Art director for the iconic and norms-breaking show Rick and Morty, alongside films like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and both Spider-Verse instalments, Jeffrey Thomson is one of those artists we can’t wait to pick the brains of. And this spring we’ll finally get our chance to do so, because he is coming to The Art Department Eindhoven!
Originally from Toronto, Canada, Jeffrey now lives and works in L.A. in the animation industry. His clients list feature Netflix, Sony, Adult Swim, Disney, Passion Pictures, Blue Sky, Reel FX, Hornet Inc and Vice among others.
Jeffrey got his start in animation studying in Canada at Sheridan College. From there he worked his way to Los Angeles through Disney, and television projects such as Rick and Morty, eventually transitioning to feature film for Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse. For this project he contributed a variety of design work, ranging from background and character paintings, to 2-D animation.
In addition to his designs, he was also asked to contribute as the art director of marketing for the film where he directed the films vis dev artists and the CG artists at Sony ImageWorks to create art for billboards, commercials, posters etc.
Since then, he has gone back and forth between film and television on a number of projects such as Inside Job (Netflix), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Paramount), and Across the Spider-Verse (Sony).
Jeffrey is currently freelancing as a visual development artist on a feature film for Netflix Animation. We are so very excited to learn more about his works and process!