LEON OFSKY

LEON OFSKY — ’26

CREATIVE DIRECTOR
ART DIRECTOR
DESIGNER
DIGITAL ARTIST
CONTEMPORARY ARTIST
PHOTOGRAPHER
WRITER {Occasionally}

OVERVIEW
Born in New Zealand (on a Sunday)— Two decades in the field, agency-side and client-side. Advertising, film, art, experiential — the portfolio runs across all of it.

The approach: mundane to masterful, through divergent thinking and design. Visual storytelling across design, UX, and image-making for brands, agencies, and startups.



CURRENT WORK
Running Born On Sunday — direction, film, photography, and the rest. Sharp stories. Wild details. Always something deeper. 

Founding member (0003) SSADD



VISUAL CHARACTER
Controlled restraint. Quiet framing. Muted structure. Every image sits inside a larger system, not alone. Composition and tone carry the work — not effects, not heavy post.



LANGUAGE
Cinematic. High-concept. Meso-brutalism. Bold ideas, graphic contrast, cultural edge — that’s the register, and the design follows it: stylized, intentional, built to carry a brand’s story rather than just document a subject.



STRENGTHS
•    Clean framing, strong art direction.
•    Mood, texture, atmosphere.
•    Polished, never overdesigned.
•    Fits branding, fashion, culture, tech, editorial.
The read: Editorial minimalism with cinematic attitude. Not showing everything — building a sharp visual world around one thing.



THE DIFFERENCE
I’m not a designer who happens to art direct. I’m an art director who uses design aesthetic as one tool in a bigger visual language.

The difference: Most image-makers stop at the aesthetic. I build worlds, stories, and brand logic around the image — concept and cultural sharpness carry as much weight as the frame itself.

Why it stands out:
•    Concept first — the image serves the narrative, not the other way around.
•    Systems thinking — every project is a designed experience, not a one-off asset.
•    Cinematic restraint — mood and tension over overproduction.

Plain terms: Brand builder, director, designer first. 



INFLUENCE AND INSPIRATION
No formal influence stack. The project language tells the story, and builds worlds instead.

Clear signals: Meso-brutalism — raw structure, heavy form, engineered presence. ASCII, ANSI, projection, sound–reactive design. Retro computing and immersive motion systems, direct from the source.

Cultural references: Language as design, not decoration— tone and worldview built like fashion editorial and conceptual branding.

Aesthetic lineage:
•    Brutalism, industrial visual language.
•    Motion graphics, immersive environments.
•    Filmic composition, atmospheric storytelling.
•    High-end editorial and fashion-brand restraint.
•    ANSI, ASCII, digital subculture.
•    Tech nostalgia, digital-era texture.

The short version: Architecture, tech nostalgia, film, and premium brand design, collided. Precise and experimental, at the same time.



STARTUPS
Nascent Media, DeepCDR, Build Then Destroy, DarkCloud, PYRÅD, This Beautiful Oblivion, Ripp Dritt & Byste, VSSEMBLE, MIMO, Doheny Dr., Hollywood Incognito, Born On Sunday, The Perfekt Dark, Within, 0X1D3, SSADD



EXHIBITIONS
Arcane {Solo} — Auckland, New Zealand
LACDA {Group} — Los Angeles Center for Digital Art
10,000 Days {Solo} — Melbourne, Australia
At Large {Group} — Melbourne, Australia



PUBLISHED
The ABC’s of Getting Real {Self}, REPLIKA {Self}, The Hurricane Watcher {Self}, The New York Times, Flaunt Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Hollywood Reporter, Design Federation Annual, Vice Magazine, Taschen



AGENCIES & CLIENTS
Real Networks, Clinic, Saatchi & Saatchi, Skull & Bones, VMLY&R, DesignWorks, Wunderman Thompson, DDB, Shine, Colenso BBDO, Freethink, MIMO, Untold, Reset, Michael Shamberg, Born On Sunday & more.

Ford®, Samsung®, Nokia®, Virgin Hyperloop®, Virgin Records®, Toyota®, McDonald’s®, Vodafone®, Coca-Cola®, Intel®, Sony®, Capitol Records®, EMI®, Bayer®, Sony BMG®, Hyundai®, El Silencio, HBO®, UberEats®, Spotify®, NOOM®, & more.



TOOLS, CREDITS, AND THINGS I LIKE
Cosmos, Leica, Ricoh Imaging, Film Convert, PangramPangram, Cargo, Red Giant, PhotoMosh

©MMXXVI  / LEON OFSKYCREATIVE DIRECTOR, ART DIRECTOR, DESIGNER, PHOTOGRAPHER, ARTIST–