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Invisible Creature’s Don Clark on Nostalgia, Iconography, and Staying Human

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Designing Joy: Don Clark of Invisible Creature on Creativity, Collectibles & Culture

In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt hangs out with legendary designer Don Clark of Invisible Creature to dive into the analog soul of digital design. From their punk rock roots and Grammy-nominated album covers to art directing for Seattle’s swankiest restaurant, Don and his brother Ryan have created work you’ve seen —whether you know it or not.

They discuss growing up with a NASA illustrator grandpa, how nostalgia fuels creativity, the value of physical objects in a swipe-and-scroll world, and how a sibling-run design studio rides the waves of industry change. It’s a masterclass in storytelling, aesthetics, and sneaky inspiration.

Plus, Don once designed a 7-story mural for Newark Airport that one construction worker told him no one would ever notice. Art, meet irony.

✨ What We Cover in This Episode

  • 🚀 Grandpa drew spaceships for NASA — no big deal
  • 🎸 From hardcore zines to Grammy-nominated album art
  • 🧸 Why physical objects still matter (even in a scroll-y, swipey world)
  • 😊 Nostalgia, and the purposeful creation of joy 
  • 🏠 Turning a love of toys and typography into brand work for Target, Canlis, and more
  • 🏄🏻‍♂️ Creating a career by riding the wave (not controlling it)
  • 👾 How Invisible Creature got its name — and why most people don’t realize they’ve seen their work
  • 🍽️ Art direction in fine dining, and designing for iconic spaces

⏱️ Timestamps

[00:01:00] – Don’s creative upbringing & grandpa's NASA work
 [00:04:00] – From punk flyers to full-time design
 [00:08:00] – Physical design in a digital world
 [00:12:00] – Object design, collectibles, and vintage influence
 [00:16:00] – Tapping nostalgia the right way
[00:20:00] – Album covers, influence, and desktop publishing
[00:24:00] – The decline of CDs & the rise of gig posters
[00:28:00] – The challenges (and joys) of working with family
[00:32:00] – Canlis restaurant and entering the fine dining space
[00:36:00] – Creating inspiring physical spaces
[00:38:00] – Why “Invisible Creature” is the perfect name
[00:42:00] – Good design as invisible, objective experience
[00:44:00] – Designing stamps, murals, and children’s Bibles
[00:46:00] – Streamlining creativity after 25 years in the biz
[00:48:00] – Wrapping up and why riding the wave matters

🔗 Links & Resources

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[00:00:00] Welcome to Podcast. Awesome. Where we chat about icons, design, tech, business, and Nerdery with members of the font awesome team, and occasionally the non-fat awesome team member.

Today's guest is an absolute powerhouse of creativity, And whether you know it or not, you've probably seen he and his brother's design work just out and about. If you're old enough to, uh, have remembered buying a cd, remember those, maybe you've seen their packaging.

If you've stand in the checkout line at Target, you've probably seen their design.

Don Clark and his brother Ryan of Invisible Creature, have been shaping culture in kind of quiet ways for a couple decades now.

Back in our twenties, the Clark brothers and I kind of cut our teeth in the same music scene it's been awesome over the decades to see their design firm just take off and be so successful.

from their punk rock roots to their love of vintage vinyl toys. Don brings kind of an analog heart to a digital world where design is just sort of disposable.

Don and I talk about how niche subcultures have created an on-ramp for more commercial work.

How collecting feeds his creativity

and why physical things still matter in a world of swiping and scrolling. So without further ado, here is Don Clark of Invisible Creature.

Matt: Don Clark. Thanks for coming on podcast. Awesome. I really appreciate it.

Don: My pleasure. My pleasure.

Matt: Yeah. I've been looking forward to this conversation for a while. Um, I was kind of bummed that Ryan couldn't make it, but, um, uh, he's on tour as I recall. The Clark Brothers. Yeah, man. You guys are,

Don: it's like a, you know, some people call us [00:02:00] Ron, you know, it's Don and Ryan.

Matt: that's right.

Don: Ron's good. Yeah. We're, we've been, you know, uh, making things forever now.

Matt: Well, um, man, I am so curious. I've, I've been, um, watching you guys over the years, back in the days when you were, um, doing asterisk studio and doing album art originally like 20, maybe, 20 plus years ago. Um, and seeing you guys kind of come up in, in the design world and, um, you know, like, I will be in the checkout at Target or something like that, and I'm like, Hey girls, you see those gift cards right there?

My old buddy, um, designed that, you know, like, and, and I, I always know, like when I see invisible creature stuff out there, there's such a trademark look to it and I'm like, oh, wow, those guys, they did that too. It's amazing to see. Um, one of the things that is so curious to me is knowing where you guys came from and the influences that you had and how they kind of come together.

Maybe how you guys think about that. Um, your grandfather, Alfred Paulson, he was a technical illustrator for nasa. Right. Tell me a little bit about that. When you guys were little, , were you able to like look at his like work and, what was the interest there for you guys?

Don: Yeah, it's super, super interesting because I think a lot of people assume that, uh, you know, we lived next door or he was like a huge, you know, he was in our lives a ton. But the, the, the fact was we grew up in Oregon as young kids, and they lived in Northern California and we saw them. He, we saw him twice a year and, you know, um, he passed away I think in 94.

So he kind of, for us, I think our story is really like, I. You know, grandpa got paid to draw spaceships and, you know, it was very blue collar. It was, you know, he, he punched a clock. He was a commercial artist. He did, [00:04:00] um, editorial stuff on the side. He had a cartoony side to him, very multidisciplinary. So, um, kind of, you know, something that didn't, that influenced us.

But I think the big idea was grandpa got paid to draw pictures and we didn't know anyone else that did that. We, no one else's friends or, you know, grandpas that we knew did that. And so as a kid, you know, I think most kids earned a drawing and making things, you know, it was just like arts and crafts are kind of part of growing up.

Um, so it was just kind of this cool, like, oh wow, you can actually get paid to do this stuff. And that was just kind of always in the back of our minds. And as we got older and started playing music and touring and kind of got more serious about, you know, what would, uh, you know, what would a life like be in trying to, you know. Do design and illustration for a living. It was like that. He became more kinda like larger than life to us. It was like, Katie. That's right. Yeah. Grandpa did this. You know, like, um, so yeah, and he, that was kind of the, the gist of it. We didn't know him super well. Um, he was my mom's dad. But yeah, it was kind of, he's, he's now become kind of like, you know, um, uh, this, this like, yeah, hero to us in regards to like the ability to, um, turn, you know, something that you love into, into your career.

And we, I mean, my brother and I have been, I mean, you've known us for so long. I mean, we just, we, we somehow fooled the world into, you know, paying us to do the stuff that we, you know, love to do. And I think we were both pretty serious about trying to turn this, like I. Love of hardcore music and punk into like an actual, you know, uh, something that we could spin into a business or a career and, and not, uh, basically, you know, be Peter Pan the rest of our life and never have to really grow up.

Matt: Yeah,

Don: um, so yeah, that's kind of, that's kind of the, the, the short version of like, kind of how we thought about [00:06:00] things.

Matt: I just think it's so interesting, like technical drawings to like punk hardcore and

Don: Yeah.

Matt: flyers and posters and album artwork.

Do you. See any kind of like through line with that at all? I'm just curious about like sort of the disparate influences or whatever and how they come together.

Don: it, I think it was, it's subconscious, if anything, if in regards to, uh, being influenced by his style. I think that once, once we start our first company in 2000 and kind of like got more serious about it, you know, we were newly married and all that stuff, and Wass like, okay, you know, we need to start putting food on the table and stuff like that.

It was like going back to his archives and going, man, he was super prolific and it's really interesting how Ryan and I worked in different styles and so did he. But back in the day when, when I was making, you know, stickers and shirts for my band and stuff, it wasn't, I wasn't necessarily thinking about his style and things like that.

It was just, it was like always in the back of our mind of like. Again, like you can actually pull this off. I don't know how I'm gonna pull it off, but it seems like, you know, it's doable. Um, and somehow we've parlayed that into a 25 year career. But as you, you know, as you know, like our influences and styles and clients and all that stuff have been kind of this really cool wave we've been able to ride and, um, our life has changed quite a bit, obviously, like all of ours where, you know, you, you are, you're touring and then you ha get married and you have kids and you know, you're influenced by different things and your life is completely different.

Matt: I am, I'm curious about design in a world where everything is moving so fast and everything sort of seems disposable, like as a, a podcaster and a writer, I, I kind of don't like the term content. 'cause it, it feels,

Don: yeah, totally

Matt: it feels so [00:08:00] disposable, you know what I mean?

How do you guys think about design? Maybe that is enduring in light of this sort of disposable culture that we're in.

Don: Man. Yeah. Um, it's obviously super important to us, which is, you know, one of the reasons why behind me, I've got, you know, all these collectibles, uh, from, you know, a bygone era. Some of this stuff's new, but most of it's not. It's, man, if you, if you, yeah. Just to kind of like touch on today, kind of the modern times and with AI and things that are happening, it is like very much like.

A brand new world, and it is evolving so fast that it's almost impossible to keep up. Um, I, you know, we have officially like, jumped the shark in many ways. I feel like, you know, some of this reminds me of 2000 when, you know, the, the, the, the, you know, print was dead and web was gonna take over everything, and that turned, that turned out to not be true.

We have kind of like entered a new phase where like, okay, things actually are kind of changing. That being said, there's always gonna be a pretty large niche of people and companies that wanna work with humans. And you're gonna see, you're gonna start to see, you know, I think companies taking a stance in certain things, like, hey, we're always gonna hire a human being to do this, this, and this.

Um, so in regards to just like creating objects and things that last, it's like you and I are from an era where there, you know, we lived before the internet and so it, you know, we had toys and things around the house. You go to grandpa's house and he'd have this cool thing on his wall or in his garage.

And I, I've always been a collector, uh, of different things and it's kind of like changed throughout the years. But there is something, um, I think when you kind of de deconstruct, collecting especially objects, um, there is kind of like a, uh, wanting to get back to kind of like a, a safer time or, you know, something that was you.

When things were a little bit more innocent or, you know, you're a [00:10:00] kid and you're playing with GI Joe in your room after you just went swimming or whatever. You know, there's like, you, you go back to kind of that mentality. Um, there's also this kind of, you know, thing about passing down heirlooms. And most of my heirlooms are gonna end up in a dumpster for sure when my, when I'm gone.

But, but there's like, you know, there's like this, um, yeah, I don't know. Collecting is like an, an interesting thing. Um, and that collecting spirit just manifests itself in our work. And so we're, we're always kind of putting out new objects, um, to kind of like evoke. It's just, it's basically stuff that I just wanna make.

And I, you know, we happen to sell a few of them on the side, but, um, but even with books, you know, I, I, I work in, you know, publishing and the, the books that I work on are it, they're very, I know how people cherish books, you know, just because I, I cherish them the same way. And so I, I put a lot of love into, you know, and a lot of effort and time into making sure that, um.

What goes on the page is what should be on the page and what, what people are expecting, you know, as you're sitting there with your kid and you're turning the next page and what they're looking forward to. And, uh, so yeah, it's just, it's, it's so, I just like, it's, it's, it's ingrained in me, I guess. Also, I think just through punk rock and collecting and records and touring and, you know, zines and stuff.

It was, that was my son and I, we, we, we love, we love heavy music and so it's, we always, we talk about like how like t-shirts and artwork are literally like 50% of like, why we love it so much. You know, it's just, just this, it goes hand in hand. It's like, okay, what's the merch look like for this band? You know, there's actually like an Instagram page dedicated to band merch, like on tour.

So they'll post, they'll post like, you know, uh, chat piles, merch area or whatever, you know, it's just like, it's just stuff like that. So, yeah, dude, it's always been like a thing that's just been, that I've been super into and it just kind of comes out in our work.

Matt: that was actually gonna be one of my next questions is that. When it comes to [00:12:00] object design, you guys even create your own toys, like you said, even just for your own benefit and and interest or whatever.

Um, what makes a good object design and how do you think about approaching different mediums? I dunno if that makes sense, but

Don: Yeah, totally. Um, well, I love so many different kinds of things, whether it's like board games or just like action figures or, you know, um, I love advertising mascots. I have a bunch of those. So, um, I, I don't, I know, you know, I'm not like an expert in any of it. It's basically like, this is. It's the whole, like, does this spark joy thing?

And then if it does, let's make it. And at this point, I we're, I've gotten to know so many different makers and vendors and stuff that can kind of like, bring anything we want to life. And so it's a matter of like, what do we wanna do? And I, I have like a, an ongoing list of stuff I'm adding to it. Like, okay, you know, uh, we wanna put out a vinyl toy at the end of this year, or whatever, you know, so we work backwards and kind of make sure that that happens.

And we, uh, it's important that we release stuff for ourselves, meaning, you know, it's stuff that's gonna go on our store there. They're limited runs and, you know, most of our, our work is commercial, so, but it's important that we do these things too, to keep us like stoked and, um, for, for other designers to collect and things like that.

But, um, yeah, it's just, you know, like I'll be in a antique store or. You know, on Etsy or something, just looking for stuff, you know, late at night or whatever, and I'll be, I'll see something and I'll be like, man, I remember those. Or, you know, you know, I've seen those. What if we, how can, how can invisible creature put our spin?

How can we put our spin on that, you know, something that, um, so that's kind of always, it's, it usually starts with something I've [00:14:00] already seen, something that is like, from a bygone era, how can we spin it with our mummy character? Or, you know, something that like designers would dig that, you know, that I would dig, that would look cool on the shelf.

And, um, so yeah, we do a lot of, like, we do a lot of objects for other design for other companies as well now. So, like, I'll always, I'll always spin, I'll always pitch an object whenever I can for, you know, gifts for their clients or things like that. So those are the most fun things to work on.

Matt: Yeah, as you're talking, it, it, it sort of reminds me of, um, I don't know if you would articulate it this way, but it's sort of tapping a little bit of a nostalgia in a sense, and that there's really something powerful about that. I mean, I think that there's a, there's sort of a sort of nostalgia that sort of keeps people stuck,

Don: Totally.

Matt: Like stuck in the past. But if you can kind of tap something that evokes a feeling, um, sort of based on that nostalgia and that it's, that it's tied somehow to something physical and that you're having an experience of it. I've always felt that you guys, the things that you've created, even if it's on a screen.

There's something that evokes all of that where it kind of gives you a feeling

Don: yeah, yeah.

Matt: and it's more, I may not like necessarily be thinking that in the moment. I think that's what good design does, right? It's it there's something happening. You can understand what's going on, but it's probably also evoking a sort of feeling, like you said, joy,

Don: Yeah.

Matt: that's sort of in the background.

I think that you guys balance that really well.

Don: Yeah. Thank you. I, I don't, you know, they say like, every designer's a storyteller. I mean, yeah. I guess I never really thought, I've never thought about it that way. I mean, when I'm working on books, obviously, but like with, with, with objects and, and, um, things of that nature, it's like, well, just, I want to see it come to life.

And, and I think the story that it is telling is like exactly what you're saying. It's, it's nostalgia. It's [00:16:00] like what, you know, something you remember as a kid and, and you and I are fortunate enough to have those like objects in our life. But then the, the newer, you know, uh, generation is it, it'll be interesting, you know, what, what they find nostalgic.

Um, it's a bit sad actually just because of the screens and everything that we're, that everyone's on. But, um, you know. Nostalgia is a, a dirty word to a lot of people. It's a, such a huge part of, um, what, like, gets me excited about making things is, is that word really is just, you know, um, we're all, you know, anytime we're working on something, the, the client is always going to reference something from like 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago.

It's, it's always, it's it, we're not talking like, yeah, it should look like, you know, the iPad 13. You know, we're not, we're not, we're not like. Our, our, when we say television, even if we say television, you know, it's like you kind of, a lot of us, we go back to the, you know, the, the, the giant, uh, CRT monitors that, that we grew up on.

So, um, and you know, it's not like there's gonna be car shows for like 80, you know, eighties Toyota cars. The, the car shows we go to have like 1950s Bel Airs and, and there's a reason for that. So, um, I love tapping into that. 'cause I think that's like a, that's a, that's a special thing,

Matt: Mm-hmm. And I love too, how you reflect on this stuff. Um, you can hear people sort of, they kind of go on about their theories of this stuff.

Don: right.

Matt: and guys like you and Ryan, you can reflect on it in a really meaningful, intelligent, um, thought provoking way. But it's, it's kind of more in the background rather than we have a specific thing that we follow to produce a product and it's all thought out in a sort of scientific, 

Don: I remember being in [00:18:00] school in like, uh, just like community college, taking these art classes. I'm like, I don't know how I'm gonna make this work. I can't draw this stuff. Like, how am I, I love art so much, but how am I gonna like do this?

And so it wasn't until I found like punk rock and graphic design and, and, and even seeing like, uh, the work of like Lou Romano and Teddy Newton that worked at Pixar that were creating really like flat characters. Um, but but had so much, you know, style to them. And, um, it was like, oh, I, I, I might be able to do that, you know?

Matt: There's like so many correlations with all this stuff. You know, I, I think about like punk and hardcore culture. There's a feeling and an aesthetic and a vibe

maybe folks that aren't fans of heavy music or punk or whatever, and fair enough. They don't understand the aesthetic. They don't understand the appeal, but it's its own language, you know what I mean?

And that it, it sort of gave. A lot of people permission, um, to do something cool and to,

Don: A hundred percent.

Matt: um, I just love that,

we had this experience of, we have an on-ramp of examples of people creating music, um, to where it's like, oh, I, I think maybe I could do that, or I could at least get in the ballpark of that.

And it sort of gives you permission.

design from that world? Did it feel like the same sort of permission, I guess is what I'm trying to get across?

Don: Yeah, I think so that we, it did start with album packaging though. It started with like, just, um, uh, obviously hardcore, there's a lot of like, obviously, you know, not great album packaging, but like, it was like, uh, a lot of, you know, what ends up happening is you kind of conflate. An amazing record with like the cover and then therefore the cover is amazing.

And that, that's not necessarily always true. I mean, Nirvana, nevermind, happens to be, you know, pink Floyd, dark Side of the Moon. Those are like, okay, they hit a home, run out the gate. It's a classic album. Album cover's awesome, but I think that [00:20:00] that's where, yeah, we ha this is that the advent of DI Desktop publishing where like you, you know, we, we had a Mac in the house and so we had Photoshop an illustrator and so I was like, okay, I can see kind of how these guys are doing that.

I also, a couple years later, found Stefan Sagmeister and he was, he, I mean he was doing stuff with CDs that was just, it was just amazing. Um, dye cuts crazy papers using the Juul case as like a, a really important part of the experience, whether the Juul case was red or blue. Um, all kinds of worked with Rolling Stones.

Um, who else did he work with? Uh. Lou Reed, a tons, tons of different artists, and he has about like three books out. So in the early two thousands, ski was definitely like an inspiration. And if you look at our stuff back then, it was like, we were trying to do that for like hardcore and punk and really was like, you know, we were nominated for four Grammys during that era, and we were, we were like leaning heavy into like, stuff that he was doing and, you know, so, uh, we were just ha we just happened to be doing it for like, heavier bands and stuff.

Um, but yeah, I think it goes back to like, um, we have these tools. Uh, I don't have like a ton of talent or like what people would perceive as talent. And so like I can use these tools to my advantage and I can, you know, if you, even if you look at my illustration style, so much of it is. Dictated by the tools that I had growing up, meaning Photoshop and Illustrator, and you know, like using, like Illustrator is my sandbox, and so my style is going to come from Adobe Illustrator and, you know, using Bezier curves and the, the tools that they created.

Um, even with like the painterly stuff that I do with books, it's like I'm using other people's brushes that were created for Photoshop and I'm, I'm in their sandbox. So [00:22:00] I, you know, in that way I'm standing on the shoulders of giants for sure. Because I think that if you were to, you know, I don't know if you went back 50 years and I was a painter, an actual traditional painter, or trying to do graphic design, you know, with a drafting table.

I, I don't know, I don't, I don't think I'd be doing that. I, or maybe I would've, but, um, I'm definitely a product of, you know, these modern tools for

Matt: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Interesting. Um, I'd be curious to know , 

 Um, it sounds like you kind of cut your teeth and, and maybe Ryan too on say, album packaging and that would've been in the era of, um, of CDs prior to streaming and things like that. How did that evolution happen, and how did you find new opportunities maybe when that kind of work started to dry up?

Because at some point, even CDs were like, nobody buys CDs anymore, so then you don't have the physical product anymore. What happened in your career when that started to change?

Don: yeah. Good question. I mean, it's, it's pretty like you can follow the trail, like pretty easy actually. So, uh, we started doing work before the advent of, uh, Napster and basically, you know, illegal downloads and streaming and all that stuff. So, you know, that started to take a toll on music labels and budgets and things like that.

And, uh, obviously you remember all that stuff. So, uh, that it started to go a little bit down from there in terms of like, Hey, I. We used to have 10,000 for a budget, now we have five. You know, um, we were still very busy during that time and we were getting work from, it seemed like every band in like alternative press or MTV two, it was, it was, you know, we've worked with hundreds of bands now.

It's crazy. But, um, we also started to just kind of get like, I think tired with our own style. And we, it's almost like we, we, uh, [00:24:00] couldn't keep reinventing the wheel. And a lot of bands wanted the same thing that we had done before. And, uh, you know, if you look back, we have a book out that's like 20 years of album art and it's like 500 pages.

And we, we, when we put this out, there's a lot of stuff that we left out that we just didn't like that other, you know, fans love and have tattooed on them, but we look back and we're like, oh gosh, this stuff is so bad. So, um, so it shows me like, I guess like how much, how many albums we were doing back then, but also, um.

Two things. The gig poster explosion happened, which was like 2000, 2000, 2002, and and and beyond. And that was a way for us to really dig into illustration in a, in a way that was like, uh, way, way more tongue in cheek, brighter. Uh, we could have a lot more freedom, you know, if you're doing a record for my morning jacket, uh, you're not going to put a jacket on the cover, but if you do a poster for my morning jacket, you can get away with like, actually really playing into the band name or there's, there's just like, the rules kind of go out the window a little bit.

So we had, we got really involved in just making posters and so, um, you know, show would come to town, we'd get ahold of band and say, Hey, if we made 50 for ourselves and gave you 50, and we pay for everything. Are you cool if we do a poster for your show and most nine times outta 10, the band would be like, yeah, dude, just bring 'em by the club.

Like, and that's, that was awesome. Um, because we were able to really, we were able to actually make these posters, sell them, and get, you know, people started seeing them. And so what ended up happening is we got a lot of commercial illustration work from those posters, and that was like, you know, someone that works at Target went to, you know, uh, arcade Fire Show and saw a poster and they're like, Hey, I wonder who did this, uh, let's see if they wanna do something for Target.

[00:26:00] So that, that actually is what got us on another, another in another lane of, uh, actual commercial design, bigger budgets, working with large companies. And by the grace of God, it happened. I mean, I, you know, we still do a lot of music, but there's, there's not a, I don't think we'd be able to pay the bills at all on that.

I know we wouldn't. Um. So, yeah. The second part of that is I started having kids. My first daughter was born in 2004. And so that, I think we touched on it earlier, it's like I was starting to get really into just children's books, literature, movies, film, and just kinda like, you know, who was working behind the scenes, making these, creating these worlds for these, for these movies.

And the movies were great, but the art of books were my favorite thing. Like, I went and saw The Incredibles that was like, you know, love the film, but then bought the book, the Art of the Incredibles book, and just, that's when I was like, oh man, I like, this is what I want to do. Like, this is like, and then we have, you know, we just parlayed that into commercial work and, um, yeah, just like, it was amazing, right?

If you, if we kind of, if I deconstructed like kind of how that happened, but it was pretty clockwork. Like all these things started happening and, you know, um, yeah. That's, that's the, the short version.

 I'm curious about what it's like for you guys. To basically do a family business. Um, I I, I would imagine that'd be a little bit of a, you know, you got sibling creative partnership like that would seem a little bit like a highwire act. And it always, whenever I'm around you guys, it seems like there's a really good relationship and rapport there.

Matt: But how do you, um, how do you work out like conflict as far as like vision and the things that you're working on? Um, and you can take a [00:28:00] pass on this if you

Don: No, no, that's good. I think like, honestly, the, my answer's kind of always been the same. I think he says the same thing too, is that we're just so different that we understand. We've developed, um, we know our lanes kind of, and I, I feel like there's, there's always room for discussion on anything. Um, but I think we've developed. I'll ask him if he wants to do a, you know, X, Y, or Z and you know, if he, if he has time, and you know, he'll be like, well, I, I'd love to, or, or I'm gonna be on the road, or I'm making a record. Or, you know, today he's shooting a video. So like, there's his, his thing is more band focused and he does a lot of album packaging.

In fact, we launched like a separate kind of like company basically, uh, called Mind Reader that is devoted just to music, which is him and our friend Kevin. And we launched that on our new site. So music's still a huge part of his life, uh, design wise. Um, but yeah, we, we have similar styles in, uh, there's a few styles that are very similar to us and then some, you know, like he just crushes me at, and then like that he'll, he'll do, he's the guy to go to for that.

And then, um, if it's a certain, you know, like the target work, the stuff that's like, you know, more, a lot of the bright and playful stuff, like, that's kind of something that I lean into. So, um. But yeah, I think we know, we know each other so well now, like in regards to how we like to work, that it's pretty, it's, you know, it's pretty seamless and we, the way that it's worked too is we don't like, it's not like I do, I work on part of it and I send it to him and he works on something.

We really do own our own kind of projects and, um, if something comes in that I'm like, oh, this is definitely a Ryan project, he'll just handle the whole thing and then vice versa. Um, but at this point we work with like three or four different artists at Invisible Creature. Um, I am kind of, uh, I guess my title would be more like principal these days, but we, we have [00:30:00] kind of so much, um, a lot of retainer work and a lot of different corporate work that we, there's just no way we could do it all.

So, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's kind of become like a, uh, a, a little operation organically, basically, where I, you know, we're kind of navigating, um, different projects. Um. All the time. And so, uh, yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's, we, we kind of know each other well enough now that, um, well forever that it kind of just like organically turned into like, oh, you like to do this, you do this, vice versa.

So,

Matt: Yeah, that totally makes sense. There's a fancy schmancy restaurant in Seattle called Canlis.

What was your involvement with that? I.

Don: So I

Matt: as like the design and,

Don: yeah. So I've been art director for Canlis for 10 years, which is crazy. Um, uh. So anything that has to do with graphic design, illustration, events, objects, um, I kind of oversee all that, the creative direction though really, I give all the credit to the Canlis Brothers and they're the, they're the ones that like, come up with these amazing ideas, these amazing events, um, objects, just things, things with the company.

And then they really give me a ton of freedom to just go do, go do stuff. So Brian Canlis, uh, one of the brothers actually just recently left, uh, the restaurant, so it's owned now by Mark and his family. Um, and, uh, they're just dear, dear friends, and actually I've, I've met so many amazing people through them that so much of our work now.

Is you could actually trace it back to the Canlis Brothers. In fact, I would, I would say like 80% of our work now. So, um, it's crazy how it went from like [00:32:00] punk rock to, you know, illustration to now we're working in like fine dining and food and beverage and, um, I work with, you know, Lamar Socos a, a big client of ours and you know, they make amazing espresso machines in Italy.

And so it's just, it's this been again riding the wave of like, okay, like, you know, this is what's, this is what's happening. So, yeah. Um, Canlis is awesome.

Matt: Yeah, that's, uh, it's quite the experience. I've only been there once. You know, it's a definitely a, uh,

Don: It's a special place and I wouldn't be able to afford to eat there, so it's okay. I, I, I can only go there 'cause of them, so

Matt: Oh man. Yeah.

Don: nice.

Matt: it, it was a amazing experience and it's, it's so cool to think back and now like, oh, Don had something to do with the, the vibe of our whole experience, you know, which is great. How does a physical space influence your design and how you approach it?

Don: Um, yeah, that's a fully, you know, subconscious thing where, uh, and I won't take credit for anything inside Kali. That is all, you know, Roland Terry and the brother, the, the, the original architect and the Kalis brother is, and the Kalis family. But, you know, my office is, you know, I designed it in a way that is like open and inspiring and I've got stuff to look at and, you know, it's, um, I'm definitely not a, I'm not a expert in any of that stuff, but I do think there's something really.

Um, crucial about if you're working in a created atmosphere. Um, you know, the wor my idea of a nightmare is like working in your bedroom in the corner on a laptop, you know, and the lights are off. Like, so that's the wor like, you know, some people can do it. I just, I kind of need to be surrounded by like, uh, you know, magic, um, to just try, you know, just to kind of like inspire even in front of me.

I've got, like, I've got collectibles all over on my desk and stuff, so I'm kind of the [00:34:00] extreme when it comes to like, uh, you know, creative spaces. I do love just very minimalistic, you know, modern, uh, spaces as well. My, my wife and I love architecture. Um, but, uh, yeah, the Canlis Pro, I mean, Canlis is one of those things where it's this amazing structure, this beautiful, you know, designed restaurant, and then it just, they just happen to have these amazing people that like.

Own it and work there and have all these cool ideas. So it's like this major home run where it's like we get to use the restaurant as like, uh, a muse and as an object and as a character. We've done like Lego canvas, we've done wooden canvases, you know, we've done all these different versions of the restaurant, um, because it is so iconic, especially in the city.

Um, and even like Cama, I, you know, was able to work on that big rebranding in 2014 and it, it was like this amazing heritage and, and logo that I got to work, work with and this, you know, essentially like these giant blank canvases, um, downtown Seattle that I, we were able to play with. So, yeah, I like working with kind of these heritage companies that have been around forever with these, with amazing legacies, has been like so fun.

'cause I just kind of get to, you know, dig into the, into the past, but also like, what would it look like, you know, if we kind of modernize things and. So, yeah. Yeah, it's been cool.

Matt: that is very cool. ,

 In, in our situation, like we design icons. So good design is going to communicate something. Um, hopefully they'll, it'll do it in an artistic playful way

Matt: you just kind of know what comes next, but you don't have to like cognitively really think about it. And it, it kind of, um, struck me that you are. The name Invisible Creature. I don't know if there's a connection here or not. Um, you're saying invisible creature. I'm thinking [00:36:00] about design in a sense of being invisible.

Uh, where, where am I going with this? Um, images are, they're often anonymous. Um, but how does it feel to people like you and Ryan? There's probably like, not a week goes by where there's not some invisible creature design in front of me.

Don: Yeah. That's awesome.

Matt: And, and, and what, and what is that like to kind of be anonymous?

Like when is it appropriate for a designer to sort of have, uh, credit And I'm not quite, I'm not quite sure what my, my question is

Don: Yeah. No, that's actually you're, no, it's, it's awesome. I, we, when we came up with the name, it was a few different reasons, but you are tapping into like the biggest one, which was we felt like we were often like the invisible or the fifth member of the band because we were creating like the first thing that people see, if they're not hearing the band for the first time, this is the first thing they're seeing and no one cares who did the art.

They're just like, okay, it's Nirvana, nevermind, or whatever. It's like this, this awesome cover. No one cares who did it, except for people that get, that are into that stuff. So. That was one reason. The other reason too is like, we wanted a, we wanted a mascot. So we wanted, like this creature, we were, we loved Thrasher Magazine and Love Alpha Alta, all these old skateboarding, you know, uh, companies and how you could send in a dollar and get these random skull stickers.

You know, it's like we wanted to have this creature that was like, we could just riff off forever and have different takes on him and whether it's on a shirt or a toy or whatever. And so, and we didn't want to have like, the words design studio or agency. We wanted to be this kind of like ambiguous weird, like what is invisible creature?

Although honest answer is, it could be anything we want it to be. If I wanna make a chair, it's gonna come from, if I wanna make a movie. It's like, so I didn't, we didn't want to limit ourselves. Um. [00:38:00] It's also a little biblical. The image of the firstborn, the invisible creature that's like an actual, you know, it's in, it's in uh, uh, scripture.

And so there's all this like, stuff that was like, oh dude, and it wasn't taken. That's the biggest thing. I was like, this, this name isn't taken. Um, so yeah, you, you hit it on the head though. It is like, perfect example actually is I was in Newark, New Jersey watching this seven story concrete mural that I designed, get installed at the airport, and it's this major multimillion dollar thing that's going in.

And there's all these guys out there, um, you know, in Jersey putting up the, you know, all these trades guys and we're, I'm just out there like hamming it up with them or just talking or whatever. And I was out there for like four days and we were filming and, you know, this has never been done before.

There isn't like a, a, a. ball relief created with a CNC machine that's ever been made this large. And so we kinda like broke some records with this thing. Anyways, I'm like on cloud nine and the dude is, um, one dude comes up, he's like, so what are you out here for? And I was like, oh, I'm, I'm, I designed this, uh, the mural that you guys are installing.

And he, he like, looks at it and he is like, huh, I didn't even notice any art. No one's gonna look at this, man. They're not gonna even notice this. And I, and it was so, he was so right because like, most people are not gonna care. And it's like when it, it, like, it goes right into our name, into our name. It's like, you know, some, someone paid us to do this.

Someone put a ton of money into this because they wanted to see art on these walls and this guy's like, no one's gonna look at this. So it's like, it was like, you know, it's perfect. Um,

Matt: Oh, that's funny.

Don: so yeah, dude, it plays right into that.

Matt: well, my first question is how does it feel? How did it feel for somebody to say that? Did it feel like, Ooh, ouch.

Don: laughed. No, I just [00:40:00] laughed. It takes more to like get me, you know, bummed. But like, it, to me it's a, it's a, it's funny and it's also just like a reflection of kind of like Joe Public, you know? Of course they're not gonna like, you know, so

Matt: But you know, it's also true that when you're in a really sterile environment, I think most people I would think are gonna take notice of that. Like, ugh, what a drab. Boring environment, but when you're in an environment where there's architecture that's interesting and um, there's a flow to it, there's something visually

Don: mm-hmm.

Matt: Um, they may not say, wow, look at that ma, amazing installment right there, but they're gonna have an experience. You know? That's what's so great. That's what's so great about good design is that it is like, it's almost like helping to create an experience and an aesthetic in the space that you're in, you know?

Don: Totally. And I love, I love that in-between area that you just described, which is, I can't necessarily articulate how I feel about something, but it makes me feel a certain way. And it's, that's, that's the beauty of, of design. I mean, it goes, you, it's used in film all the time where it's like, you know, we spend all this time on making this one shot look seamless or you know, whether it's CGI and like we want, we wanna make sure that it doesn't take you outta the film and you don't go, your brain's not subconsciously telling you that this is CGI.

It's like that, that's great design because it did its job and it's in the background. And, um, I think that's, that's the beauty of the beauty of design is that it's objective, uh, in that way, whereas art is subjective. And so I guess I like, I like living in that kind of, um, the objective sandbox, I guess, and going okay.

You know, um, yeah.

Matt: I love that

Don: It's a cool place to live. Yeah,

Matt: um. [00:42:00] So at Fawn, awesome. Actually, we, you know, of course we create these tiny little symbols that, you know, like we were talking about, there's, it's a tiny little thing, tiny little canvas hopefully is conveying a lot of meaning in just a few pixels, you know? Your work is on a more expansive canvas and, um, but you're distilling really big ideas into tight visuals too.

How do you approach that shorthand?

Don: We approach almost every project differently because they all, well, most of them have a different audience, or they're, they have a different, you know, um, there's a different job that they do or they, you know, um, so, and, and then I think that like the, one of the, one of the ways in which we're successful at going about these is like, Ryan and I just consume so much art, and we have kids and we live in that world where, you know, we're we, you know, we kind of like know, have our hands in a lot of different things.

So, um, I guess like, to answer your question, it's like my first thing is like, okay, who's gonna see this? What's this for? Uh, you know, is this a, um, is this a stamp project? You know, like we, we did, we've done stamps for the post office, which are really special. And I love, I love the tiny, um. Real estate that we, that we play in and like, what does this look like at stamp size?

And it's gotta like, you know, convey a, it has to kind of tell a story in like a really tiny size. And so there's that, and then there's like, we do these huge murals and like, those are extremely fun to do. I mean, there's, every artist wants to see their stuff large. It's like a, it's a such a cool thing.

And so, um, you know, so every project is different just based on what the scope, like what is the, what's the intended, uh, final execution of this thing, you know, [00:44:00] um, I illustrated at Children's Bible and obviously that's like, okay, what do I, what would I want to see as like a modern children's bible? And, um, what is the stuff that I gravitate towards stylistically and what's out there in the marketplace?

Like, we're, that's also another thing is like, what, what's like, I guess the competition. What are, what are, what are they doing? Um, if you go to a bookstore and you kind of go to that, you know. That section, what are those books like, look like? So kind of like do that in every facet of, of design and kind of, um, try to do a, you know, a a decent amount of research on, on kind of like the world that we're entering if we don't know too much about it.

But, um, yeah, it all kind of just, they're all different. We do kind of like pitch the same though, like, we'll a lot, most times we'll pitch sketches, you know, just like a rough sketch. Um, and we'll do two, maybe three of each thing of, uh, for each client and kind of just go from there. But that's also just like after 25 years, we're able to kind of like, streamline the process of like, okay, here's our best effort, you know, and we're gonna, we're gonna show you, we're gonna put everything we got into this, like one idea.

And then also here's, here's another one we kind of like, you know, but you know, there, there's, if you present option paralysis to the client, it's, it, it. Becomes a problem for both of us. You know,

Matt: Yeah.

Don: there's the idea that they can just riff off forever and go, what if we mix 1, 2, 5? And so, you know, um, and then the, inevitably they always pick the one we like the least.

So, we, we try to, you know, we try to keep it to like stuff we just love and that we've kind of like, we really believe in. So,

Matt: Yeah. That's great, man.

Don, I really appreciate you taking the time. It's really fun to get caught up and, uh. Just to hear you riff on this stuff. Um, it's, I love that I can be out and about and I see invisible creature [00:46:00] designed stuff almost anywhere I go.

It's

Don: That's awesome. That's awesome, dude, that, that like means so much. So yeah, it was a blast talking to you and catching up, man. It's been, it is been too long.

Matt: Yeah. Likewise. Thanks Don.

Don: All right, bro, thank you.

Matt: Man, what, what a cool conversation. Um, I just wanna thank Don for taking some time out of his busy schedule to talk with me. I'm so inspired by the invisible creature story and reminded that if you're willing to ride the wave of what comes your way in your career, you can wind up in some pretty awesome places.

And if you're interested, you can listen to a longer sort of uncut version of this conversation on YouTube where we get a little bit more into music culture stuff and how the design and and music world come together and it has sort of fed his creativity.

And we even drop a few Metallica jokes in there too. So it might be worth your while.

as always. Podcast Awesome. Was produced and edited by this guy right here, Matt Johnson. The podcast awesome theme song was composed by Ronnie Martin. The music interstitials were done by Zach Mom and audio mastering was done by Chris Ends at Lemon Productions.


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Matt Johnson

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Jory Raphael

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