. . . : : HISTORY / Background & Achievements

Trusted Brand Wrangler for Nearly Three and a Half Decades

Amphibian Air Car

David’s freelance career began at age 12 painting watercolors of family friends’ pets, including a rather famous bulldog’s cousin who could fit four tennis balls in his mouth side by side. Four years later, in 1988, David got his first big break. He was introduced by Kay Farmer, his high school AP art teacher, to Jerry Barber, inventor of the Free Fall amusement park ride, among dozens of other creations. Mr. Barber needed an illustrator for three new ride concepts he was pitching. Jerry asked Kay if she had the time to dedicate to the project, but she passed on the opportunity due to other commitments, so she suggested David for the job.

Mr. Barber and David coined the name of the primary ride for the pitch the Amphibian Air Car ride. It was essentially an amphibious form of bumper cars in a mash up with Floridian fan boats. Below are the patent illustrations as well as the letter from Jerry the following year. David’s renditions were airbrush, colored pencil, and spray paint.

It was an amazing opportunity, but what David remembers most is the moment he was invited into Mr. Barber’s home for their initial meeting. There had to be a least fifty patents covering the walls of the showman’s house. It was humbling to be fortunate enough to work for such an enigmatic, creative genius.

Mr. Barber is now pursuing wind turbine technology. Please visit Barber Wind Turbines.

“David consistently branded dozens of exhibition catalogs and texts over the course of his 19-year alliance with the Georgia Museum of Art for artists spanning nearly every genre. Most years we won multiple awards including Gold and Best of Show at The Southeastern Museum Conference.”

— Bonnie Ramsey | GEORGIA MUSEUM OF ART

Retired Director of Publications & Public Relations

“Every time I’m in a position to hire a new designer, I say “I’m looking for a David Vinson.” Without a doubt, David is one of the most talented designers I’ve ever met, both technically and creatively. We’ve hired David for projects at CBS3 where the deadlines would have been impossible for others to meet. Not only did he meet the deadlines, he delivered work that blew us away. He’s more than just a great designer. He’s honest, straightforward, personable, and demonstrates exceptional character. If you’re lucky enough to have him on your team, lock the door and throw away the key.”

— Ken Keagy | SIMMER CREATIVE

Principal & Design Director

“It is always a pleasure to work with David and Outpost Pictures. His creative insights and knowledge in motion design makes for exceptional creative concepts and a great finished product. David is always on-time and professional in his delivery of creative assets. From initial concepts all the way through comps and animation production, David can always be counted on for outstanding work. David is a trusted design resource for our company and we would highly recommend his talents for any design project, no matter the size or scope.”

— Brett Stacy | MAXMEDIA

Associate Creative Director at MaxMedia

“Vinson’s career is the fulfillment of what desktop futurists were promising in the early 90s: the emphasis on the artist, not the facility.”

— Website Customer Feature | BLACKMAGIC DESIGN

Case Studies 

Industry Veteran

For decades David has maintained his hired gun design, motion, and VFX career alongside full-time engagements. His passion for excellence delights his fellow teammates and worldwide clientele roster.

David also possesses an innate passion for our mental health advocacy, recovery, and strategy for ceasing stigma.

Clients: ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, TNT, MTV Puerto Rico, NBA TV, Fox Sports, New England Sports Network, Atlanta Hawks, The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel Latin America, CN8 The Comcast Network, DirecTV, Philips Arena, Russell Athletic, Little Debbie, Georgia Pacific Television, Ford, Verizon, Tandus, Adobe, Red Giant Software, Zaxwerks, Regions Bank, Ted and Shemane Nugent’s SpiritWild Productions, Bozeman Art Museum, Georgia Museum of Art, Madison Morgan Cultural Center, TIAA-CREF, Southern Progress, Southern Living At Home, Toolfarm, Ledet, and Digital Voodoo.

At in-house agencies David led creative efforts on branding and commercial execution for NBA TV, The Weather Channel, Ford, Time Warner Cable, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Viking, Birmingham Southern College, Preakness, and Smithfield; video installations for Raytheon, World of Coke, The Harmon, and United States Postal Inspection Service at the Smithsonian; website lead-in animations for UPS and Universal; and corporate videos for BBVA Compass, Mohawk, Wiser, United States Postal Service, Bridgestone Corporation, Bridgestone Golf, and Southern Living At Home.

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Notables ( see CV for details )

• Featured Artist, “Talkin’ Bout the Weather,” Website Customer Feature, Blackmagic Design Case Studies

• Featured Artist: Adobe Systems, Inc., Discreet Logic, and Integrated Computing Engines (ICE) demo reels

• Featured Artist: “23 Very Special Effects Products,” DCC magazine

• Speaker and Demo Artist, Adobe Systems, Inc., Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, GA

• Demo Artist, Adobe Systems, Inc., National Association of Broadcasters trade show, Las Vegas, NV

• Demo Artist, Alias | Wavefront 3December event, RealViz, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

• Web Press Release: “Ice Announces Ice’d Commotion,” ICE

• Featured Web Article: “The Weather Channel Goes On ICE,” ICE

• Featured ICE Articles: Video Systems magazine, Millimeter magazine, and Film & Video magazine

• Featured Chapter and Contributing Writer (uncredited), Premiere and After Effects Studio Secrets, Wiley

• Developed Super Rays for Shine and Particles Volume 1 for Trapcode Particular for Red Giant Software

• Co-creator, Knoll 3D Flare Adobe After Effects plug-in, with Red Giant Software’s Aharon Rabinowitz and MotionScript’s Dan Ebberts

• Created Knoll Lens Flare Pro Training DVD for Red Giant Software

• Developed a JavaScript “Splatter FX” engine utilizing 30 hand-crafted texture maps and Trapcode Particular for Adobe After Effects

• Designed Knoll 10 Pack for Knoll Light Factory for Red Giant Software, (“Flash Gordon” and “Sunny D” were included in the release of Knoll Light Factory version 3.0)

“David knows how to develop and deliver fantastic creative. I had the pleasure of working with David on numerous projects and was always amazed at the digital magic he created. From incredible graphic design, to unbelievable promotional imagery, David helped deliver on the brand evolution and on many program marketing projects. He approached every initiative with a passion for design, was easy to work with, and was a fun guy to be around.”

— Paul Greenberg | YP

Executive Director of Marketing

“While at the Weather Channel, I have hired, rehired and used David Vinson as an external vendor. He is a creative professional of extraordinary talent. David has a clear understanding of branding and provides solutions that work within the overall creative strategy of the brand. He possesses an infectious creative energy and consistently provides an abundance of outstanding solutions for each assignment. I cannot provide a higher recommendation and if given the chance, I would not hesitate in hiring David again.”

— Rick Booth | NEW ENGLAND SPORTS NETWORK

Director of Creative Services

Accolades

• Best of Show, Southeastern Museum Conference

• 2 Gold, Southeastern Museum Conference

• First Place Brochures, Southeastern Museum Conference

• Silver, Southeastern Museum Conference

• Best of Category, Printing Industry Association of Georgia

• Bronze, Independent Book Publishers Awards

• Honorable Mention, American Association of Museums Publication Design Competition

• 2 Honorable Mentions, Southeastern Museum Conference

• Merit Award, Potlatch Papers

• Merit Award Best Theme, Calendar Marketing Association

• Honorable Mention, The National T-Shirt Art Event of the Century

• 3 Gold BDAs • 1 Bronze BDA • 1 Silver Promax • 3 Silver Tellys

• 3 Bronze Tellys • 2 Silver Addys • 1 Silver Mark

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Memorable Moments

• Visiting ILM’s Kerner location lobby and seeing the Hook matte painting

• 4 am time-lapse film shoots with Latvian director Ben Butin. “Leaves!”

• Long distance call with Grant Petty in the 90s about the D1 Desktop

• Hanging out with rocker Ted Nugent while training Shemane in FCP

• Incarnation of Knoll 3D Flare while in Boston training NESN artists

• Bringing Garyana Jones to life for Southern Living At Home

• Trips with Adobe to Pasadena, Las Vegas, and Savannah

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Mentors

Meet some of David’s mentors here.

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Tools of the Trade

Meet my 15–year-old 15 inch MacBook Pro (below) upgraded with an SSD and 8 GB of RAM. It’s my primary go to for my writing. To this day Snow Leopard is still the snappiest and most well designed version of Mac OS X and macOS ever. It’s the iPhone 6S of operating systems. I had my iPhone 6S for six years before getting a used iPhone 12 Pro.

I also have a 25–year-old iMac with the original 6 GB HD running Mac OS 9.2.2, a 14–year-old 27 inch iMac named “Yoda” running Sierra and Snow Leopard loaded with 2019 non-A.I. versions of Adobe CC, and a Dell XPS running current versions of Adobe CC, Maxon One, and DaVinci Resolve with an RTX 3090 for Redshift and Unreal with Windows 11 named “Vader” sporting a 4K display and Wacom tablet. I’ve added “Skywalker,” a 5K iMac and “Rogue One,” a 14-inch M3 Pro MackBook Pro.

I’m a big believer that sometimes the latest gear isn’t always the best for the job at hand. My 27 inch iMac is 12 years older than my Dell XPS, but for vector-based work it’s just as peppy. I also continue the art of napkin sketches working out a concept on paper before ever jumping into Adobe Illustrator on the computer.

I still use my loupe and enjoy digging through my tackle box of traditional tools. Most of them are from my time at Savannah College of Art and Design and University of Georgia. Some go back as far as middle and high school when I was selling watercolors, caricatures, and airbrushed Simpson’s and Freddy Krueger T-shirts.

Three books I still have on my shelf that I highly recommend are Interaction of Color by Josef Albers, The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst, and Anatomy for the Artist by Jeno Barcsay.