Back to Basics – Stranger Things in Ball Point Pen
When I accepted my first job as an Art Director, I remember my mom, and most people I knew outside the ad world, making a quick assumption that my job was to draw things. I had a degree in Art. Design, mind you. But, from the Art department. And my title had the word “Art” in it. […]
Elevated Bed, Elevated Mind
I live in a small two-bedroom home in San Francisco with my wife and two of our three kids, so space is at a premium. We’re always looking for ways to maximize our square footage and the kids bedrooms are not exempt. I spent a year or so staring at our middle son’s room and […]
San Francisco’s First Bike Park
Since 2008, I’ve donated thousands of hours of my time to help bring San Francisco it’s first bike park. Through my role as Co-Chair of the McLaren Bike Park Founders, I’ve done everything from project management and trail building, to logo design, social media admin, event planning, fundraising, community organizing, co-leading community meetings, and lobbying officials in San […]
Flightless Birds: A Study In Mortality
I commuted to work in San Francisco for over 10 years by bike and began to frequently notice dead pigeons in the road, in the gutter, and sometimes in the bike lane. The more I saw, the more I began to question my own mortality while sharing the streets with cars, cabs, speeding buses and […]
Designing Swag And Raising $25,000
We’ve sold hundreds of t-shirts at events and online over the last 8 years to raise funds for McLaren Bike Park. This year I designed and printed a new “Phase 1” edition that reflects the stage we’re at with the design of the park. We made with the classic mbp gear logo. Stickers are a must for […]
Dusty and Dustin, A Printmaking Reunion
My childhood friend and art school colleague, Dusty Herbig is an Associate Professor at Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing arts. He teaches lithography, intaglio, serigraphy, relief, and all levels of advanced and graduate courses. He also serves as the director and master printer of Lake Effect Editions, the press of the printmaking program. Dusty was […]
From Code To Commerce, A Day In The Life Of A PayPal Developer
While at Publicis Modem in SF toward the end of last year, I was asked to create a video for the PayPal X-Commerce developer conference. The video would kick off John Donahoe’s speech launching the event. With only a few weeks for production and a fraction of the appropriate budget, here’s what we made… If […]
Bringing Emotion To Shoes, On A Shoestring Budget
I’d always wanted to work on a shoe brand. So, when Lucas Martinez from Teva contacted me with a rough concept and a few thousand bucks, I had a hard time negotiating. The idea? Live better Stories. Isn’t that what we all want? To have lived a life rich with experiences. And the things we pick up […]
ESPN – Planting seeds
Almost four years ago, we earned the chance to work on a brief for an ESPN International project. It was a great opportunity and an internal competition erupted. Ultimately the client liked two campaigns, and the race was on to find a production company to produce the work for very little or nothing. Jim Bosiljevac […]
Rad Massaker Alley Cat. Collect The Body Parts!
The illustration I did for last year’s race turned out so well, I figured I’d do it again this year, but instead of just creating a one-off piece, I wanted to create a “campaign” of sorts. With the theme of RAD MASSAKER or “Bike Massacre”, I chose to build on last year’s concept: Bike as […]
DUSTIN D. SMITH 