Inspired by an unlikely compliment, this stop-motion animation takes place in the scullery of Google's corporate headquarters and looks to explore the relationship between two laborers while trying to answer the question: can hands dance?
Like Some Machine is the collective effort of Los Angeles-based musician, Lonesome Leash, Berlin and NYC-based choreographers, Nicola Bullock and Leah Wilks, and North Carolina-based visual artist Kieran Ionescu (me).
“Can I Live ?” is the lead single off of Kourvioisier’s album, No Chaser. FRGN-SPCMN produced the record. I hand-drew the animation.
This project was originally developed for print and has been adapted to fit the site. It represents the first of what I hope to make a biannual publication. Inside you'll find what essentially amounts to a collection of content that might otherwise live on social media. This issue primarily focuses on the stop-motion, Like Some Machine, but don't be surprised if an unrelated thought, picture, or drawing occasionally wanders onto the page for good measure.
The zine can be enjoyed at a legible size and downloaded (for free) in its entirety as a PDF [HERE].
It’s also available (at cost) in physical form [HERE].
The Militant Guild of Rural Tailors is a now-evolved menswear concept by Liam Maher. The MGRT website is is no longer active, but salvaged bits of the original story and imagery can still be found here (and probably elsewhere with some digging). Both the concept and the originator of the MGRT have had a significant influence on my trajectory as a creative, and the stop-motion animation you see was my way of extending the media used to explore the Guild's mythology.
The dictionary defines a white paper as “a government or other authoritative report giving information or proposals on an issue.” In this case, the information was related to coffee farming, the authority was the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), a non-profit membership association for the coffee industry, and my job was to create five stop-motion animations to illustrate the themes of a series of white papers on issues threatening the sustainability of coffee, including gender equality and climate change. The SCA has used these short videos in social media promotion, on its website, and at global events to raise awareness of these important issues and promote readership. The aesthetic of the puppets and the sets reflect the universal nature of issues like gender inequality and reference their colloquial title: “the white papers”. Working with staff from the association, I developed storyboards for each issue, built sets, made props, animated the puppets, filmed, and edited the animations, which were released over the course of a year to coincide with international days of recognition pertinent to the topic explored in each paper.
The Early Walkers project was a collection of footwear and accessories for infants and toddlers. I received a pair of tiny antique wooden shoe lasts as a gift when I began making shoes, and after my older daughter Addi was born I used them to make a pair of chukka boots for her. Those boots garnered such interest that I designed a brand around the idea of simple, leather, benchmade shoes in kids' sizes. After a few iterations l settled on a chukka boot almost identical to the pair I made for Addi but much more refined - except for the rubber outsole and natural cork filler, they would be all leather and semi-lined for flexibility and breathability; bottomed with a colorful Vibram outsole for grip; laced with a matching elastic paracord to make the job of putting on and taking off the shoes less time consuming for parents; and finished with a customizable sock liner where the baby's name or birthday could be debossed in gold leaf.
ReVamp was an on-site repair concept I developed to extend the life of skate shoes for skateboarders. Initially, it enabled me to get more wear out of my own shoes, but in response to inquiries at the local skate park, I began to set up ad hoc shoe repair stations at contests and other gatherings to collect feedback. I was invited to present the idea at the annual Hotshop hosted by ECCO Leathers, and these slides document how I thought the idea could be used by an established skate shoe company to add value to their products while deepening brand engagement.
STUNT Digital is the brainchild of longtime friend and collaborator Austin Henley, who built it to be a creative agency offering branding and digital marketing services before joining Champion as their Senior Customer Development Analyst in 2018. I was fortunate to work with STUNT - on both internal projects and with clients - to develop concepts, generate mood boards, and provide art direction to those colleagues who specialized in asset creation. As the agency’s in-house photographer, my responsibilities ranged from shooting lifestyle photos for clients to taking pictures for STUNT’s social media, and this role led me to explore and execute my first stop-motion animation project: a seven-minute movie used to promote STUNT and its capabilities.
Half-Sole, along with his animal sidekicks, represent the identity work for the Early Walkers concept. My role in the development of this character was closer to that of an art director than a designer; I hired John Felix Arnold III to illustrate a series of pen-and-inks for me based on the story of The Old Leather Man. I then took those drawings and translated them into branding for the Early Walkers project.
Raleigh Denim Workshop hired me in 2010 to design leather accessories to accompany their rebranding and their expansion beyond jeans. I adapted some original designs I had already developed and came up with some new designs to create a capsule collection of accessories for Barneys NYC for the fall 2011 season.
The album art for Lonesome Leash's fourth full-length release was a collaboration between myself and the musician, Walt McClements. For the images, we staged a middle-of-the-night photoshoot at the Salton Sea. The resulting photographs served as album art, but they also helped anchor the character of the tour merch and website as Walt, and I fleshed out the identity surrounding the album cycle.