Hello, my name’s Dave and I’m a classically trained illustrator and designer, hence the extremely clever domain /s. I’m also a musician and create games, but gamersignerillusician.com was already taken. I’ve freelanced, worked in both small and large agencies and on a variety of brands and properties.
Below you’ll find a small selection of professional and personal work from over the years.
Cheers.
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Digital
I’ve creatively lead and worked on a variety of executions and formats for digital campaigns, including mobile games, interactive experiences, rich media, video and some good ol’ fashioned OLA. Sometimes a simple execution can be just as impactful as a large scale buy.
Either way, everything has its place and purpose.
Enjoy The Views
The new Tahoe had a variety of new features but a few of the most interesting, especially for the rear passengers, was the enormous sunroof that expanded all the way to the back and two large screens which allow the passengers to watch videos or play games individually.
Blazer Gallery
The great thing about the new Blazer was that it basically sold itself almost entirely on its looks. We decided what better way to showcase this, than with an ultra-wide gallery featuring the Premier and RS trims, both inside and out.
Need A Lift?
The Chevy Silverado Trail Boss has a nice little addition, it comes factory lifted. Sometimes giving the user a quick and easy interaction is all you need.
Silverado and Blazer Interactive & Takeovers
If there’s one thing the Silverado has, it’s trim packages. We created an interactive gallery takeover featuring a selection of trims and a mobile interactive trim browser which served videos specifically based on the persona you chose.
The Blazer visually stands out from other SUVs and the concept specifically drew attention to this. The mobile interactive unit allowed the user to use a digital cloth to “polish” and reveal the body lines of the Blazer.
Slide To Unlock
To draw attention to the Tahoe’s new sliding center console, we created an interstitial that mimicked your phones slide to unlock security feature.
Cargo Catch
For the launch of the all-new Chevy Silverado and to showcase the truck bed, we created a fun 8bit-inspired mobile game where the player must use trajectory and flick the cargo into the back of the Silverado.
Logo
“I’ll know it when I see it.”
It’s always the first comment uttered by anyone looking to have a logo created for their brand… and the last thing any designer wants to hear.
Squirt
Long story short, my brother bought a second smaller fishing boat that was easier to tow. He calls me one day excited and says “Dave, I need a logo… I’m going to call the new boat Squirt! I wanna make a bunch of swag too, shirts, polos, stickers I can slap on coolers or whatever. You get the idea. Have fun with it and lemme know what you come up with!”
And here it is.
(He also bought a fixer-upper sailboat and called it Slow M’Ocean which is probably the greatest name for a sailboat I’ve ever heard.)
Illustration
The first thing we were told in university was, “having style means breaking the rules and how can you break the rules if you don’t even know them yet?” We all sort of scoffed, thinking we knew better. We didn’t. We learned very quickly how little we knew and how unskilled we all were.
There was a very dark but regularly used expression in our final year of illustration: “learn to kill your babies.” The ability to let go of what wasn’t working, even if you loved it. It was probably one of the most valuable things I ever learned that I still use on a regular basis both professionally and with my personal projects.
Chicken Poop for the Soul
I always wanted to illustrate and write little books for kids and adults. Chicken Poop for the Soul was a short, 12 page parody of the famous Chicken Soup for the Soul books that everyone seemed to have on their shelves years ago. Although not really intended for kids, the poems, themes and drawings are a bit dark in nature, similar to that of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, but without all the scratchy lines and cloaked figures.
Ozzy
If there’s one thing that will make a grown man cry, it’s losing his dog. When my brother lost Ozzy the only thing I felt I could do to help was to paint a watercolor portrait of the Ozzman and have it framed.
Mew Mew
This cat used to drive me nuts. He’s named after the sound he’d make whenever he wanted to eat, which was always. He’d just stare at you and endlessly mew mew mew mew mew until he got what he wanted. We miss him terribly now that he’s gone. I made this watercolor for my wife’s birthday present.
Oil Painting Study
A still life containing a book, a lemon and a used jar of rubber cement sitting comfortably on a white linen towel. Why? Why not!
Untitled Acrylic #6
This is one of many in a series of acrylic paintings I created and sold as large scale decorative prints.
Unknown Portrait
No really, I don’t know who this is. He was just a life drawing/ painting model and the portrait was created with pastels. I’d love to tell the guy that his portrait still hangs on my mom’s living room wall.
Big Chris
“Big Chris” was a part of a short watercolor series I did a few years ago. One day I hope to put them all into one book.
Watercolor has always been my preferred medium because it doesn’t really allow you to correct mistakes, you just have to roll with it.
Dorothy
She’s old and made with pencil.
A few extra illustrations.
All You Can Lick
P & D
Untitled Acrylic #13
Moonscape
Brian Eats His Bug Collection
Games
I love games that tickle the nostalgia and remind me of the video games I grew up with in the ‘80s and ‘90s, from limited palette 8-bit side-scrollers to classic LucasArts point-n-click adventure games.
Don’t get me wrong I enjoy modern games, but I find that interesting things happen when creativity is confined by limitations.
Oog
Oog is a 2D, side-scrolling, 16-bit styled platformer with puzzle elements. Lava is an insta-death wall always right behind Oog, destroying everything in its path. Oog must keep moving, while finding the 3 pieces of the rune needed to open the gate and enter the warp.
The game provides no explicit instructions and is heavily focused on allowing the player to discover the world and how it works for themselves, the player is always as informed as Oog is. The game is difficult but fair. Almost everything will kill, impede or derail Oog on his path to escape. Death is unavoidable, but every death provides valuable learning experiences.
Massive thanks to my great friend Adrian for all his hard work coding Oog.
Oog Sprites
Below are a few in-game animated sprites.
Mike
Mike is a game inspired by Sierra/ LucasArts point-n-click adventures of the ‘90s. You’re Mike, an imaginary friend who gets locked up in jail because imaginary friends have been outlawed. You need to break out and reunite with your friend and creator Sam, who imagined you 20 years ago when he was a child.
The game uses an inventory/ combination system and a simplified Verb-Wheel (Hand/Use, Eye/Look, Mouth/Talk/Eat). I illustrated and designed the levels, audio, gameplay and was built using an Adobe Flash integrated application.
Mike Screenshots
Title screen, interior and exterior of jail cell and chief of police’s office.
Print/ Physical
The first major print piece I ever worked on was when I was about 20 and it was the packaging for a well-known bedding company. I was terrified, thinking that once this is uploaded to the printer, that’s it. It’s gone and out the door. No backsies. I recall going over the copy and visuals repeatedly, looking for any errors. My face was warmed by nerves as I watched the upload progress bar fill to 100%.
About a year or so later, I was walking through the bedding section and finally saw my package in the flesh. It’s probably one of the coolest feelings, seeing something you made in physical form.
I still felt the need to pick it up and look for errors though.
Tee Shirts
I’ve designed a variety of tee shirts for retired UFC fighters, professional wrestlers, clothing brands and a bunch on the side for myself. Strangely, the “Beware of Dog with Knife” shirt is my best selling, don’t ask why… I have no idea.
Nickelodeon stationary and packaging
Pens, pencils, markers, notepads, clips, bookbag hangers, picture frames, erasers, keychains, stickers… you name it, we designed the product and the packaging for this massive Nickelodeon stationary line of items for school kids.
Bell Guerrilla Marketing DVDs
There was a time when a lot of people didn’t really get the whole streaming thing, so we created a faux DVD movie which contained information about the Bell streaming service and its superiority over renting movies from a store. These DVDs were placed on shelves along side actual movies.
Music
I’ve got a storage area full of drum machines, a variety of old and new synths, couple guitar pedals, a crappy computer, miles of 1/4” cables and a VCR for sampling movies. And all of it is stuffed into a spare bedroom closet which I call a music studio.
Most of what I create sits in the electronic category but I enjoy playing around with all sorts of styles.
