Towards the start of my career, I moved back to New Zealand after an internship at Cartoon Network in Singapore. I’d just created my first illustrated CV (see the current one here) and caught the eye of Wellington creative agency EightyOne. Almost immediately we got on like a house on fire and I joined the team as a studio artist. Initially they wanted primarily to make use of my storyboarding and illustration work, but it wasn’t long before I developed a hunger for more. Stretching my skills out into pitches, video, direction and ideation. The sky was the limit with EightyOne (I even painted my first mural for them!), if you could dream it, they wanted to do it. Unfortunately, after 2 years learning from and working with some of the most inspirational creative minds I’ve ever met, the COVID-19 pandemic tore across the world, and I was laid off as a casualty of the shrinking business. EightyOne helped broaden my horizons and focus me in on the unique skillset I wanted to develop. The most formative project I helped bring to life at the studio, The Wellington Effect, can be found here, while a selection of other work that help build my foundational skills can be found below.