Output
Work from the studio
Venetian Tree Fractal
A 3D-printed hexagonal frame designed to scaffold a young tree until it can stand on its own.
Emphasizing interactions with movement
Another layer to Prospective's interactions.
Branding a hybrid approach to funding
Using simple shapes to conquer big stories.
Cole was adopted!
A delightful pup that stole our hearts.
Branding Power
Giving identity to a company that aims to transform how we transact with energy.
From Zero to Power: A Brand's First Steps in Venice
We kicked off the Static Finance brand here at the studio in Venice, California. And when I say kickoff, I mean square zero. They showed up with nothing—which is actually my favorite place to start. V...
Sounds Invisible Authority
Making groovy disco to help shape the identity of local-first.
Elegant Icons for the Theater.
Iconography that emphasizes the elegance of live experiences.
Branding that looks tasty
Baking a visual identity for a private stock options marketplace.
Iconography for Vellum
Simple, on-brand icons that help tell the Vellum story.
Building a Prestige Economy for Decentralized Intelligence
You’ve got to create a system that not only inspires but excites.
Forging Innovation
Designing the Allora Forge Experience
Aidem Visual Identity
Standing Against the Bots with Style and Defiance
SuperSoGood Identity
Branding a unique approach to funding & capital
Photo to 3D model in minutes.
It is incredibly satisfying to take a simple photo and transform it into a fully animated, functional 3D model in just minutes. With the help of AI and the right tools, the process is not only fast bu...
Wylder is up for adoption!
A good pooch ready for a new home.
Generative art thrives on iteration.
Play with prompts, test different angles, and fine-tune until you nail something special.
What does research visually look like?
Undefined until it’s brought into focus.
An Italian adventure.
Sometimes you just have to show up.
Generative Liquid Alchemy
A whole new way of thinking and experimenting.
Super So Good Script Exploration
Developing an identity around a script doodle.
Allora Necklace
Art, design, and meaning converge.
Moar Wookiee
We’ve gathered over 40 to 50 Wookiee roars.
Venice Studio Render + Animation
I wanted to capture the essence of our Venice studio—an indoor-outdoor sanctuary where ideas flow freely. The space is about comfort and collaboration, designed to break down barriers and tackle your ...
Chat Portrait Session
When you incorporate creativity with good company, a certain alchemy happens.
Aidem Pixel Art
Node to a classic 8-bit style for an advertising platform focused on the individual
Fostering Chester and Murphy: A Studio Session
A simple yet effective outdoor set on the back patio.
Andrewstein Avatar
A fun spin on a classic animation.
Palm Booch Can Rendering
Palm Booch’s new watermelon hard kombucha features a vibrant label with toucans, flowers, and palm trees.
Willow on Grayson
A unique backyard dining experience.
Allora Stage Design
An immersive environment.
Venice Surfing Association Hat
A nice piece of swag.
40th Birthday Ski Patch
A ski patch inspired by Brent Lynch's Saudan Couloir poster for a friend’s 40th.
$100 Wookiee Roar Challenge
Where roars transform into captivating animations.
TM's own water bottle.
A subtle but properly branded small water bottle you can easily put in your backpack or briefcase.
The women surfers of Venice.
Female surfers have long been carving their paths in the male-dominated world of surfing. In celebration of International Women's Day, we had the privilege of talking with a remarkable group of female...
Masseria Meets Mount Etna
We are so excited to have been a part of Masseria’s visuals for the second year. We’ve used Masseria every day since we shot their last campaign, so on this second year, we wanted to talk a bit more a...
Celebrating Strength and Unity: Women's Paddle Out
We were excited to join the Venice Surfing Association for their International Women's Day Paddle out!
Phoebe, our foster, was adopted!
Look at the cuteness!
Branding the Wonder Conference
A classic Orsen-Welles-inspired brand
Inspiration from Haikus
Using poems to drive a user experience.
Calm Ninja Pixel Art for Neomind
Tying nostalgia of retro video games to a modern, calm approach to technology.
Prospective Agent Indicator
Animated Icon idea to indicate the status of a connected server.
Prospective Feature Illustrations & Animations
Using a simple shape and animation to convey the features of Prospective
The New Paradigm Shaking the Foundation of Industries
Hyper-automation is shaking industries by reducing workforce demand and creating conflicts over AI and image rights in Hollywood.
The Ascendance of Vertical Videos
Innovative apps like Instagram, TikTok, made vertical videos mainstream by prioritizing convenience over form, revolutionizing consumption.
Midjourney is the Batmobile.
Midjourney is absurd, exhilarating, and filled with unexpected turns. Destination unknown, adventure certain.
AI Style Extrapolation
Midjourney is a fun tool to use every day.
Masseria Olive Oil Brand Photos
A lively photoshoot with homemade pizza sets the brand's tone.
The Fifth at Britely
We get to have some fun in West Hollywood taking photos of the scene!
Animating the Four Pillars of Complement
Bringing life to key attributes of a brand.
Complement Brand Guidelines
A future-forward brand looking to democratize software.
Using AI to create robots from avatars.
Let’s have some fun blending together illustration with prompts.
Palm Booch Branding
A fun brand for a hard kombucha company in Georgia.
Kingston Bread + Bar Swag
One of the best parts of working with a physical retail location is creating swag for the brand!
Branding behind the scenes: Complement
Creating a brand that rethinks computation.
Prospective Iconography & Illustrations
Using texture-based icons to story-tell the features of Prospective.
User Interface Organized Neatly
A design system for Prospective.
Infopops, A Creative Way to Teach for the Web
Designing sticky tooltips that allow users to delve deep into different relevant terms.
Creative Post
This post explores various creative expressions.
Prospective Brand Guidelines
Expressive modern brand for a data visualization company.
Venice Surfing Association Brand Guidelines
Reinventing what it looks like to surf in Venice, California.
Trustless Finance Brand Guidelines
Extensive brand guidelines for a layer two crypto protocol.
Trustless Finance Branding Process
A journey to a donut, orbit, and ecosystem.
DeFi is lying to everyone.
Brand posters for Trustless to reveal DeFi's hypocrisy.
Chainlink Brand Guidelines
Creating the identity and brand for one of the most valuable crypto protocols in the world.
Color in Application Design
Color moves your eye across the screen. Motion is even more potent.
Playing Card Illustrations
Illustrating friends of Thought Merchants
Creative Content Update
Creating unique ways to tell the Flamingo story using animation and illustration. The tags have been updated to reflect the latest categorization.
Surfing Ernie
Morning session in Santa Monica.
Floral Kaleidoscope
Creating fun assets for a women's brand.
Widget Store Illustrations
Using a friendly illustration style to bring life and cohesiveness into a visual identity.
The Loyalist Iconography
A set of icons that illustrate the different nuances of The Loyalist's merchandising platform.
Wet Ties
Dress the waves you want, not the waves you have.
The Subtle Story Telling Animations of Trustless Finance
Taking advantage of a unique opportunity to tell more of the Trustless story using animation
Thank you for shopping with us!
Checkout animation congratulating you on a successful purchase.
Wet Tie Product Photoshoot Timelapse
Photoshoots, especially product ones, are tedious. We wanted to show this fun miniature photography set at the studio. Take a look!
Mega Menu Iconography
Practical icon design to improve wayfinding.
Art Post
Animating a favicon to keep us entertained on the team’s kanban board. This post discusses the transition from Animation and Illustration to Art.
Tailwind makes short work of a redesign.
In less than one week, we briefly engaged in redesigning their current application!
Store Activity Feed Story
Using animated storytelling to explain a mobile application concept to a client and customer.
Monthly Design Jam Session
Drawing and animating an informative GIF for our Monthly Design Jam Session Invites!
Art and Fragments Update
An incident at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant released 200+mm gallons of partially treated sewer water into the Santa Monica Bay. This post discusses the recent changes in tag usage, replacing 'Illustration' with 'Art' and 'Fun' with 'Fragments'.
Contextualizing Developer Insights
Improve understanding, at a glance, how well your technology team is doing.
Miso, Graham, and Chunk
Before they left the confines of the studio, we put the pups in front of the camera.
Universal Exports Applied Science
A James Bond inspired blockchain software consulting company brand.
Zen Garden Sound Bath
Alice Hue, the founder of Woo Woo Company, delighted us all by hosting a sound bath in the Thought Merchant's Zen Garden.
Work in Progress - March
A look into our work in progress.
La Quinta's painterly sky.
One particular night the sunset provided spectacular warm gradients designed by clouds.
A night in Venice, California.
A fun-themed photoshoot with our neighbors.
Kinetic Typography
Thought Merchant's design principles animated with kinetic typography movements that mimic the principle.
Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter
Every 20 years or so Jupiter and Saturn nestle next to each other in the night sky.
I am looking to hire a designer.
TM provides competitive salary, healthcare, gym stipend, reasonable vacation, and if the surf is good you can paddle out and show up late.
Omura Series X Photos
We had the opportunity to shoot the launch photos for Omura's Series X device.
Product Workshop @ California Design Studio
Brandon Kleinman came to Thought Merchants through a mutual friend to help him break through his product's nebulous state.
Omura Dark Nugget
Cannabis flower + Omura product imagery in the photo studio.
Ear Flip
If you throw treats in the air and time the shutter release just right - you can get some ear magic.
Example Post
A fun photoshoot with some old neighbors. This is a summary of the example post.
Frannie, Charlie and Graham
Ah, I love taking photos of dogs. I love taking photos of my friends' dogs even more.
The Loyalist splash page.
We took a week, worked with existing imagery the client shot previously and pulled together a cohesive professional image for their splash
Spaceship Nugget
Fun photography experiment with cannabis buds and neon lights.
Last Night's Moon
Moon captured on a Leica SL2 with APO-VARIO-ELMARIT-SL 90-280mm.
Trump don't surf.
My poster is a parody of the absurdity of Trump's remarks in the same way the film Apocalypse Now did in 1979.
ZJs Closing Weekend Appreciation Poster
I designed a fun yet simple poster to engage and celebrate with the formidable line queuing outside (COVID protocol).
Jalama Beach Excursion
An escape to an isolated beach a few hours north of Los Angeles. The pandemic will be around for at least another year so get prepared, take
Neon Graham
Graham the golden retriever portrait under neon LED lights.
Air Conditioner Window Unit
This bogus interface reflects the upside-down world we live in right now.
Shannon Hat Portrait
Portrait with toffee color background.
Domestic Water Sign
Very good. The sign fits in lovely inside the desert city vibes that is Palm Springs.
The sun shines here every day.
During the darkest days of the quarantine, we decided to bring a smile to everyone's face.
Black Rabbit
The outstretched front arms with the rear legs all tucked in capped off the gold tooth that makes any passerby smile.
Writing About The Process Of Work
A collection of meaningful articles about the right way to work.
Fresh Pasta Truck
The extended Ford Ecoline van wrapped in well-aged vinyl signage with all the sunbaked cracks you come to expect.
Soybean Lost Dog Poster
Setting aside the lost dog, this is a fantastic example of American public domain graphic design.
Holiday Photo Studio Fun
We rolled out the studio photography gear to have some fun during the holidays. Fake snow, Santa hats, and dynamic lighting! Enjoy.
Universal S
The exceptional rating is given for the ease of reproducibility for such a complex shape to be reproduced by children around the world.
Summer of Jilly Product Photos
The summer product line.
EMPEX LA 2019
EMPEX is trail blazing thought leadership in the Elixir developer community.
Super Blood Wolf Moon
Capturing the 2019 lunar eclipse with a Leica Q. 28mm can only do so much.
Happy Little Brackets Logo
An inventive yet impossibly simple mark that made me smile.
Central Coast Look
Enjoying a trip to Paso Robles for Thanksgiving week.
Reify 2017: The story behind the source code.
A storytelling approach for celebrating a year in review.
Balanced Team Salon
Balanced team is a meetup for agile and UX
Textures of California
Just look down to find inspiration.
Sedona Arizona
Red rocks and amazing views
Ace Hotel Palm Springs
An autumn trip to the quintessential Palm Springs resort.
Crocs Spec Logo Redesign
The goofy but friendly brand gets a redo that works better.
Hornet Q4 Agile Inception in Cape Town
The entire product team flies to South Africa to kick off the next quarter together.
Hiking Lion's Head
Hornet team climbs the quintessential photo destination in Cape Town.
Sample Post
Digging up a fun side project from 7 years ago. Still fun. This is a summary of the sample post.
2bar Spirits Get Refreshed
A grain-to-glass distillery sharpens their brand image.
Norman the pomsky jumping around.
Cute crazy little dog.
Reify Branding
Creating a bold innovative brand, for a smart developer-focused marketing organization.
Charlie the Dalmatian
A very friendly Dalmatian comes into the studio.
Graham on Crimson
A royal reception for the big golden.
Hornet Version 4 Product Inception
Everyone goes to a castle outside Berlin to incept the new version of their mobile application!
The Pizza Book Photoshoot
Making the coolest pizza book.
14th Factory
A monumental art installation in an East LA warehouse.
Muddy Dog
Some days you just need to fling yourself in the mud.
Butt Poster
Tesoro believes that women's bodies were meant to be different.
Hiking in Palm Springs
Beautiful hiking outside Palm Springs.
Sonoma Over Thanksgiving
A brief look at our annual pilgrimage to Sonoma.
Heavens in November
Shannon brings her new X100T to the beach for a surf session.
Crevalle Business Cards
Memorable business cards for a web services company.
Effective Code Review Landing Page Design
A email collection landing page collecting pre-orders.
Palm Springs with Graham
3-day adventure into the California desert with our pup Graham.