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PROFESSIONAL VISUAL STORYTELLING & CREATIVE DESIGN

Overlooked Branding in the Interactive Age

January 1, 2018 by Christopher Wilson

Cartoon: Working in Silos
You can’t produce consistent outcomes when everyone works in their own silo.

Many businesses when branding (or rebranding) often overlook the need to include interactive assets in their efforts. Additionally, the agencies they work with either haven’t adjusted their own work to handle this need, or if the topic is proposed, their clients, without a full understanding, view this as ‘extra expense’, not worth tackling at the time.

However, the foundational elements of brand design have expanded in our digital age. We’ve moved beyond the point of the classic print and on-location assets. Most brands now have an online (or even offline) digital presence that their audiences fully interact with. Not addressing these needs up front often leads to off-brand sites, apps and other digital communications.

Addressing this needs means that there is more work to do up front, but the good news is that you can use this digital space to more fully express your brand’s personality.

[Read more…]

This Designer’s New Groove: Embrace Working from Home

October 11, 2016 by Christopher Wilson

Remote Tin Can
Remote working, old school!

When my position at ESPN (The Walt Disney Company) was eliminated in late 2015, I thought, “hey, free time! I’m a designer, and here’s a chance to try and finally design a personal routine that works for me.” You know what I’m talking about. That mythical personal routine that we’re all supposed to be able to find in order to be our most effective, productive, successful and happy, right? Your Groove, so to speak? I REALLY wanted to find my groove. Thus far, it had eluded me, the way aliens elude Fox Mulder. So close, and yet, not quite ever… I’d struggled for at least a decade to find a schedule that flowed with my natural biorhythms and allowed me to hit my max.

If you’ve struggled to find your own groove, I hope my own experience will give you some ideas that might help your own quest for a new groove.

[Read more…]

What Happens When You Sell Out: Lessons Learned

September 13, 2016 by Christopher Wilson

Selling Out
The REAL cost of taking work you morally object to.

This ‘rewrite’ was inspired by a project that landed in my lap last week. The project was “mine to lose,” as the saying goes, and as far as projects go, it was a pretty good one. A large company with a lot of money, only one sales person and no marketing team. They need everything. And I was the choice of someone who is consulting with them. All I had do to was raise my hand and show up for the job. Instead, I passed.

[Read more…]

The Next Thing Part 4: The Announcement

September 10, 2012 by Christopher Wilson

Lord Esmaya and her dark minions.
Lord Esmaya and her dark minions.

So, you know from Part 1 of this series that I’ve been dying to start a new creative project, but haven’t wanted to start anything new that would take me away from my daughter at this juncture in her life. Probably you can all see where this is going, but if you don’t, I’d love to help you out with an official announcement:

I’m helping my daughter start her own game company.

[Read more…]

Kathryn Kalisz, SciART Global, llc.: Settling a Matter (I Hope)

August 24, 2012 by Christopher Wilson

Kathryn Kalisz - Understanding Your Color
Kathryn Kalisz – Understanding Your Color

To my readers,

The following post is not part of my normal writings, and I feel that most of you will find it quite boring and not worth your time. This is more of a legal document that I am posting to deal with inquiries relating to copyrighted images and files that for some reason, I keep getting roped into, even though I have had nothing to do with it since before the client’s death.

Please feel free to skip the rest of this article.

[Read more…]

The Next Thing Part 3: Its All Just Fun-n-Games

August 23, 2012 by Christopher Wilson

My collection of dice from way-back-when
My collection of dice from way-back-when

My first job as an artist was as an animator was for Funnybone Interactive in 1997. There we made children’s edutainment software. We created lots of digital games based on popular kids properties such as Barbie, Fisher-Price, Jump Start, Blaster as well as many others. So, right away gaming became part of my design repertoire.

In September of 2009, Mashable ran an article discussing On Demand production services. One of those services is The Game Crafter, a company that allows would-be game creators the ability to upload artwork and specs into their system which handles everything involved in game production and sales by taking orders, creating and shipping your physical board or card games on demand, and sending you your profits. I thought, “What a cool idea”, and filed the idea away for some possible future use.

[Read more…]

The Next Thing Part 2: A Gamer is Born

August 16, 2012 by Christopher Wilson

Game Collection and Foam Squares
Game Collection and Foam Squares

My daughter has been making games for as long as I can remember. While I think most kids at one point or another have made up a ‘game’ or two that they then force their parents to play with them, my daugher has done so many, many times. It probably didn’t help that she found my dice collection when she was very young, so she was always asking to borrow a couple for some new game she was designing. Still, I think the first time I really took note that this might be something other than the norm, was the day she recreated Candy Land using the house hallways, rooms, and interlocking foam squares as a life-size game board.

[Read more…]

Joe Kubert, pioneering comics artist and mentor: Sept 18, 1926 – Aug 12, 2012

August 12, 2012 by Christopher Wilson

The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art
A quick sketch I drew of the front entrance while attending the Kubert School in 1992.

I am, and always will be at least in some part, a Kubie. Of all of the schools I have spent time in, I’ve only ever called myself a Kubie. There are far more of us than I think the world suspects. I run into them all the time, and its a certain sort of kinship born of the experience of drafty, wooden-floored classrooms, very small computer labs, and the stories, oh so many stories, of studying under some of the most talented names in comics and finding out just how human these people were. Judy Mates, Barry Bryant, Tex Blaisdell, Kevin O’Hara, Greg Webb, Doug Compton, C.J., Mike Chen and the many others I know I’ve missed, my thanks to you all. You were tough. Sometimes overly so. Still, I learned all I could from all of you and am better for it.

[Read more…]

The Next Thing Part 1: A Fresh Start

August 7, 2012 by Christopher Wilson

Around the bendFor anyone who’s been keeping score, its been almost two and a half years since life around here got so heavy that I dropped almost completely from the web-o-sphere, and a year and a half since I wrote my blog post saying that it might be some time longer before I could start anything new.

Since then, I’ve knowingly taken note of other online presences who have disappeared from time to time due to family responsibilities. A couple of web cartoonists in particular disappeared for quite a while after their first children were born and I can only picture the slow realization they must have had (as I did nearly 12 years ago) of exactly how much your life changes after becoming a parent. Free time? What’s that?

[Read more…]

The Faintest Ink…

May 23, 2012 by Christopher Wilson

Have you ever heard a story about how some great invention, technological breakthrough or business started out on the back of a cocktail napkin? There are a bunch of them. Try searching the net for “Famous Napkin Sketches” and see what pops up. You know why it started out on the back of a napkin? The romantic storyteller will tell you that its because inspiration can strike anytime, and the napkin was the only thing available. However, the real reason is because they had a great idea that they didn’t want to lose and they didn’t have a sketchbook or notebook handy.

Its true. If they’d had a sketchbook or notebook, they would have written the idea down in it and it would have been safe in amongst all other other great ideas that came before and would come after. No wondering how to file it. No accidentally tossing it later. And more importantly, its easier to find, because it will be where you ALWAYS put your ideas. Ever lost an idea because you couldn’t find a notebook (or napkin)? I have. Its a bummer.

[Read more…]

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Recent Posts

  • Overlooked Branding in the Interactive Age
  • This Designer’s New Groove: Embrace Working from Home
  • What Happens When You Sell Out: Lessons Learned
  • The Next Thing Part 4: The Announcement
  • Kathryn Kalisz, SciART Global, llc.: Settling a Matter (I Hope)

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Always happy to work remotely for anyone, anywhere, but I'm also available to work daily, or a few days a week in select areas of Connecticut.

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