About

When I first started my career, I was going to night school at my Alma Mater, the School of Visual Arts here in Manhattan . One day I decided to go to the school’s placement office to try to find a job in my chosen industry. After a few freelance gigs the placement office sent me to a small, Manhattan based toy company called Happiness Express. To my surprise, I was hired as the Head Illustrator. Now, while I was there, I did pretty much everything. I got to create toy packaging, toy sculpture and I even got to do booth design for the annual Toy Show that year. 

As a company, Happiness Express worked with a ridiculous amount of children’s entertainment properties. Brands like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Biker Mice from Mars, the Flintstones & whatever movie was out at the time from The Walt Disney Company. Learning to work with licensors like Disney and Warner Brothers was a real trail by fire. At the time, I wasn’t doing finished character art so learning the ins and outs of getting my artwork approved by these companies was an experience to say the least.

I stayed with Happiness Express for about 4 years and after a short break I went on to work at a small Manhattan design studio which was actually only 2 blocks away! The Gods smiled down upon me and it just so happened that they specialized in designing licensed product! I got to work on movie properties like the 90’s Lost In Space Motion picture as well as the first Lord of the Rings movie for Newline Cinema. I also got to work on the regular kids stuff like Scooby Doo, M&M’s, The Post Office, & Looney Toons. Luckily my licensing education seemed like it was meant to continue! This time I was producing not only product design for these big companies but I had crossed over into producing character art for their commercial style guides. People were actually using my stuff on their packaging, products  and television commercials. I ended up staying with them for a few years until unfortunately they went out of business. That’s when I started my freelance career in the industry.

After my time with Happiness Express, I was contacted by Major League Baseball to design the Screech mascot for the Washington Nationals. After a round of different character designs, MLB and the team picked a direction and I rendered the initial poses. I actually made it my business to watch the characters introduction at the stadium! This started an over 25 year relationship with the MLB. In fact I just finished a job for the Toronto Bluejays! I’ve been lucky enough to have worked on every major mascot character in the league and if they in fact didn’t have an official mascot I designed a generic one for their licensing use!

As I was freelancing with Major League Baseball I started doing work for a company called 4Kids Entertainment. Now, their claim to fame was owning the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property. I worked for them for a number of years doing TMNT vector style guide art. Eventually the Turtles franchise was purchased by Nickelodeon and 4Kids passed my name to Nickelodeon as they were looking for the folks that created the library of art that they just purchased.

 Eventually, I began working for Nick on a steady basis doing concept art for their tv show and character art for the Turtles. Once the people in charge found about my licensing background I began producing style guide art for not only the Turtles but I began producing art for their various properties like Spongebob Square Pants, Go Diego and Dora the Explorer. What was really great about working for the Nickelodeon company was that they were a part of a family of companies so, I got a chance to work for Comedy Central, MTV Networks  and VH1. After a few years my schooling in animation got me a gig as an animator on one of their tv show’s “Romeo!” As well as specials like VH1’s Most Metal Moments. IMDB 

Now during this time, I got a call from a company that at the time I’d never heard of called Garan inc. These were the guys that created the Garanimals brand. To my surprise I got to create a group of characters that got used on clothes, product and in their licensing program. It was fun seeing my drawings used in their style guide and on their products and packaging. They even got translated into 3D animation and used in a television commercial! 

 Over my career I’ve had the privilege to work on so many well known brands. Properties that I had the pleasure to grow up with. I’m a grown man now but there’s still many things that I would like to work on. Now, there’s to many to name here but I have to mention that I got to work on a project with the great Jules Bass before he passed away. Talk about a childhood dream of mine that actually came true!  As I sat in his midtown apartment I felt like I was on the Island of Misfit Toys!

Now, you must be asking yourself, why in the world would I take you through all of that? Well, I just wanted to let you know that my experience in licensing & character design is not just a passing fancy or a brief footnote in my career. This stuff is my career and I have worked for these relatively huge corporations as well as a bunch of tiny companies helping them start & grow their licensing programs. Let me do the same for you and your brand! 

Contact me today and let’s start your mascot journey!

Interested in my non-sports licensing work? Just click here to check it out…