About Wood Box
How it started
The name Wood Box was a brand name I made for myself when I was around 7 years old. I grew up in a small country town in Australia called Stanthorpe which is located on the Granite Belt in Queensland. On weekends at home, I would create comic books to pass the time and even back then I knew branding was important. So whenever I finished a comic, I would write "Wood Box Comics Inc" on the back. I chose the name because all of my creative endeavours as a child were completed on top of a wooden box that my Dad built to keep the fire wood in. That box became my desk and is truly the birthplace of my creativity.
Eventually the time came for 18 year old me to decide what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. A question that is just insane to ask any 18 year old let alone one as clueless as me. After deciding that university wasn’t for me, I started looking into creative TAFE courses. This is when I moved from the small country town to the big smoke that is Brisbane City. There, I began my advanced diploma in screen and media animation. During this time, I continued to develop the Wood Box brand, while starting to refine my art style. This is also where that creative whimsy started to come into play and I developed my first character, Jet Muffin. I could explain him, but that would take too long.
Time for a change
After graduating with my advanced diploma, I struggled to find a practical application for my newly developed skills. It turns out that there weren’t many junior animation work opportunities in Brisbane. Go figure. So after a few years of working various warehousing jobs and contemplating that question I struggled to answer when I was 18, I decided to give university a crack. “A good old college try” as it were. I landed on visual communication design as I figured it would be a practical addition to the skills I already had.
Adding it all together
During my time at university, I learned how to take my wild ideas and form them into refined versions that could be practically applied in a professional environment. One of my first classes had me design a logo for myself, this was when Wood Box had its rebirth. I find it fascinating to compare that logo I designed in my first year vs the current logo featured on this website. The difference between them is a visual representation of how my design skills developed over the years of study and will continue to develop throughout my career.