Emily the Strange® is a fictional character, 1990s/2000s goth pop culture icon, and lifestyle brand created by artist Rob Reger and developed with many artistic collaborators through the Cosmic Debris art department. Emily’s first appearance was as a skateboard graphic in the early 1990s.

I first met Rob when he was the teaching assistant for my Etching II class with Larry Thomas at the San Francisco Art Institute. A few years after graduating, he convinced me to join his T-shirt company, Cosmic Debris, to help develop the character. I became the first artist dedicated to Emily the Strange.

For the first three years, the art department was just the three of us: Rob, myself, and the wonderful Noël Tolentino (creator of Bunnyhop magazine, Yum Pop, and Bon Bon).

As the brand expanded, we hired illustrators and designers, and my role shifted to art director, together. During this time, Rob and I also co-developed Oopsy Daisy and Boyz on Da Run. The physical toll of constant Adobe Illustrator work on my hands, arms, and wrists forced me to step away in 2006. I also wanted to reinvent myself and explore other creative avenues, which lead to the formation of Smokey’s Tangle.

Thirteen years later, in 2019, I returned to working with Rob and the character, creating new designs based on years of existing artwork. In 2021, I began collaborating with artist Emily Wick on stop-motion paper cut out animations, which I then translated to stop-motion using Adobe Illustrator to generate the images.

 2019-2023    2002-2006    1999-2001

The character’s popularity exploded when Chronicle Books published a series of story books and full line of stationery. The brand was soon also a fixture at Hot Topic.

2002-2006

In 2003 I took on the role of an Art Director as we hired more artists. By 2006 I was so burned out and over worked as the brand had expanded and the back end work was just too much. So I stepped away from the company, to take a break.