This video was created for the Portland State of Mind event in 2015. The idea was to give each event their own style. The motion graphics were created by Brett Forman and Evan Kirkley. I used After Effects to put those designs in motion. I also did the stopmotion animation for the beginning, PDXtalks, and the Farmers Market.

Another two years has gone by since the last Tom Offer-Westort beard vid, so we have decided to do another. This time we went a little crazy with the stop motion. Our good friend, Bob Ekdahl, helped us come up with the concept of opening a book and having the insides come to livfe. I hope you enjoy. Check out some of the Behind the scenes photos here… and watch the video below.

Music written and performed by the amazing Paul Otteson.

So, I really like the idea of unique and/or one-off clothing. One of the easiest ways to do that is to paint a design on a shirt. I don’t really have steady hands, so actually hand drawing something tends to be a problem for me, so I much prefer to create something on a computer and create a stencil. Then use the stencil to get the exact design idea I have down on the clothes.

I thought some folks might benefit from a little tutorial about the process I use. So as is my medium of choice, I created a video.  And from said video I present the process laid out as a blog post with fun gifs!!! Yay!

So first, get the following supplies together:

• Shirt to Paint on (Thrift store!!!)
• Acrylic Paint
• Textile Medium
• Paint Brush
• X-acto Knife
• Cutting Mat

Then, find a stencil you like. You can literally make a stencil out of anything and I’m not going to go into much detail here (watch the video), but you can obviously search google images for stencils if nothing else. But also, tattoo designs, illustrations, graffiti, all make great stencil ideas. Also, you can check out my stencil pin board for inspiration.

Once you find your stencil, you gotta print that sucka!

Then use an X-acto blade to cut the stencil out. Follow the lines. Preferably on a cutting mat and not directly on the kitchen table, ya know?

Once you’ve got your stencil made, it is time to mix the paint and textile medium. Mix the paint to achieve the color you are going for. Then, follow the directions on the medium to mix it with the paint. Generally, it is 2 parts Paint to 1 part Textile medium. After I mix the paint, I tend to eyeball the amount of paint I have on the palette (or paper plate) and then just add half as much Textile medium.

Then get your shirt ready to be painted upon. Figure out exactly on your shirt the design is going to look the best. I recommend over your heart because I love you, but you can do what you want.

It is also good to place something (like paper) directly under the fabric that is getting painted on. That way you aren’t accidentally bleeding onto the back of the shirt or onto your work surface.

Also, generally, your stencil will likely be the opposite of mine. Instead of cutting it out and using the cut outs as guides, you will cut out the design and use the whole paper as the stencil and the cut out is where the paint will go. Because of this, I highly recommend taping the stencil down onto your fabric to help minimize the amount of movement that happens.

Now paint that bad boy! I have two ways that I will suggest painting. One is to dab straight up and down. The other is to paint from the paper, toward the edges. Both of these ways are to help avoid lifting the edges up and getting paint underneath. We need those edges to stay right there in order to give us a clearly defined design.

Also, I would recommend going over a specific part of the edge only once if you can help it. Because that first time will be the cleanest. If you have to go over again, the stencil or the shirt could have moved and the edge will end up being soft. Sometimes you may feel like you didn’t get enough paint on a particular spot. Just be careful if/when you go over it again. Try to make sure the stencil is still lined up.

Once you have everything covered in paint. I let things rest for a few minutes, then I peel up the stencil. This the moment of truth and the most satisfying part. If you have a standard stencil, you can just lift up one of the corners and carefully peel it off. If you have the inverse stencil like I have, you will want to carefully put your blade under and slowly peel it up.

Either way, I try not to let the paint dry with the stencil on. I like it to be at least a little bit wet. If it is completely dry, when you go to lift it up, it might take some of the paint from the shirt with it. After the stencil is up and off. Let it dry.

Optionally, after it dries, you can use an iron to help set the medium into the fabric even more. Put a piece of parchment paper between the iron and the paint.

And that’s it!!! You have an baller new shirt. Go show your friends how sick you are. Their mouths are gonna drop mad crazy.

Let me know in the comments if you liked this tutorial or if you have any suggestions.

I had the opportunity to work with the fine folks at Design Week Portland in order to create a few videos promoting their 2014 event.

The first is a Timelapse of domes that were built as the Headquarters.

During the Design Week event, illustrators drew tweets from anyone that used their hashtag. They were drawn on a flag that was hung through-out the week. For next year’s event, they will be turning the flags into bags. This video documents that process.

This was a video created to talk about the spirit of Portland.

This motion graphic was created for the Portland State of Mind event. The designs were created by Brett Forman and Katie LaRosa. I put the designs into motion in After Effects.

I was asked to film this project for the Knight Foundation. It involved a round table discussion with many movers and shakers in the Portland, OR area from the 60s and 70s. The discussion was about how Portland has become the way it has.

Starting in 2014, Portland State rolled out a new marketing initiative around the idea of “Fearless”. Fearlessly pursing one’s hopes and dreams.

This main Brand video takes the direct point of view of one of PSU’s students.

This video was created for the soft launch of the campaign. It utilized the archived footage and b-roll from the various activities around campus and finally focusing on alums that have made a difference in their communities.

Created with Kenny Katz and Brett Forman

Portland State’s school of Art + Design wanted to create a series of videos featuring students and faculty talking about specific aspects of creating art. The four topics were Process, Inspiration, Community, and Opportunity. I worked with 3 students in the graphic design program to create the videos below.

ESPN Stop Motion Animation :: BCS Bowls from Peter Simon (Petey Boy) on Vimeo.

I was approached by ESPN to create 5 videos for Vine… one for each of the 5 BCS Bowls. This is all five put together.

Client: ESPN
Director: Peter Simon
Co-Director: Kenny Katz
Art Direction: Abby Simon

Check out the Behind the Scenes video