COMMENTARELY LEGAL // Armageddon - Illustration
My friends have a podcast and sometimes I make illustrations for them! This was a fun one that came together very easily.
FREAKONOMICS // Guide to Work - Series Art
Work can be hard. From bosses who act like dictators to noisy office spaces meant to promote collaboration, it can sometimes seem like the systems in place aren’t meant to help but hinder.
Apple Podcasts wanted to feature a handful of existing episodes that talked about all of those things in the workplace. I received a creative brief from the Freakonomics team breaking down each episode being featured along with previous art I’ve created that they enjoyed.
Off to the iPad to sketch, noodle, and think. We landed on an overall look and feel and I rendered the full suite of illustrations.
99% INVISIBLE // Apple Podcasts Episode Art
Apple Podcasts reached out to the 99PI team to feature eight episodes on their platform. To do so, they needed custom art to use in their carousel.
Each episode covered a different topic. From scrap collectors in Mexico City, to being able to buy a house from a catalog, the series covered a variety of topics. So as per usual, I pulled out a trusty sketchbook and some tools and went to work.
This was a pretty tight timeline, so I challenged myself to work fast and loose. Trying to not worry about perfection as well as finding a style that would be easy to execute across eight episodes in a fairly brisk manner.
I love how these came together. It’s always a delight to see my work in the Apple Podcasts app carousel. And it’s always wonderful to work with Roman and co.
EARWOLF PRESENTS // Dragons AF - Character Illustrations
Just a bunch of characters for a Dungeons & Dragons podcast on Earwolf Presents. I was made for this.
FREAKONOMICS // Sympathy For The Rat - Series Art
New York City. Rats. Name a more iconic duo!
The team at Freakonomics had another request for series art and once again I set off into a blank page and drafted up a handful of potential executions. One of our goals was to make sure that the hero rat felt cute and sympathetic as opposed to being a vile vermin.
We mashed a couple of elements together from different solutions and landed on the final art you see at the top. Should I get a cute rat for a pet now?! Probably not.
99% INVISIBLE // Not Built For This - Series Art
Working with Roman Mars and the 99PI team is always a delight.
This art was for a mini-series that tackled climate change in various parts of the USA. Each episode features a different climate calamity in a different city. From flooding to extreme heat, the series tackles a broad range of natural disasters.
Once I received the creative brief, I did what I always do — get to sketching on the tablet!
We went back and forth a few times to make sure the concept image for each episode worked properly. My aim was to keep things feeling very unified. That helped me make the decision on the isometric point of view and to keep to a limited color palette.
This was a wonderful project. I continually look forward to collaborating with the 99% Invisible team.
SOUND DETECTIVES // Podcast Art + Illustrations
I had the absolute pleasure, joy, ecstatic moment of getting to work with the one and only LeVar Burton on the art for his podcast for kids called “Sound Detectives”!
His team and I had great conversations about tone, theme, concept - all the good stuff a creative like myself enjoys. As per usual, I put together a handful of concepts until we all agreed on the final art you see above.
I was able to create not just the final cover art for the podcast, but various pieces of merch, coloring book pages, 10 custom illustrations for each episode,and we even had a billboard in Times Square, NYC!
This is truly one of my favorite projects I’ve ever worked on and am still very proud of the final outcome.
FIFTY YEAR SWORD // Cried Starscream Album Art
Custom, hand-made artwork for the band I play in, Fifty Year Sword!
A concept album of sorts. Someone wakes up in a broken space, hoping to find solace and purpose behind every door, hallway, and blinking light.
GRUMPYNAUT // Illustration
Must. Keep. Drawing.
VIDEO ARCHIVES
Tarantino and Avary were straightforward from the start in using the old branding from the video store where they worked. They didn’t have any files, just some small photos of various pieces of merch from the past. I busted out one of my oldest skills and started recreating this in Adobe Illustrator. It really was that easy! Now we can scale that sucker up as big as we want and it’ll look crisp as heck.
WITNESS DOCS // Logo Design
One of the great things about working in the world of podcasting is the variety of work I get to do. One day it’s illustration-heavy vinyl album art, the next, I’m staring at a host’s face and trying to find just the right typeface. And some days, well, I get to scratch the logo design itch!
At Stitcher, we have a few different networks and I’ve had the pleasure of branding a handful of them. Witness Docs was the first of the batch. As the name implies, it’s a documentary podcast network. They cover a variety of heavy topics worthy of a deep dive. From the unsolved murder of Isadore Banks in 1954, to an investigation into Britney Spears and conservatorships, each series digs in and brings these people’s stories to life.
For the network branding, I started where I always start - a kick-off meeting followed up with a bevy of sketches. After presenting these concepts, the team and I narrowed down to a small handful of directions. From there, I started refining the logomark as well as beginning to explore specific typefaces. From there we found our preferred direction and and I tightened up the details. We stuck with a simple black and white color palette, which allows for a clean and unobtrusive application across a variety of visually different podcast show art.
If you’re interested, you can find out more about the network here.
FERTH FREER - EARTH SEER // Illustration
A quick sketch of an earth seer, according to my filename.
Comedy Bang! Bang!: 2016 Tour Art // DTAFM
Once again, Comedy Bang! Bang! headed out on the road to bring the funny to many a city. I had the honor of putting art together for said tour, and, well, I’ll just let the images tell the story.
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Super Dungeon Brawlers: Logo // DTAFM
I don’t think this game ever did see the light of day, but I had one hell of a time working up these logo options. It was a great collaborative effort between myself and the SDB team. It’s a shame I’ll never get to see this on a title screen.
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