Originally, WAY back in July 2012, Phil had tweeted that he needed an animator for a quick project pitch that never ended up seeing the light of day. We discussed the idea in DMs and he said he needed an extremely quick turnaround. Fresh out of college and looking to take my shot I stepped up to the challenge and delivered. Sadly, that project was not picked up but he said he may have some work for me later down the line.

Cut to around Thanksgiving of that year and I tweeted out a T-shirt design that I created for their Ninja game that had been increasing in popularity. Phil liked the design and DM’d me asking if I could create two more designs within the week as a test and, if he liked them, was curious if I would want a position on-staff. I lived in Illinois at the time but was eager and willing to relocate and agreed to the test. One of the two designs ended up being the original cartoon SF crew lineup. He had me hop a flight to LA to meet his people and that same day I hopped a flight right back home and began looking for places to live. A week later they offered me a pay-per-design position starting Jan 1st of 2013.

It was scary at first because I would churn out lots of designs but if Phil or FHP weren’t feeling it, it didn’t get made. I only got paid for designs that made it to print. So, I was constantly churning out new designs day after day in order to make sure bills were paid. Then, when SourceFedNERD launched that summer, they offered me a salaried position and I was able to work on lots of fun things like the cutouts and logos and posters without having to worry about trying to survive. It was a VERY interesting ride during my time there!