Welcome to thomasgsullivan.com

Bringing It Back Full Circle One of my first after-school jobs, back when I was in high school, was working as a page at the local library, where it was my responsibility to reshelve all of the returned books. As I'd stroll the hallways with cart after cart overflowing with titles from every genre and category imaginable, I used to daydream that maybe—if I played my cards right—some day one of those books might have my name printed on the spine, too.
	The astonishing true story of the man known as D.B. Cooper, and the only unsolved airplane hijacking case in the United States. Comic panels, reproductions of documents from real FBI files, and photos from the investigation combine for a thrilling read for sleuths of all ages. 2021 ALA TOP TEN BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL FOR CHILDREN AMAZON EDITOR'S CHOICE BEST BOOKS OF THE MONTH MARCH 2021 *SPRING 2021 KIDS INDIE NEXT LIST SELECTION
"A compulsively readable series debut." — Kirkus Reviews

"A fantastically rendered unsolved mystery." — School Library Journal

"This book is outstanding." — No Flying No Tights



	This is the incredible true story of the daring and inventive escape and a decades-long manhunt in a case that remains unsolved to this day. Comics panels, reproductions of documents from real FBI files, and photos from the investigation combine for a thrilling read for sleuths of all ages.





	Two thieves posing as Boston Police officers gain entry to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Eighty-one minutes later, these men walk off with $500 million worth of art. This heist is the single largest private property theft in the United States—and despite decades of investigation and dozens of false leads, the case remains unsolved to this day.





	This stunning picture book will have young readers wondering about outer space and life on other planets while imparting a surprising and profound message of empathy. From the author/illustrator of Blue vs. Yellow and I Used to Be a Fish. Out There is a wonder-filled, surprising journey of imagination and empathy, a book that will inspire readers of all ages to reflect on how much we all have in common, despite our differences. *AN AMAZON EDITOR'S CHOICE BEST BOOKS OF THE MONTH MAY 2019

★ "A tour de force... Inspiring and perspective-granting." — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"A fun and lively take on the age-old question, Is there anybody else out there?" — School Library Journal



	From Tom Sullivan, author-illustrator of I Used to Be a Fish, comes a high-concept picture book about a battle between primary colors, for fans of The Day the Crayons Quit, Red: A Crayon’s Story, and Mix It Up! *ILLUSTRATION DISPLAYED AT THE SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS 2017 ORIGINAL ART SHOW

"For schools, art classes, and libraries where young readers enjoy the humor of persuasive speech in the context of an outrageous competition." — School Library Journal

"Those learning colors and vocabulary will enjoy the conflict and concepts." — Kirkus



	Inspired by a pet fish and fueled by imagination, a boy tells a whimsical version of his own life story, which mirrors the process of human evolution. Simple, surprising, and innovative, Tom Sullivan’s debut is both a light introduction to science and a tribute to every child’s power to transform their lives and to dream big.
★ "With a smart sense of humor and a creative sense of wonder, younger readers are introduced to the cool parts of evolution." — The Horn Book (Starred Review)

"An afterword respectfully delves deeper into the science of it all, but irreverence rules the day, and Sullivan proves that, in this regard, he’s a highly evolved talent." — Publishers Weekly

"A funny, whimsical look at the wonders of evolution and the power of imagination." — School Library Journal

A Designer's Approach to Illustration I once had a professor in college tell me, "You don't want to be a one-trick pony." And I completely took that to heart. From that point forward instead of focussing on fostering one particular illustration style, I instead decided to take a designer's approach to illustrating. As a graphic design professional I would never limit myself to using only one typeface, or color palette for the entirety of my career. So why should illustration be any different? And that’s not a knock on illustrators that generally only use one style. Some people develop a style, and become very good at what they do. But variety is the spice of life. So rather than let my style dictate the work, I like to allow the work to dictate the style.
UNSOLVED CASE FILES When I started illustrating children’s books I made the very conscious decision that I wanted everything to be drawn by hand. Now that didn’t mean that I was going to be creating paintings without any digital influence, in fact, I did the exact opposite. Photoshop is still my weapon of choice. But everything you see is made by hand, it’s just been colored and arranged in the computer. All of the components in the illustrations for Unsolved Case Files were either drawn, or painted separately in black. They were then scanned in piecemeal, selected, colored, and arranged as digital collages.









OUT THERE I utilized the same digital collage technique from Unsolved Case Files, but with a smoother, more layered final look. With Unsolved Case Files I had used a choppier and flatter approach since I was employing a vintage collage aesthetic throughout the series. But Out There is science fiction, and I wanted the images to be fully colored, without coming off as cold, or overly computer generated.



BLUE vs. YELLOW I know what you’re thinking, I just spent all this time up above going on and on about variety, yet here I am with another set of digital collages. So while the technique is the same, the style is totally different. Since I wanted BLUE vs. YELLOW to come off whimsier and more childlike, I drew most of these elements with markers.



I USED TO BE A FISH Since human evolution can be a pretty heavy concept for a child’s mind to grasp I wanted the illustrations in I Used To Be A Fish to be light and simple. I utilized big bold outlines drawn with Sharpies, and a limited palette of only two other spot colors.




I illustrated the cover for the book Saturday Night Live & American TV by drawing sketchy portraits of some of the sketch comedy show's most iconic characters with Uni-ball pens. I then cropped, colored, and arranged them to look like old-school SMPTE color test bars.



Below are various t-shirt designs created for Threadless, Shirt.woot, Ript Apparel, Teefury, and the now defunct Loiterink. Some of these were drawn in ink, while others are vector drawings that have been distressed in Photoshop.








And last but not least, here are banner illustrations that were created for Crain’s New York Business’ 2011, and 2012 City Facts articles.

A Career Retrospective

I’ve been pushing pixels for almost twenty years now—and I know it sounds cliché—but the more things change, the more they really do stay the same. From ink splatters and distressed fonts, to soulless minimalism and retro-vintage overload, if there’s one thing that has remained constant, it's that good design isn’t bound by trends.

Fads come and go, but it’s our job as designers to balance the classic with the cutting edge, to create an experience that’s as functional as it is eye-catching, and to conform to the standards without getting lost in the crowd.

2015-Present

Author/Illustrator/Book Designer

Client: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollinsPublishers

Usually, when you write or illustrate a book, you don’t have any say in the design process. You type up your words, package up your illustration files, and send it all off to the design team at the publisher. I, however, was in the unique position of being a 10-year graphic design veteran when I wrote my first book. So from font choices, and title page design, to the end papers, book jackets, and the hard cases that hide underneath them, I was behind every facet of my book’s designs.

2013-2014

Freelance Designer

Client: Almighty Boston

While freelancing in-house at Almighty I worked on digital campaigns for BJs Wholesale Club, and was also part of a team that worked on a website redesign for DAVIDsTEA (more on that in a bit), but the cash cow was always New Balance.

We were in charge of all of New Balance’s digital marketing and web design, so there was not a single day that went by where I wasn't mocking-up a Facebook ad, storyboarding motion graphics, or designing a splash page to promote whatever brand-new shoe was about to drop.






In addition to everything New Balance, I was also part of a small team that redesigned DAVIDsTEA’s static website into a fully responsive site. Below are mock-ups for some desktop and mobile layouts.

2013-2015

Co-Founder & UX/UI Designer

Client: therewardinator.com

Working with my business parter I designed, wireframed, and coordinated with developers in India on The Rewardinator. An app-based loyalty rewards program controlled through an "idiot proof" back-end CMS.

Using The Rewardinator's engine we developed a "white label" app that was personalized for TIAA-CREF's 2015 sales conference. Using the principles of a loyalty program (earning points, and exchanging them for rewards) we created an engaging experience through quizzes, push-notification trivia, and augmented reality that resulted in a 92% participation rate amongst conference attendees.


Since the goal of The Rewardinator was to allow the client to customize their own app's appearance by uploading images, and personalizing colors and fonts through the back-end Content Management System I didn't actually do a whole lot of front-end designing on this project. Instead I handled UX/UI design and wireframed the apps functionality.

2007-2013

Freelance Art Director & Designer

Client: The Mojo Group

The Mojo Group was a small agency comprised of a strategist and a copywriter who outsourced almost all of their creative to me. While there I was responsible for all of the art direction and design, I wrote some copy, handled UX/UI design, and even a little video production here and there. Basically, if a client asked for something, I delivered, whether or not I was actually comfortable or experienced with it.

Our bread and butter client was The Lyons Group, and we launched a lot of their bars/restaurants (including: The Lansdowne Pub, Alibi, Bleacher Bar, Back Bay Social Club, La Verdad Taqueria, Kings Dedham, Towne Stove and Spirits, Mass Ave. Tavern, and Blazing Paddles), and each one needed a lot of supporting materials (logos, menus, videos, websites, t-shirts, flyers, print ads, artwork, and social media imagery), all usually done within an insanely fast turnaround time.



















Besides launching bars in Boston, The Mojo Group also occasionally designed print ads for the D'Annunzio & Co.'s fine jewelry lines Tweety, Natasha, and Corsage.

2009-2010

Producer/Graphic Designer/Actor

Client: Phillip the Fossil

Over the course of the spring and summer of 2009 I worked with a crew of guys from my hometown to turn our friend Garth Donovan's short film Phillip The Fossil into an award-winning feature film.

Using funds Garth had accquired by collecting cans and scrap metal we hired a small crew of BU film students and local actors, and spent the summer DIY'ing an independent film. As a producer I was involved in casting, story development, set decoration, location scouting, and wrangling the crew and talent. As a designer I was responsible for creating the posters, title sequence, on-screen graphics, DVD packaging, website, press packages, and film festival submissions. Phillip The Fossil was one of only eight movies selected into the Narrative Competition at the 2010 South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, where it went on to win Best Performance.

2006-2013

Freelance Art Director & Designer

Client: thomasgsullivan.com

As soon as I graduated from college I started trolling craigslist for clients. I responded to every freelance gig posting and started designing logos, band flyers, websites, and t-shirts for strangers on the internet.

Below are some CD/vinyl packaging samples I did for Aeronaut Record's recording artists Nous Non Plus, Juliette Commagére, and Robert Francis, logos I designed for various clients over the years, posters, and a collection of marketing materials I redesigned for a used-car dealership.


















The folks over at VP Auto Sales wanted their logo redesigned to reflect a "retro vibe" while also maintaining the familiarity of the original. They also needed a new brochure and pocket folder package, along with new business cards to complete the new look. Below you will also see some banner ads that pulled double duty as online ads, and as actual banners displayed at the dealership.


	Hello! I’m Tom.