My skills and experience

I’m an illustrator, graphic designer, motion graphics designer, and 3D artist. I’ve done magazine illustration, television graphic packages, set design, special effects, comics, Flash animation, interactive design, and much more.

For the last 25 years, working as a graphic designer for television, I've created 3D animations for such varied clients such as CNN, TBS, The Gannett Corporation, Emmis Communications, and others, as well as various individual television stations around the country.

I’ve also created interactive sites, whether using Flash technologies, or standards-compliant HTML and CSS. As a graphic designer, I believes that the communication of ideas is the important part of the job, not what tools are used.

My commercial illustration utilizes a distinctive comic-book style, as well as a 3D-oriented style.

My comic work includes the weekly comic strip "Grumbles," which has been running for the last 5 years in Atlanta's Sunday Paper, as well as numerous individual comic projects. I participated in the last 3 editions of the comic anthology "Not My Small Diary," as well as the recently published "Big Book of Fashion Illustration."

My design philosophy

Design means a lot of things to a lot of people.

Too frequently people think design means how something looks. To them, “good” design is something they think looks somehow cool or hip, even if it’s hard to read or navigate. I believe that good design means that something works well in its specific application; if it communicates well, and serves its purpose, only then do I consider it good design.

Good design is how something works, not just how it looks.The added benefit of this philosophy is that something that works well usually looks good, too.

More information

If you'd like to view my complete professional resume, please click here.

Words and images Copyright © 2010 by James Burns. No reuse of this material is allowed without written permission.