In 2017 I started volunteering for 826CHI, a non-profit writing, reading and publishing center for Chicago students. Demo Duck has offered me some exciting opportunities to champion the organization in the form of a pro bono content development partnership.

For our first project, we decided to turn a student piece into a short video. We decided on "She'Cago," a poem written by a teen writer named Izzy about our beautiful and complex city. The video is highlighted by Izzy's reading of the poem, which is full of emotion and confidence. My friend and bandmate Adam Wiebe, who is a producer at Earhole Studios, allowed us to host Izzy and the 826CHI team for a fun and memorable recording session. 

For the follow-up to “She’Cago,” we brought another young writer’s poem to life titled “Finger Paintings.” Isabella wrote a beautiful piece on her changing relationship with creativity throughout her life. Man, oh man, did it turn out beautiful. Switching up our production process from “She’Cago, we actually recorded Isabella’s reading of the piece before the animation stage, which allowed us to set up the flow of the piece to emotive tone and cadence of her reading. The creative publication It’s Nice That featured the piece and interviewed me about it too.

We’ve also worked on a variety of other projects for 826CHI, including designing Instagram content and a series of animated GIFs. One of my favorites was this short animated video we created to help promote their Student Writing Delivery Service. By being a monthly donor to 826CHI, you can have the work of brilliant young authors delivered to your doorstep. We decided to create a video that captures this experience in a magical, colorful way. 

I stepped out of my typical writer duties and produced both of these videos. It was a great experience and I learned a lot about the full video production process, including sound design.

She’Cago Credits

Agency: Demo Duck
Producer: Jarrett Hothan
Art Director, Design & Storyboards: Rohan McDonald
Creative Lead: Colin Hogan
Voiceover Recording: Earhole Studios
Lead Animator: Carolina Lopez Corominas
Assistant Cel Animator: Rohan MacDonald
Sound Design: Sono Sanctus

Delivery Service Credits

Client: 826CHI
Agency: Demo Duck
Producer: Jarrett Hothan
Art Director: Laetitia Auguste
Design: Rohan McDonald
Animation: Duo Team
Sound Design: Parlante Sound (Humberto Corte)

Finger Paintings Credits

Agency: Demo Duck
Client: 826CHI
Writer and VO: Isabela
Producer: Jarrett Hothan
Producer: Tinbit Asfaw
Production Coordinator: Colin Hogan
Art Director, Storyboards, Design and Animation: Ossian Mendoza
Art Director, Storyboards, Design and Animation: Aimé DeLattre
Animator: Rohan McDonald
Recording Engineer and Sound Design: Nick Roth