OPTION-G VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Cole Gerst - Art Direction | Design | Illustration
Cole Gerst / Option-G
I am an art director, designer, illustrator and author living and working in Portland, Oregon. After attending the Atlanta College of Art, I worked as Art Director for a few record labels designing packaging, posters, advertising and merchandise for a variety of bands. From there I became the first in-house Art Director for the House of Blues Corporation where I was tasked with a total rebrand of the company. I left after a few years to create my own boutique agency, Option-G Visual Communication, and landed clients such as Google, Nike, Toyota, Heineken, Vans, Nickelodeon, Target, Urban Outfitters, American Express, MSN Music & Disney to name a few. I have worked directly with agencies such as Wieden & Kennedy, TBWA/Chiat/Day, DDB, BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi, Ziba, Grady Britton & Carbon Smolan.
For several years I created custom posters for bands where I began to develop my own illustrative style. I was tapped to create posters for bands such as Beck, Modest Mouse, The Shins, Iggy Pop, David Byrne, Interpol, Fleet Foxes, Ryan Adams & TV On The Radio to name a few. I branched out from there by creating my own t-shirt company, Option-G Apparel, which I ran for several years. It was sold worldwide to small boutiques as well as larger retail chains.
My love of telling a good story led me to start creating animated original content for the web. I soon landed a cartoon series on The Sundance Channel entitled Yung Yeti. The story was about about a Yeti and his raccoon friend trying to save the world from an evil wolf-robot hybrid. After Yung Yeti I created another series for The Sundance Channel entitled DreamStates, in which notable personalities were interviewed about an impactful dream they had. Their dreams were then animated using their own dialogue and story. A few of the episodes created featured Questlove, Will Forte & Sebastian Junger. I also created an animated short for Nickelodeon's Yo Gabba Gabba show and several animations for Good Magazine & Pitchfork.
In 2013 I illustrated and wrote the book, Buckminster Fuller: Poet of Geometry, which was successfully crowd-funded on Kickstarter and was then picked up by a publisher and is now in it's second printing.
A few career highlights have been winning multiple awards for my design work from Print Magazine, How Magazine & Communication Arts. I have also won a Rosey Award for my animation for Pitchfork featuring Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia/Sleater-Kinney). The series DreamStates I created won a Webby Award and was an official Vimeo Award Nominee. Last year I was a speaker at both the ICON Conference & Design Week Portland.
In 2015 I created and launched the product design company North For The Summer, focusing on products such as lighting and home accessories. The concept for the company is to create pieces that blur the line between functional objects and art.
I'm always seeking companies that want to develop their brand, people who want to tell their stories, and collaborators that want to make something beautiful. Feel free to contact me if this is you.