Photography by Evan St. Martin @frameandanchor
Hey! I’m Tony.
I’ve always had a desire to design for a living. Some of my earliest confirmations of this as a child was back in the first grade when I would draw Sonic the Hedgehog on sheets notebook paper and tear them out for my giddy classmates. The theme would continue on through junior high, as I would draw cars, portraits, or pseudo-calligraphic lettering of my friends names. Despite not pursuing art much in high school, I majored in Graphic Design with a minor in Psychology in college. There I discovered my love for branding, typography, lettering, and the human connection between it all.
Since college, my design career has led me through the highly-technical production side of design (packaging die-lines, safety signage) to the more visually driven work in the toy industry and in my freelance work. All of my experience — tedious or exciting—has helped me focus my attention to the needs of the end user.
My approach to design always goes back to that notebook. From the start, all my ideas go down in that notebook and I get to work refining ideas until I find a nugget of something delightful. I continue down that path until every unnecessary element is removed until what is left is the core idea. I take that approach into all the work that I do.