I grew up a nerd in Detroit, the oldest son of a fireman and a roller skating teacher. In junior high school, I won first prize on America’s Funniest Videos with my impression of Edward Scissorhands imitating Michael Jackson. It earned me $10,000, a girlfriend for a week, and, not surprisingly, very few cool points with my friends.
I landed a string of pretty silly jobs as a magic trick-yo-yo salesman, roller skate rink-wedding DJ, and one of those snobby record store employees. My love for audio engineering, Protools, and Macs crossed paths with a short animated film and my new passion for Motion Design was born.
I studied design, film and animation at the Illinois Institute of Art Chicago and ended up at Digital Kitchen Chicago where I worked on TV commercials and title sequences for Target, Dexter and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. You can see this work at my personal creative portfolio, CreamyOrange.
While studying and working, I started Greyscalegorilla/blog, a personal blog to talk about design and education. This has quickly become one of the leading sites to learn about motion graphics and 3D software bringing over 20,000 visitors per day. Nutty, right?
In 2009, I left Digital Kitchen to start an iPhone Photo App company and to focus more time creating tutorials and designing products for Greyscalegorilla. You can read my random bloggy-blog stuff here at Nickvegas.tv or watch me pretend to be a musician over at CampbellandMonson. Lately, I’ve been speaking to creative types at places like SXSW, SCAD, OFFF, and Hyper Island about how to end up with a job doing work you love to do.
I work in Chicago where I drink a lot of craft beer, play a lot of pinball, listen to a lot of podcasts and live with my super hot and talented wife.
Active Projects
Greyscalegorilla: Motion Design
Greyscalegorilla Photos: My Old Photoblog
Creamyorange: My Design Portfolio
Campbell & Monson: Music Project. One song per month.
BananaCameraCo: Simple iPhone Apps
ShakeItPhoto iPhone App: Instant Photos for your iPhone
CrossProcess iPhone App: Normal Colors are for Babies
Reel Roulette: Show of your Motion Reel
Click That Button: You know you want to
Inactive and Past Projects
Rusty Pipes: My defunct band. I play drums.
Photo Blog: I posted one photo a day for over three years. (hit random)
My Dad Can Kick Your Dad’s Ass: Fact
My Sister Is Awesome: I have the domain to prove it!
I Heart A Lot: What do you heart?
