At the beginning of 2025, I pivoted my career once again - I’m currently spending 2025 pursuing more freelance and public art projects along with developing short films and more personal projects. I’m no longer working in the fast paced tech world and while there’s still so much uncertainty about the animation industry and jobs in general, I’m exploring some new opportunities and places to share my art. But that doesn’t mean it’s all going well - I recently received some rough rejections for some projects that I really loved and thought I had a good chance at - but ultimately there’s only one final contract and I’m thinking of ways I can improve my applications for the future.
Here are two really cool projects I developed concepts for but weren’t ultimately picked up - I’m still very happy with what I created and hope to land some new opportunities soon!
The first project is for a bus wrap design with NTVA - while I was one of three finalists to produce designs on the project, my work was ultimately not selected for the final contract. While I’m disappointed, I still really like this design!
The design featured families and children enjoying the outdoors in the Napa Valley landscape with noteable landmarks and regional animals surrounding them. I wanted a seamless and flowing design across the entire wrap that felt dynamic and was also eye catching from both a distance and up close. The back of the bus featured a bear and fox character waving at fellow drivers. This is the exact type of project I would love to do more of - I love the ability to make complex and detailed designs for vinyl projects and really enjoyed being able to explore concepts on the unique bus shape.
This is how it would have appeared on the bus .
Another project I developed concepts for recently was a proposal for a train theme mural at a local pool. The Roseville/Sacramento Area has a deep railroad history and they were looking for a mural that honored that for a new children’s pool area. Below were some loose concept sketches I had for the space, I wonder now if these needed more finished images with shading and no underdrawings to be successful at this type of proposal? Or if the committee just had something else in mind.
While neither one of these will be produced, I really enjoyed working on the concepts! I’m hoping the flush out the concepts for the railroad swimming designs a bit more for my illustration portfolio. I also hope to take on more mural, public art and illustration projects this year. So if you’re in need of a creative, fun, and illustrative mural or illustration project reach out to me at ambermations.studio@gmail.com - I would love to work with you!