Joe Bowen

I worked at Thunder for nearly 5 years, before they were acquired by Walmart. During that time I had the opportunity to create many illustrations to help explain the core value of the product.

My team at Thunder created this video as a quick and fun way to explain the benefits of Thunder’s creative management platform, which helps simplify banner ad design and production.

The concept was to compare a traditional graphic designer’s workflow to a Thunder user.

My role: project management, storyboards, illustrations, animation, editing

At Thunder, I led a team of designers who created banner ads for our clients (which included AT&T, GoPro, Logitech, and Gap) while also working directly with our marketing and sales teams to create engaging marketing collateral to sell the Thunder product. During my time at Thunder, my team redesigned the Thunder website, created dozens of marketing and sales videos, defined Thunder’s brand guidelines, and produced webinars showcasing the benefits of the product.

My team at Thunder created this video as a fun way to illustrate how Thunder’s people-based measurement allowed for better user identification than traditional cookie-based solutions. The script was written by our executives and all design and animation were done by my team.

My role: storyboards, character design, illustration, animation, project management.

I designed the logo and a line of merchandise for the movie podcast “Blank Check with Griffin and David”. Hosted by actor Griffin Newman and film critic David Sims, the podcast analyzes director filmographies, specifically directors who have experienced massive success and then received a “blank check” from studios to fund their personal passion projects.

I worked directly with the hosts and producers to create designs that communicate the personality of the podcast and bring recurring jokes to life.

The podcast has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, The AV Club, and many others.

Examples of illustration projects, either for clients or personal work.

Main & Mill Brewing Company in Festus, MO approached me to design some beer can art based on pop culture properties. I chose Seinfeld and Saved by the Bell, and came up with the “Hello Newman,” “Summer of George,” and “Barbara Ann” concepts.

I was given a lot of freedom with the design, and the brewer actually waited to create the beers until the illustrations were finished. They took inspiration from the final images to create the beers. It was very exciting to taste some delicious beverages based on my illustrations!

Primavera hired me initially to design a “wrap” for their promo van. Since the client is an online high school, they wanted to portray the idea that their students have rich personal lives alongside their academic lives. The illustrations on the van show students enjoying their hobbies on the sides, and studying on the back.

I worked with the client again to help develop their logo, which would feature their new mascot (his name: Peyton the Panther). I also created a cartoon version of Peyton, which inspired the animal costume which is now worn to events and featured in promotional photos.

I love to visit elementary school classrooms and talk about comics and illustration.

Typically, I work with the teacher schedule a time after the class has learned about narrative writing. I ask each student to develop their own character based on a worksheet I hand out. Then, we create a character as a group and I come up with the visual design.

The structure is intended to show the students that even their favorite TV shows and movies are character-based and they can have a lot of fun creating their own stories that reflect their own interests and the things that are important to them.

These are examples of some comic books I have written and drawn over the years.