Stubby Duckworth’s Special Projects

Roles:

Design, Illustration

File Under:

Packaging, Goods, Illustration

Stubby Duckworth’s Special Projects is self exploration through various media. In the Fall of 2017 my mental health took a hit to a point where I was no longer able to work a full time job. On my road to recovery I started doodling daily, mindlessly drawing patterns to kill time and keep myself distracted. Over time I developed an illustration style that didn’t perfectly align with my design style, which is where Stubby Duckworth was born.

Who is Stubby Duckworth? Well for years he was my Create-A-Player in MLB The Show, the one and only video game I have a weird love for. The quirkiness of the name stuck with me and just felt right for this illustration alias. I started out by creating an Instagram to post random photos, sketches, video without anyone knowing it was me. After time went on I started letting friends know that the mystery Instagram that likes their posts is actually me.

The dream is to one day have a client hit me up and ask for an illustration, custom type, or a layout in “Stubby Style” but for now I’m very happy using it as an outlet for daily explorations in illustration, writing, sound and feeling.

Perfect Day Rolling Papers

Once I got back to a point where I was comfortable taking work again after my battle with mental illness, I decided to keep the Stubby train rolling and get some freelance gigs using the alias. With this personal rebrand in the works I needed a unique business card that would stand out in a saturated Portland design market. In comes the Stubby Duckworth Rolling Papers. After connecting with Bull Run Cannabis I found myself meeting a bunch of people in the cannabis industry and figured rolling papers could be that way to stand out. I’ll be honest, I’m not always comfortable giving these out to say, my Bible study clients, but think they’re the perfect conversation starter and they were a blast to design.

You can pick up your own Perfect Day Papers here.

Gravity Prison

Gravity Prison is a limited series of skateboards hand painted within the Stubby Duckworth universe. I wound up lucky and came across a lot of shaped skateboards for an inexpensive price. I’ve used these boards to paint and skate for myself, throw on some cruiser wheels, and pass some along to friends.

Painted Furniture & Goods

Stickers & Magnets

Mickey’s Mets

The Mets started out H O T during the 2018 season. With new manager Mickey Callaway at the helm and the Mets crushing I created the “Mickey’s Mets” illustration. The hot start quickly turned into the usual dumpster fire that is the New York Mets, which lead to adding the secondary type to the illustration. The design got laughs among friends, which lead me to doing a small run of magnets. That way, all Mets fans can let you know how it really feels.
Thankfully for all involved, the Mickey’s Mets era was short lived.

LOSS

LOSS is a zine started by my former colleague Phil Gibson that challenges artists from around the U.S. to tackle the idea of LOSS in their lives. For my submission I did a two layer illustration, my submission statement was as follows:

“My piece ("piece") was a coping mechanism for my loss of direction. I did a whole lot of things I wanted to do and when it was all said and done I was underwhelmed and a bit confused. I thought I had a long term plan to only realize I didn't want it. My whole life I've struggled with anxiety, but this feeling of absolute confusion and loss of direction triggered symptoms I hadn’t dealt with much in the past. I started struggling with racing thoughts, {among other things} and it was a sensory overload and would often send me into panic attacks. One way I was able to quiet the storm was brainless doodling. Shapes, eyes, and more shapes. Patterns. Every time the thoughts became too much I drew patterns as fast as I could. I would just try and get in a rhythm and focus on drawing shapes, and that would often help everything shut up. Mindlessness helps quiet the mind or something. Once I would calm down //// regain my focus I would focus on drawing another """"layer" of the piece, where I would just doodle things that I wanted to draw or tie darker themes related with my anxiety disorder into the art.”