Welcome to Nowhere

Welcome to Nowhere (Bullet Hole Road) is a feature-length film adaptation of Temporary Distortion’s internationally acclaimed 2007 experimental theater/cinema performance. In a series of warped, image-driven episodes, five strangers in the American West navigate overlapping landscapes of paradoxical fantasy. Constantly shifting perspective, the fractured narrative revolves around a surrealistic combination of sparse dialogue, unsettling characters and abstracted motion graphics animation.

My Role: Lead animator, production designer, colorist and compositer.

Documentary Photography

Various documentary and editorial photographs taken for commercial and personal projects over the last several years. I shoot predominantly digital photographs, but I am experienced with 35mm and medium format equiptment as well.

My Role: Photographer, digital retoucher

Vodka Fourteen Package & Brand

I designed all elements of the brand and consumer package for this acclaimed small-batch vodka produced by my good friends at Altitude Spirits in Boulder, Colorado. Vodka 14's bottle was one of the projects selected for inclusion in Taschen's Product Design in the Sustainable Era. I have supervised and mantained the Vodka 14 visual brand since its inception in 2005 and have designed all the point-of-sale promotional items, advertising, and related items from day one.

My Role: Designer, typographer, creative director.
Client: Altitude Spirits

Der Schuh des Manitu

Alongside scenic designer David Gallo, video designer William Cusick and I achieved and unprecidented level of integration of video into musical theater in this stage adaptation of the beloved German "western" film, which opened in Berlin in 2008. The production involved a tremendous amont of on-site fine tuning of the animation, as well as a demanding location shoot to capture the source assets of the American West.

My Role: Lead animator and photographer.
Client: Stage Entertainment

Rasta Thomas' Tap Stars

Tap Stars is a fusion of tap featuring the best tap dancers from across the USA. Set against a backdrop of video projected scenery, the show is exciting, fun, fleshy, raunchy, powerful, and brilliantly entertaining. The show opened in Hamburg, Germany in 2011.

My Role: Lead 2D animator, designer.
Client: Rasta Thomas

Landscape Photography

I am especially fond of photographing landscape settings, both natural and urban, and working outside. These photos are among many I have taken in recent years as both personal work and as part of commercial projects.

My Role: Photographer, digital retoucher.

The Passéist

The Passéist was my MFA thesis project at Parsons the New School for Design. Exploring ideas of mixed media representation in motion graphic design and shoestring budget keying and motion tracking techniques, this animated short was originally screened at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York City in May of 2007.

My Role: Everything but the music.

Rasta Thomas' Rock the Ballet

Executed in collaberation with video designer William Cusick, the 40-odd-minute motion graphic sequence created for this acclaimed dance show is projected on a massive screen on an otherwise empty stage, serving as a video-projected set. The animations span a variety of styles and techniques, giving the show the texture of a music video montage. Rasta Thomas' Rock the Ballet has played sell out seasons in Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and Australia and continues to tour through 2013.

My Role: Animator, designer, photographer.
Client: Rasta Thomas

Americana Kamikaze

Temporary Distortion's critically-acclaimed experimental stage adaptation of Japanese horror films demanded a series of complex visual effects sequences, all made for the show's unusual vertical aspect ratio. I worked with co-director William Cusick to shoot and execute some of the more challenging VFX shots in the piece. I also shot the photocall, resulting in an image which ran on the front page of the Arts section of the New York Times.

My Role: VFX and animation, photography.

Curriculum Vitae

My name is Jonathan Weiss, I am a commercial artist specializing in digital motion graphics for screen, broadcast, and live performance. I also make work for print and interactive media. I hold a Master of Fine Arts degree from Parsons the New School for Design, where I specialized in broadcast design and time-based media, and where I have also taught at the MFA level. I also hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in political theory and communications from the Gallatin School at New York University. I have worked in the field since 1999 and have been full-time freelance since 2003. My commercial clients have included Toyota USA, Stage Entertainment, The Coca-Cola Company, Universal Entertainment, HP, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and many others. I have a command of most digital imaging and editing software applications, am experienced working with a wide array of image capture technologies, and have strong drafting, illustration, and specialty fabrication skills. I also have extensive experience working with print production and typography, and have a strong familiarity with workflow for interactive projects and with the unique demands of live performance.

I am confident working under the tightest deadlines in the industry, handy on projects that involve "putting out fires." I'm also trained in structural and wildland firefighting, so literal fires are not a problem either.

I live and work in Pawlet, Vermont.

Commercial Services & Rates

I am pleased to offer the following commercial services:

• Motion Graphic Design
• Digital Animation
• Color Correction for Video & Film
• Keying, Rotoscoping, and Digital Compositing
• Product Photography
• Landscape Photography
• Photo Retouching & Manipulation
• Illustration
• Consumer Package Design
• Print Design
• Branding and Logo Design
• Copywriting

To discuss rates, I invite you to give me a call at (802) 268-0022.

So, What in the World is Surfacism?

Some years ago, while discussing work with a colleague, I jokingly described my philosophy of design as a "surfacism." It's a made-up word, but it stuck, and surfacism has become a term that both describes and informs my work. As an animator, I am a specialist in 2.5 dimensional digital compositing-- I deal with flat planes, surfaces. But in a more figurative sense, I see all the visual work I produce as a surface. Often designers will talk about their craft as a process of organization, of laying out elements to optimize function. In this way of thinking, design takes on the characteristics of architecture. But unlike architecture, you can't experience work on screen by moving around it, or walking through it, or running your hands over it. This work is not so much like a building as it is like a reflection of a building in a pond, an image lacking depth: a surface. As you look at it, you evaluate it: is it beautiful? Ugly? Graceful? Awkward? All these aesthetic judgements are informed by our culture, our expectations, and our personal taste, but they are all passed on a simple visual impression that the artist is responsible for. Thinking about design this way, concept and execution are inseparable, and a strong concept, narrative, or visual effects technology can't function without equally strong visual craft. It's not just the story, it's how it is told.

Sound interesting? Drop me a line, let's have a beer and talk about it some more.

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All work on this site © 2012 Jonathan Weiss & its respective owners.