Featured Designer

Todd Amos, Designer | Vinyl Artist | Snow Sculptor

Graphic designer, vinyl artist, business owner, snow sculptor, soccer player, youth soccer coach, Jeep enthusiast, devoted father and husband, Todd Amos has been chosen as our featured designer.

Todd Amos, Designer & Owner of The Vinyl FOXX

Many designers work behind the scenes and are rarely brought to the forefront. Graphic designers are part of a larger picture alongside a marketing team, web designers and production artists. The names of these individuals do not appear on the finished products that they spend hours, weeks, months and years tooling over every detail until client perfection is achieved. These individuals will likely never even appear on their company’s website. Behind the scenes creatives get satisfaction from being part of successful teams that rely on one another to evolve as a collective group in lieu of standing out for personal fame. (Although personal recognition wouldn’t hurt once in a while.)

Why Todd? Well, Todd Amos is a tireless designer and innovator who has devoted over twenty years as an in-house designer while creating his own vinyl design and printing brand, The Vinyl FOXX. His vinyl designs are sold on his Etsy store and make perfect gifts as well as branded corporate products. Todd manages to balance being the world’s coolest dad by bringing his kid’s imaginations to life with interactive snow sculptures while wooing his wife with handmade and up-cycled personal vinyl art for special occasions. Oh yeah, Todd has also been a youth soccer coach and trainer for 10 years and plays soccer in a few men’s leagues. Phew, Todd is on his way to earning superhero status.

Curious to know how Todd’s over twenty year design career has been? Well, Todd has spent the past 16 years with his previous company where he attributes a lot of his personal and professional growth starting as a mid level designer and advancing to Production Manager, then Sr Designer. As Todd rose within the company, their customer readership increased by 10%, and their sales increased by over 40%. Over the last six plus years, he was overseeing the in-house print and digital marketing department. Todd’s daily jobs consisted of managing multi-catalog production and scheduling, creating page layouts, cover concepts ranging from presentations to final photo shoots, designed product packaging, social media marketing, and product branding. Todd said that his attention for detail and high standards for organization helped him rise up in the department. Todd’s advice to designers in the making is to apply all of their effort into each position they hold regardless of the title or industry since it will create the foundation for many opportunities in the future. When asked is he ever stops moving, Todd’s reply is, “no, and I don't plan on it.”

Here is more about some of Todd’s work in his own words.

“A few of my favorite covers (in the slideshow below) were catalogs printed 20 times a year, each seasonal and different, printed up to 800K and were mailed all over the world. The cover of the customer catalog was the face of the company and something I took great pride in. I was involved with all of the studio production for the last twelve years and directing for seven of those years. I always went above and beyond to make sure I produced the best quality of work. From concept to completion, I created and directed each cover. As I was managing the design team and two photographers, I created shot lists, gathered and made props, scouted locations, screened and hired models, for in studio or on location followed by all of the digital editing.

The Holiday Front and Back cover was interesting as this shoot took me two days to set it up with one day to shoot. The Holiday Kids cover is special to me because I was able to have my sister’s kids as the models. I had to stage all of the gifts and even had to put together laminate wood flooring from Home Depot in the studio to have a Jeep rolled onto it. The real trick was finding a big enough Pine tree that we were able to cut down in October.

Then, there is the Barn Find cover which was cool because it's every “Jeeper's” dream to find an old jeep in a barn. This was shot on location and on one of the scouting days my team and I had to take shelter in that barn because of a random freak tornado warning. We came back the next day to shoot and even used the owner/farmer of the barn, seen in the background. The "father and son" are models.”

---

Thank you Todd, for sharing your story and behind the scenes insight into the hard work of a designer and small business owner. With your devotion and expertise, your future will be a continued success.

Please enjoy looking through some of Todd’s work below and be sure to check out his Etsy page The Vinyl FOXX where you’ll find his original designs. Connect with Todd on LinkedIn for your graphic design and art direction needs.

---

Print Design and Art Direction

FrBk_CVR_QJKB_HOL18.indd

Before

After

The Vinyl FOXX

Snow Sculptures - The Urban Foxx YouTube Channel

Wearable Sculpture

Sculpture Jewelry for the Body & Home

Balancing Act

Wearable Sculpture is inspired by Architecture throughout the ages. There is a balance of masculine and feminine or yin and yang or fluidity and stillness in all things. It is a great reflection of what we as humans on this planet work with as gravity holds us on earth while we navigate, create and contemplate. (Cheesy rhyme was unintended, just go with it, I’m writing in a flow state.) Continue…

THE NEED FOR BALANCE

Balance in life and at home is a constant work in progress for everyone. I’ve found some creative balance over the years in creating sculptural jewelry. Although, not appealing to the masses, it hasn’t stopped me from doing it and personally benefiting from the creation process. I encourage everyone to find a creative expression where time ceases to exist and the pressure of making a profit is lifted. (Of course these expressions are all for sale, a girl’s gotta eat her organic veggies.)

Silliness aside, use today to think outside your scheduled day and look up, stare at a product, deconstruct something in your mind, think about how and why it was made. Use one of my pieces for example, the image above, the Nix Cuff. This piece has movement as it twists around and sits atop the wrist. What was I thinking at the time? Why did I do this and who did I think was going to wear it? The what and the why is that I was learning how to solder metal jewelry from a talented multimedia and jewelry artist named Nix, in Philadelphia. It was in Nix’s studio where I channeled one of my favorite architects, Frank Gehry, and started moving the material around and stopped when the metal “told” me to stop. I wasn’t thinking at all and that was the best thing I could have done. Anyone who creates or cooks will understand. Sometimes the material or ingredients silently instructs us on what to do with an instinct of, that’s enough or just a pinch more. So who was going to wear this? Welp, at first it was me or at least my museum gala attending avatar. (She’s fancier than me, always put together and doesn’t trip up stairs.) In as much seriousness as sculptural jewelry can have, I see the person who would wear this piece as having a love of art and a bold confidence that makes them an unintentional trendsetter. I saw them having a minimal home with meaningful treasured art and collectables happy to add Nix to their collection to be displayed when not out on the town.

I have to admit that I have a personal connection with this piece and when the day a permanent owner comes along, it will be a bittersweet one for me. I will be happy knowing someone will be wearing them for special events or proudly displaying them in their home.

Happy staring at products, deconstructing something in your mind or pondering anything at all today. And, no you cannot get back the 3 minutes you spent reading my inner thinkings. Ha

Sculpture

Frank O. Gehry

Walt Disney Concert Center, Los Angeles, CA

This structure/sculpture/building is one of the most breathtaking forms I have seen. The drive around the building was surreal as I felt like a child seeing my imagination come to life. I took this photo along with many others with this composition standing out the most to me.

Gehry Stairs

AGO Museum

Toronto, ON

Frank Gehry, 91, has been on my “if you could have dinner with 10 people,” list for twenty five years. I have been deeply inspired by his work and outlook of his creative process. Frank, (along with family) have been the voices I hear to “keep going and creating what you love,” when I’ve been unsure of my path and place in the creative world. Frank is okay not being liked, he is actually his own harsh critic and always goes with his gut no matter what. Frank’s grandmother gets the credit for enabling his childhood creativity through mixed material from his grandfather’s shop. They would make futuristic cities and structures with a mixture of available scrap materials. I love that he retained that child-like playfulness to be part of his process. I hope anyone with children in their family encourages the exploration of their creativity, it will only enhance whichever career path they choose in life. It’s never too late to rediscover your limitless inner child. My freeFORM events (activating creativity) will be returning soon to the Philadelphia area. For information or to host a freeFORM even in your community contact me here.

Side note: This long awaited “Gehry Lair” will open at the Philadelphia Museum of Art set for 2028. Fingers crossed for a sooner date.

For any Frank Gehry admirers, I recommend his Masterclass. https://www.masterclass.com/classes/frank-gehry-teaches-design-and-architecture

Rustic Industrial Mid-Century Modern

Cold steel, wood beams, wrought iron, scratches, sleek lines, brick, stone, hardware, ghosted graphics, soft cotton, burlap, rope, chain wires, garden, dark, light, grey, cold, warm, lofted, cozy, spacial relationships, big bold, tiny impactful, leaning, void of commitment, flow of changing components... all equal balance between textures and elements. It's having it all in a harmonious manner. 

The Nicca necklace is an example of Rustic Industrial through the materials used and Mid-Century Modern through the minimal use of materials and crisp graphic shape.

Fixed Motion-Visual Movement

Fixed Motion-Visual Movement is expressed in the piece "Midge." The elements are in place, but are placed in such a way that they imply motion without actual movement of the individual pieces. This is visual movement. "Midge's," inspiration came from the desire to capture something three-dimensional in movement without motion much like a photograph. It implies, which forces the imagination to take over and finish the story. 

Alexander Calder, sculptor, artist and jewelry designer was famous for creating mobiles that have been in motion since their completion that has lasted beyond their creator's existence. For a creator to have their work in kinetic motion is simply brilliant. Perpetual inspiration from generation to generation, what a wonderful gift!