How to use this Page

Contributed by David Landis

My name is David Landis, president and manager of Landis Productions in Richmond, Virginia. I started Landis Productions 15 years ago to provide expert creative solutions to clients in a graphic design "studio" format for local, national and international clients. I do a little bit of everything ranging from magazine layout, corporate branding and packaging solutions to web page, multimedia and product design.

Recently, I've been doing more and more illustration work in the form of character concepts, children's book illustrations and advertising cartoons. But where are these new projects coming from? And why, after 15 years of working in this field are these new opportunities suddenly popping up on my job list?

Because of the mischievous Desktop Gremlins, of course.

What are Desktop Gremlins? Well, back in 2008, I dreamed up a web site to enable me to interact with my clients and friends in a fun way. I loved the idea of using the internet to form community around art and creativity. It also allowed me the chance to further explore design and illustration for the pure joy of the process. With these hopes in mind, I launched desktopgremlins.com and a companion Facebook page so visitors could download and build paper craft toys of my original character illustrations - zany and fantastic creatures of fantasy called Desktop Gremlins.

I've been making paper craft ever since I was a young boy. I loved making paper craft vehicles for my action figures (sure was cheaper than buying the plastic versions!) In fact, I created my largest project when I was about 12 years old - a 6 foot long cardboard snow speeder that a friend and I could sit inside back-to-back! It was magical to create paper toys back then and I carried this love to adulthood.

Face it, we live in a digital world, but I really like the idea of shifting gears and doing something organic once and a while. Desktop Gremlins are my outlet to empower people to do this by printing and building ultra-cool paper toys.

What I love about illustrating for paper craft is that it combines so many of my creative interests. Of course, illustration is vital. But along the way, I get to explore many additional creative processes. I love thinking in terms of 3-d space - watching how an illustration changes when you look at it from different angles or the unique shadows that are created when the shape is under lights. Creative writing and story telling is also a huge part of the process - breathing life into the characters.

I created three distinct rules for myself to help me focus on wha

Add a Comment