Topher Davila

About Topher Davila

I am a storyteller, cat herder, and illustrator and love to solve problems. Whether it’s illustration, animation, writing or producing I love to tell stories. I am also an illustrator who loves the challenge of capturing the world, its people, and its emotions and distilling that into a feeling on a page. Oddly enough I’m also able to organize people and all facets of a project or production from small to large from short to long term plans. I also love working with problems and it took me a while to find out that the ability to work around, though, with, turn upside down or inside out a challenge and end up with a solution that helped everyone was something unique as it comes naturally to me. With this unique mix of talents I’ve ended up with my hands in a few cookie jars in various kinds of media. While I always welcome new creative endevours from garment design to producing to illustration, my current goals for the next season in my life is to trade in my self-employed status for a position working for a company with a creative product. I come with a variety of experience in a few fields and hope to find a company position where I can apply my skills in a position where my talents for organizing, creating, planning & problem solving can be an asset.

Experience

1. Creator & Co-organizer Full Time Work on a Part Time Schedule Speaking Group

   OR

   Jul 2007 — Present

   The Full Time / Part Time group started out a panel for San Diego Comic Con 7 years ago and grew from there into a group of rotating panelists that have had a panel as a wide variety of conventions. As the topics covered is a symbiotic relationship to that conventions audience and a wide topic to address a lot of information there has never been a lack of information to cover. About the group: This panel we usually do presents the vital basics of group management and networking as base concepts so covered topics apply to literally and group with a goal from hobbiest to professional purposes as well as any interest of geek or creative culture. Having a goal, a good idea, discipline and skills is only the start of what you need for your project to succeed. Knowing the basics of group dynamics, forming then working with a group without mortally wounding each other is THE difference between success or failure of your projects, and possibly friendships also. No matter which industry (comics, illustration, TV/movies/web series, Webcomics, design, animation, costuming / cosplay, blogging), “breaking in” has never been more apt a term than in today\'s media. It is a full-time job and you only have part-time hours to accomplish it. To be completely honest most of achieving your goals rests with someone helping you and each other with the skills, training or talents no one individual has. In short what we talk about is basic - though imperative – approaches and concepts for what you need to know to accomplish any project in any media with any goal. The panelists have been purposely chosen to represent a broad cross section of levels of authority, departments, work pipelines and sizes of organizations as well from a wide array of media and so as to talk on a variety of topics and more importantly to answer questions specific to your projects – whatever media or goal you are working in.

Education

• Platt College-Los Angeles

  Associate of Arts (AA)

  2003 — 2004

• Vanguard University of Southern California

  Bachelor's degree

  1994 — 1998

Skills

• Art
• Merchandising
• Storytelling
• Office Administration
• Creative Direction
• Digital Art
• Communication
• Comics
• After Effects
• Comic Book Illustration
• Direct to Garment Printing
• Early Childhood Education
• Disney
• Brand Implementation
• Shirt Design
• Advertising
• Logo Design
• Art Direction
• Character Animation
• Pre-Production
• Social Media
• Humorist
• Illustrator
• Illustration
• Indesign
• Comic Strips
• Background Art
• Storyboarding
• Office Management
• Trade Shows
• Film
• Producing
• Teaching
• Graphic Design
• Animation
• Comic Books
• Television
• Books
• Television Producing
• Cartoons