I decided to print on vellum to mimic the transparency of the bell on a jellyfish in order to relate to the content as well as catch a viewer's eye.
Main goals
Create a series of posters to advertise for a protest on campus
Themes & Audience
Activists
PSU students
Ages 17-40
Conceptual solutions
These posters were designed for a protest that spoke out against the board of trustees at PSU. I wanted to capture the images of students being silenced while their thoughts about the issue burst outward from their heads.
Main goals
Re-illustrate book covers for three classics from Penguin House Books.
Themes & Audience
Regular readers
Ages 9 and up
Young adults interested in fiction
Conceptual solutions
I wanted the essence of these stories to reflect onto the book covers. I decided that illustration was the best way to approach the task at hand.
Main goals:
Combine photography with digital paintings in order to blend the digital world with the physical.
Themes & Audience
Combining two artistic mediums
Anthropomorphism
Showcasing routine
Conceptual solutions:
I wanted to create an illustration series revolving around attributing human characteristics to animals in the wild performing mundane or average tasks. Much like the animals around us we are both creatures tied to routine. I decided to highlight these moments because they usually fall between the cracks of life and it’s something I felt the need to preserve.
Main goals:
Illustrate a set of creatures inspired by the 15th century painter Hieronymus Bosch for the music video “Christ On A Cross”
Themes & Audience
Young adults into Art Rap
Fans of Ceschi
Individuals into European History
Conceptual solutions:
In the video directed, animated and produced by Spencer Garland of Lonervision I was commissioned to illustrate a set of creatures inspired by the 15th century painter Hieronymus Bosch. I stared by examining common themes in the painters work and applying them to my own style. Since I was working with a digital medium I wanted to make that apparent and try not to mimic a painterly style too much. This was achieved by utilizing gradient shading.
