Weston Finds Wonder Charity Page
As part of the Clinton Foundation’s “Too Small to Fail” initiative, which helps the 6 out of 10 American kids who are unprepared for kindergarten because they cannot afford preschool, we raised $22k+ to craft a children’s book to be placed in library laundromats nationwide. That book, Weston Finds Wonder, not only helps kids see the extraordinary in the ordinary, but also it helps them to think outside the box to solve problems. For our trilingual Spanish-English-Mandarin book, I created a Where’s Waldo-esque page for Weston (our hero) to fly in a laundry basket ship into space, seen above. My page will be in all 8160 books we printed. We are also selling our books to create a Creativity Campaign at local libraries to make reading and creativity fun again. Click here for Spanish and Mandarin versions!
“Fatale” Tarot Noir Card Deck
My Tarot Noir card deck serves Fatale, my upcoming crime lord board game. It’s inspired by a mixture of 1920s noir and 1950s United Productions of America art. For the high priestess, I thought giving her a Turkish fez and a maniacal expression might give an interesting twist. For the Tower, I wanted to draw a 19th C. industrialist instead of a building–a man who builds towers instead of a literal tower. For the Hermit, instead of a traditional old man with a beard, I crafted a lone ranger cowboy. For the Hang Woman, I chose to create a 1920s grinning flapper with an unnaturally crooked neck, inspired by 1920s Pierre Imans’ eerily life-like mannequins. For Death, I took inspiration from the Cloak of Death and turned it into a hazmat suit and tie inhabited by an unknown specter, turning him into a weapons seller: a literal merchant of death.
Splatoon Fanart
My Swimsquid is part of my collection of fan art for Splatoon, a competitive video game about colorful battles where squid children fling ink at each other. Last year, when I was in my Splatoon phase, I decided to craft more intriguing paint “weapons” (really they’re just modified versions of super soakers, buckets, paintbrushes, and even bathtubs) using all sorts of inspirations, from punk zines to 1970s graphic design. One of my favorite creations is the 70s inspired Swimsquid (the blue cassette-looking device in the center). It is a fusion of enchanted witchery and a dash of stylish retrofuturism. The musical wonder is a hybrid of a squid’s ink tank and an old TPS L2 Walkman (yes, the one favored by collectors as it’s in Guardians of the Galaxy) that casts spells by drawing out symbols to compose musical magic spells in the air.
Genetico Project
Genetico is a 1970s fictional genetics corporation I invented to not only practice my graphic design skills, but also to reinvent the way science is marketed. Instead of cold and sterile, I went for a “mad scientist” vibe. I was heavily inspired by 70s graphic designer Rudolph de Harak, for his elegant simplicity struck me as perfect for a vintage yet futuristic, revolutionary science company. Seventies modernist design encapsulates an era of reckless expansion and innovation I wanted to convey. It is also more intriguing than the “Google-safe” formula companies have adopted these days. With Genetico, I wanted to convey a sense of abstract creepiness, that brings a sense of fearful awe to the diverse garden of genetic inventions that the company offers in pursuit of “an enlightened world”.
Neon Korea Buildings
While teaching myself Illustrator, I decided to create a small, beloved cityscape inspired by a street I love in downtown Seoul that mixes a delightful juxtaposition of Western and Asian styles. On the top left cliff sits a Gothic church atop a shadowy bridge underpass where I used to sit under the stairs and gobble juicy pork steamed dumplings. The middle is a modern office building atop a storefront, vending machine, and (currently closed) vendor obscured by a tarp. Atop this building is a facade awaiting its billboard. To the right of the two buildings is a mixed-use structure with commercial space on the ground floor (a converted garage) and residential apartments on the two floors above. Atop this building is an upscale Korean restaurant with a traditional-style temple winged roof. I love instilling my heritage into my art.
Nationally Awarded Sculptures
For a board game I designed to teach creativity, I won a national Scholastic honorable mention (15% of 260,000) for my mythical creature game pieces including a Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox obsessed with 80’s Aerobic exercise and a Phoenix Unicorn that gallops from the ashes of forests. The Phoenix Unicorn (“Ember“) is a crackling whisper of the sun that awakes from the ashes of forest blazes to prance around orange afternoon skies to drag the chariots of the sun and stars. He wishes to one day create a colony of fireflies on the moon. The Spirit Fox (“Ninetails”) is a will-o-wisped fox eternally bonded to aerobic exercise tapes from the 80s, guzzling water, blazing calories with blue spirit flames, and striving relentlessly for a fitter body. She wishes to retire one day, and start up her own exercise studio to teach others.
Jawbone Contest Entry
Jawbone was a contest entry for a collaborative art competition called War for Rayuba, in which artist made characters would fight in a war through comic book pages to determine an alien planet’s fate. I knew that, faced with so many talented artists, I would need to be creative to stand out. So, I took inspiration from the Wallace and Gromit show I saw as a kid to create a cartoonish crocodile mercenary based on claymation and old 1920’s rubberhose cartoons. My frankenstein mishmash of clay machine and korean drink can was my first clay creation, and remains to be my favorite.
Psychadel-IKE
This was a remaster of an old contest entry I did in which contestants tried to make a hypothetical design for an unseen video game character for the game Deltarune. While every other participant drew up a small TV host man with a screen head, I interpreted the concept as a play on televangelists and created a bishop-like space wizard character that jutted out from a mouth-portal to cast spells themed around the actions on a TV remote. That idea still remains, but I have improved the old concept by changing the color palette with muted hues and bright RGB clothes, changing the design with liberal amounts of gold in order to suggest showbiz opulence, and incorporating a mystical background for flavor.
Horticultural Mod Concept
In 8th grade, I started contributing to the development of various Minecraft mods (specifically, this one about creating an ocean dimension), which allow players to customize their game experience and expand their creativity. The idea for Horticultural is based on my desire for more plant variety to build my worlds with and for a more physical representation of magic than what other mods had. I ended up creating a modular plant system, as well as some brews and perfumes with creative uses such as controlling animals, metal detecting items, transforming into specters, and even foreseeing the near future. What you see above is only the first page of my concept, the full pdf with all of my ideas can be found here.
