Above: Excerpts from a storyboard I produced for Sharp Electronics, for an animated multimedia presentation on kiosks in the lobby of its new Osaka, Japan world headquarters, and beyond. Details here.
Overview
I am a visual thinker and communicator, specializing in converting complex and controversial data and perspectives into formats that are understandable and persuasive to the largest possible audience. Scroll down to the Table of Contents for details.
My work has spanned designing and directing the production of animations and visualizations for:
- Southeast Asian TV commercials and programs
- Law firms that are engaged in high-value litigation
- Public video and software presentations for large corporations, including Intel and Sharp Electronics
- Skills training software programs
My core skill set includes production and storyboard design, and general creative direction and consulting. When coupled with my deep experience in wordsmithing for narrative and written presentations, I possess a unique, integrated range of abilities for my clients to access.
Here is a sampling of my work in animation & visualization design, from 1990-2015; see the links to each project below:
Key
Top: Japan Industrial Journal: “Scientific Instruments Show Japan” mapping kiosk (detail)
Right 1: SOFTWIND, Ltd. “The SWL-7” explanatory animation (detail)
Right 2: Intel: “Freedom” corporate video (detail)
Bottom: Japanese TV commercial sequence: “The Birth Of Marine” TV (detail)
Left 1: Premises liability litigation: Hole in asphalt (detail)
Left 2: Wrongful death litigation – auto accident (detail)
9/11: I redirected my life to advocate for and defend freedom
9/11 changed everything for me, personally and professionally. Since then, I have worked as much as possible to conceive of and design serious and funny visualization-based presentations that support my top mission – to:
- Champion and defend freedom
- Expose the ideologies that are at war with freedom
- Are understandable and persuasive to the widest possible audience
Above: An independent infographic report I produced in October 2024, that visually depicts America’s rapidly-escalating march to financial suicide, here. This was one of a series of 30 infographic reports I produced shortly before the 2024 US election, the “2024 Fact Check” (see the complete directory here).
My next frontier: VR
The next step in my professional evolution will be to apply my skills within the VR realm. Towards this end, I have now completed:
- A proposal to create a pilot first-person educational VR app, that depicts what a unique Jewish Holocaust survivor experienced in an array of Nazis murder camps
- Developing the conceptual framework for an educational VR app that uses a proprietary, integrated series of concept-visualization tools to depict the life of an individual under various political-social-economic systems — physically, economically, intellectually and socially. It is based, in part, on a graphic I was challenged to produce in 2011, by a philanthropist who’d rejected me; see: “The Choice”: A graphic means to explain freedom vs tyranny to American teenage girls.
Contents
(1) A sampling of client and employer raves
(2) Animation design & directorial demo reel (early)
(3) Partial major project/client list
(4) Portfolio excerpts
(5) My background: A lifetime of visual thinking and expressiveness
(1) A sampling of client and employer raves
My clients and employers have raved about my performance, and the results my work has yielded. A sampling:
“We cannot be happier with the quality of the animations you produced for us. (They will) help tremendously in this national litigation and I expect juries will relate well, regardless of their geographic location.”
– Samuel L. Tarry, Jr., Partner, McGuire Woods (one of the world’s largest law firms), Richmond, VA
“The animation storyboards and key visualizations you designed were exactly what we needed. When we began working together, you suggested creating an all-in-one solution to our global communications needs that would allow us to explain our unique windmill technology, how it is assembled, and how and why it works, regardless of language and cultural barriers. […] Your skills in visualization and analysis are truly remarkable…”
– William Welch, Vice President – Development, SOFTWIND, Ltd., Scottsdale, AZ
“The power of our [training] program far surpasses any training product I have ever seen. The comprehensive quality of the creative consulting, script writing and storyboard design services that Rainbow provided to us were fundamental to creating training materials that brought our program concepts to life, and made the learning process fun and efficient. Congratulations on a job well done.”
– John Picardi, Chief Operating Officer, Lodgistix-HMS, Scottsdale, AZ
“Even though your office in Arizona was far away, you always made sure that we had innovative, high quality, and well-thought-out storyboards, presentations, and animation plans, delivered on-time. Your creativity and dedication have been instrumental in helping us to grow from a new shop to a $2 million-per-year contender in this extremely competitive market.”
– Kevin Meyerson, President, Rainbow Japan, Inc. Tokyo, Japan (Note: I was employed as the Creative Director of the US branch, Rainbow Multimedia Group, Phoenix, AZ)
“You undertook this difficult task and, working under a very tight deadline, produced graphical depictions of the mechanical components that very accurately show their functions and operating ranges. The federal judge deemed them reliable and, in a startling courtroom admission, Ford’s own expert acknowledged their accuracy and effectiveness. This is a tribute to your quick grasp of the specifications and your tireless work in getting the job done.”
– Edgar F. Heiskell III, attorney, Michie Hamlett Lowry Rasmussen & Tweel, Charlottesville, VA
“Jon’s graphics, insight, and willingness to go the extra mile were second to none. He was able to comprehend a difficult fact pattern and illustrate the scenario in a method that was both easy to follow and efficient. His input and work product made all the difference in settlement negotiations. We hope to have a long-standing relationship with Jon in the future. He was a pleasure to work with, and I would highly recommend his services.”
– Eric Yost, Marks & Harrison, Charlottesville, VA (one of Virginia’s largest personal injury firms)
“The work you did on this case has been extremely effective in presenting our arguments, in such a way as to take viewers ‘inside’ our client’s home-studio, to ‘see’ for themselves what we allege occurred. Particularly in regards to the 3D graphics, they were just spectacular, and worked well for us.”
– Jonathan Wren, Martin & Raynor, Charlottesville, VA
(2) Animation design & directorial demo reel (early)
This 3:15 demo reel covers the period 1990-1998, depicting my early work in animation design and direction. Below are links to the storyboards for many of the projects depicted here.
(3) Partial major project/client list
My skills have been applied to 3D animation/visualization projects for organizations throughout the U.S. and Southeast Asia, including:
- Intel: “Freedom” promotional video for its newest product, the first generation of wireless modems for portable devices
- Sharp Electronics: “Future Lab” educational multimedia program
- McGuire Woods: 3D animations to help this top-20 law firm defend the “Big 3” U.S. auto makers against a class action
- Lodgistix-HMS: Script-storyboards for the hospitality industry’s first CD-ROM based multimedia training program
- EMCI-Wembley Japan: The 3D animated opening sequence for an “American Bandstand”-style Japanese TV show, “Juliana’s Tokyo Live!”
- SAMS Publishing: Visualization design and ancillary written content for the book-CD project,“Becoming A Computer Artist”
- SGS-Thomson Microelectronics: Visualization design for SGSTM’s trade show kiosk, “Transputers and Disk Arrays”
- SOFTWIND: 3D animation storyboards for this a manufacturer of high-tech water pumping windmills
- Numerous Southeast Asian advertising agencies, TV producers and corporations
(4) Portfolio excerpts
See my complete portfolio at:
Jon Sutz – Animation Storyboarding Design Portfolio
Intel: “Freedom”
My challenge: To consult on, write the script, and design the storyboards for a 3D-animated video for Intel, to introduce the world the first line of wireless modems for portable computers.
The result: See here.
SOFTWIND: “Introducing the SWL-7”
My challenge: To consult on and design storyboards for 3D animations that depict the construction and operation of a new, patented, hyper-efficient water-pumping windmill.
The result: See here.
Kibun Chemfia CC: “The Birth Of Marine”
My challenge: To figure out a way to visually depict the desire expressed by the client, a Southeast Asian maker of “Kibun,” an artificial crab meat product, to see the package being “born out of the water,” for a TV commercial. (Above: Top row contains excerpts from my storyboard, below is the finished animation)
The result: See here.
(5) My background: A lifetime of visual thinking and expressiveness
As a toddler, I was mesmerized by animations, and later, video games. The classic Disney films, and even the animated TV serials I grew up with (Speed Racer, anyone?), represented a unique form of freedom to me, as a budding artist, and as one who was enduring an extremely traumatic childhood.
One early indication of my aptitude for this work was in junior high school, I was trying to understand a chemistry lesson, and the various visual aides the teacher was using. I suggested that several of them could be combined into one, that explained things in what amounted to three dimensions, to produce an at-a-glance way of understanding it. He said it would be impossible to do so, and gave a few reasons why. A few days later, however, I showed him a basic design, and he admitted that it would be a far more efficient way of explaining the data.
As my drawing and creative skills evolved, I dreamed of someday learning to design animations, but had an array of significant obstacles to overcome in order to become qualified to earn my living at it. I had no idea how long or difficult a journey it would be, to break into the highly-competitive field, with no money, very little formal education, and other significant obstacles.
The struggle was worth it. For me, nothing compares to the exhilaration of being able to turn a blank sheet of paper it into the blueprint for an animation/visualization design sequence that solves a difficult communications problem, and seeing the delight on a viewer’s face as they appreciate the end result.
My highest aspiration is to design 3D and VR-based “knowledge tools” regarding complex and controversial subject matter, that produce “A-HA!” moments in the minds of the target audience — when they truly grasp the essence of a concept or fact-set that they thought was too difficult for them to understand.