Picsart’s design team reached out to me to design their Picsart: Proud by Design Campaign for 2022 Pride Month. They wanted something cheeky, cute, celebratory, and colorful.

Pride Capsule Collection Collaboration

The owners of Third Culture Bakery, Sam and Wenter approached me for a cute collaboration. For this year’s pride, they wanted to partner with my brand Peens and create a pride capsule collection consisting of a t-shirt, stickers, and a cute tote bag.

The items feature Sam’s quote following an incident where a customer told him he shouldn’t be exposing people to their rainbow stickers on their pastry boxes. We’ve turned that ugly moment as a reminder to everyone to live their truths.

Personal Project

I made my own rendition of the pride flag based on Daniel Quadar’s pride flag which is inclusive to the queer black and trans community.

This was made in collaboration with my talented motion designer friend, Sabrina Curry 💖

Branding and Illustration

I was approached to design branding for a chili oil company that Cindy, my friend's cousin, was trying to establish. The chili oil itself was delicious, but the branding needed improvement. Cindy repeatedly expressed her desire to incorporate her pet Shiba Inu named Haru as the inspiration for this brand.

Illustrations

A series of pencil drawings I did during my first year in the MFA Illustration/Animation program. I wanted to focus on my fear and love of men, contracting and imagining sexually transmitted infections, and myths and stigmatization about sex through a gay man’s bi-racial minority lens.

Toy Design

An interactive illustration based on the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood.

The wolf tent is literally ribbed with bones, grandma, little red and skeleton pillow were made and a fully functional stomach sleeping bag hungry for food!

Photo Credit to Romana Vera

A sleeping bag in which I illustrated, fabricated and quilted a dream I had about my long beard.

Illustration and Typography

I had the pleasure of creating a pride illustration for Joey Espina, owner of All Time Plants in Long Beach California. We took Joey’s favorite plant, Alocasia Dragonscale, and made that into the shape of a rainbow heart.

This project includes the initial sketch ideas presented to Joey, ultimately choosing the heart-shaped plant drawing I made.

Poster series and marketing collateral

Series of posters for CSULB California Repertory Spring 2019 theatrical plays with political and social themes which reflect on the issues that are happening in America.

The idea was to reflect the plays’ content through the self-portraits, using colors, illustration & photography to tie the series together.

Experimental Animation

Morning wood is about dreams, butterflies, puffy clouds and tall trees, Enjoy!

Book Layout and Illustration

My partner Huan and I were approached by the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital to work on a sex-ed book for queer and trans youth.

Huan worked on the type layout and composition, while I was in charge of the illustration and art direction of the book.

Illustration and Animation

I was commissioned to do a series of illustrations for an experimental product at Google.

Hypothetical project for Target Holiday Signage

Putting my own take on classic Halloween monsters, I created my own characters. This project consists of in-store signage, gift-wrapping paper, bowls, and character designs.

Branding, Icon Design, and Marketing

I was approached by the Engineering, Business, and Art departments to create a new logo and secondary icons for their annual competition. the Innovation Challenge.

The challenge requires students to form groups with members of each department. They have to create a project that showcases all 3 majors and create a business plan that promotes sustainability for the earth.

Art, Business, and Engineering elements are all showcased in the secondary icons, while the Innovation Challenge logo highlights the “i” as a stylized lightbulb to represent ideas.

Art direction, set design, and photography

I shot a variety of enamel pins for the enamel pin production company True Metal Works. Ranging from soft and hard enamel pins, each pin ranged from drag queens, cute animals, deserts, and that healthy fruit smoothie that helps you go poop. Each one required a different set of treatments, making it fun and challenging to tackle creatively head-on.

Illustrations

I was approached by Ollie to do a series of illustrations for an upcoming project they were working on. Cool trendy pet owners, cute pups, and delicious treats were requested.

Apparel Design

Original Penguin clothing invited me to create an illustration for their Pride Capsule collection. Be Loud and Proud was the theme for that year’s pride event.

The idea I had was based on Harvey Milk’s megaphone, which he used to spread his message of acceptance and awareness to the people who saw him and others differently.

Poster and collateral designed for CSULB Annual Winter Festival Concert.

Album cover design

Andrew Lunt came to us and asked if we could design his first debut album “Lafayette Ben Charlatan", which is also his stage name.

Andrew's music and stage persona draw influence from Southern Jazz, Blues and 20th century American rock, which serve as inspiration for the look and feel of our record design.

I was in charge of creating of the art direction and illustrations, while Huan Nguyen provided the typographic treatment of the vinyl as well as the custom word mark that accompanied it.

Poster Design

The Bob Cole Conservatory of Music approached me to design their Opera play, Candide. The theme of being naively optimistic was the visual for this poster. The iconic smiley face was contrasted with beautifully rendered objects conveying serious themes of the play; religion, death, power, murder, and destruction.