Yep, This is Me.

As you might guess from the domain my name is Dustin Wilson. I personally describe myself as a graphic artist as I can not only design but illustrate. I hail from swelteringly muggy West Monroe, Louisiana, but don’t let that stop you from reading ahead. I mostly keep my website dehumidified.

My youth was spent doodling in three-subject notebooks. I was born with the bug, so to speak. I became interested in graphic design when my father bought an Apple Macintosh II in 1988 with what was then called Aldus Freehand and later Adobe Photoshop.

“It’s the Web, Stupid.”

While I have done everything from conventional print design to screen printing to desktop application design my real passion lies with the Web. From the moment I first used a Web browser I’ve been hooked. I was involved in the Web standards movement in the late nineties and early aughts, building my websites while adhering to standards when it wasn’t cool. I was outspoken when standards were being ignored, and I cheered when progress was made. Browsers improved their standards support. We won the browser wars. Things have changed. When we got what we wanted we shut down our blogs and diverted our attention toward social media and mobile phone applications. This has been disastrous for the Web.

I’m not guilty of giving up on the Web. I saw the phone application gold rush for what it was: a fad. However, I’ve been guilty of giving up on blogging. In the previous incarnation of this website I wrote that I was going to write about design and my illustrations. I didn’t even write much on that because personal issues prevented me from doing so. I gave up writing about technology and the Web because I felt as if there were better people out there than me to write about it. Now there are few people writing about it at all — especially from a designer’s perspective. There needs to be a new Web standards movement. I want to resume writing about Web technology in addition to whatever else interests me so I can play my very small part in making that happen.

I have made numerous failed attempts at this in the past. It’s been a frustrating few years, but I am still trying.

Happy Little Trees

My other passion is illustration, specifically painting illustrations whether digitally or traditionally. I have drawn for as long as I can remember, doodling in notebooks. I have been illustrating on the computer since the early 1990’s producing work for screen printed t-shirts and paper printing even when I was in grade school, but it really took off when I purchased my first Wacom tablet in 1998. Most of my illustrations these days are digital, but recently I have taken up traditional painting again, primarily using casein paint.

I have long admired James Gurney, and the title of his instructional book Imaginative Realism describes perfectly what I try to achieve in my paintings/illustrations. I prefer drawing or painting in a more realistic style, but I am capable of other styles as evidenced in some of my work.

Privacy

My privacy policy is pretty simple. I do not collect any information on you whatsoever. I do not even collect stats on who visits my website. The Web has become a surveillance platform where everyone’s movements from website to website are monitored and stored by companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google. I find the practice reprehensible, so I don’t use any those methods on my own website. I value my own privacy and therefore the privacy of those who visit this website.

Need Something?

I’m currently seeking both long and short term projects.

Please use this contact form below to inquire about projects or to contact me for any other reason. My selected work is viewable on this website.