It started with a simple truth: I hate posing for photos. Smiling on command? Hard pass. But I still wanted to show up in pictures from my travels, just on my own terms. So instead of grinning awkwardly at the camera, I started playing dead. Face-down, zero expression, maximum drama.
A few dead pics with friends, then a few more on solo trips, then friends started joining in. What began around 2003 eventually went on an unplanned hiatus during the planking epidemic, which, for the record, was lame and cost me some truly great dead photo opportunities. 😄😭
But the bit has been resurrected and rebranded: welcome to the DeadFriends Travel Club.
Reviving this project also meant building the site from scratch, which turned into its own kind of fun. Shaking the rust off HTML, JS, and CSS while finding excuses to experiment with illustration, video, and audio along the way. It's been less of a portfolio piece and more of a playground, and that's exactly what it needed to be.
DeadFriends Travel Club
Client: DeadFriends Travel Club
Art Direction, Art, Content, Contributor, Creative Direction, Digital, Illustration, Ideation, Video, Social, Production
Content | Website | Illustration | Motion | Branding
Various Contributors
DeadFriends Travel Club
Client: DeadFriends Travel Club
Art Direction, Art, Content, Contributor, Creative Direction, Digital, Illustration, Ideation, Video, Social, Production
Various Contributors
Content | Website | Illustration | Motion | Branding
It started with a simple truth: I hate posing for photos. Smiling on command? Hard pass. But I still wanted to show up in pictures from my travels, just on my own terms. So instead of grinning awkwardly at the camera, I started playing dead. Face-down, zero expression, maximum drama.
A few dead pics with friends, then a few more on solo trips, then friends started joining in. What began around 2003 eventually went on an unplanned hiatus during the planking epidemic, which, for the record, was lame and cost me some truly great dead photo opportunities. 😄😭
But the bit has been resurrected and rebranded: welcome to the DeadFriends Travel Club.
Reviving this project also meant building the site from scratch, which turned into its own kind of fun. Shaking the rust off HTML, JS, and CSS while finding excuses to experiment with illustration, video, and audio along the way. It's been less of a portfolio piece and more of a playground, and that's exactly what it needed to be.
It started with a simple truth: I hate posing for photos. Smiling on command? Hard pass. But I still wanted to show up in pictures from my travels, just on my own terms. So instead of grinning awkwardly at the camera, I started playing dead. Face-down, zero expression, maximum drama.
A few dead pics with friends, then a few more on solo trips, then friends started joining in. What began around 2003 eventually went on an unplanned hiatus during the planking epidemic, which, for the record, was lame and cost me some truly great dead photo opportunities. 😄😭
But the bit has been resurrected and rebranded: welcome to the DeadFriends Travel Club.
Reviving this project also meant building the site from scratch, which turned into its own kind of fun. Shaking the rust off HTML, JS, and CSS while finding excuses to experiment with illustration, video, and audio along the way. It's been less of a portfolio piece and more of a playground, and that's exactly what it needed to be.
