Meet Joe Mousey | Art Director // Environmental Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joe Mousey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joe, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?

I was always the black sheep in my family– the tesseract in their square-shaped hole. Growing up the creative musician in a family of Type-A’s means that I’ve always been made to feel more than a little other-than.

Design wasn’t my first choice. At the end of high school I was planning on becoming a firefighter. Senior year, I went to my local community college and got my EMT certification. At the same time I was accepted to SDSU, so I chose the university route instead. I wanted to go to law school and maybe eventually affect public policy for the greater good, so I entered as a political science undergraduate. By sophomore year I realized I didn’t want to devote my life to playing the political game.I worried that no matter how successful I might be I’d only ever be obscuring my true form in order to ritualistically swap masks to pander and perform. I would be neglecting that part of myself that always made me feel othered.

So I made the switch to design, specifically Art with an Emphasis in Multimedia. Even more specifically I minored in philosophy. I accepted the risk and chose the artistic pursuit because I wanted intentional creativity to be my vessel for problem-solving. I wanted to learn web design in order to communicate with the world and create experiences that could be felt beyond the screen. I wanted to craft, cultivate, tinker and play with other others.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

The beginning of my career was spent working on two in-house design teams. While still at SDSU I started working at Magic-Flight doing packaging design, social content, and a variety of other printed marketing materials like posters, manuals, and pop-ups for conventions and expos. Then I moved to FMG Suite where I was working on a library of content like eBooks, infographics, and animations specializing in finance and economics.

For the last five years I’ve been freelancing around a bunchhhhhh of different Portland agencies. I’ve concepted, pitched, presented, produced, and delivered content and campaigns to brands like Nike, T-Mobile, Google, Gatorade, and Salesforce.

Freelancing at so many different studios, on so many different projects, has enabled me to practice an array of workflow modalities. Not to mention I’ve learned how to spotcheck the health/wellness of team dynamics. But the freedom is not without its pound of flesh. The stasis between gigs can be so crippling. It really feels so deflating to know your talent and still endure prolonged bouts of unemployment. The proud moments of toasting with your crew on a job well done evaporate and make you question the validity of that memory, your memory, your skills, and your abilities. And that’s the imposter-syndrome creeping in. I break it by working on projects that bring me personal joy or novel exploration in which the reward is learning something new.

On the books I’m a Senior Designer and Art Director. How I translate that to my parents is that I’m a visual junkie, design thinker, and systems-maker.

My work these days is more pan-disciplinary than ever, moving beyond pen and paper, pushing pixels past the screen into environmental experiences. It’s an elevated form of the same tap-dance I’ve always been performing. I’ve just added more features to my one-mouse vaudeville show– and for my next trick!

Lately I’ve been delving deeper into 3D and practicing a lot of SketchUp. My latest project is a series I’m calling “Attachment is Buffering…” where I model everything I own into the 3D world. It’ll become a digital catalog of my entire treasure chest enriched with datapoints like origin/history, provenance, dimensions/weight and even price/value. Beyond the goal of self-reflectively commemorating my trove of curiosities through digital preservation, I eventually plan to publish the items for sale on my site.

Most creatives I know generally pick to a lane and stay in it; I’m a swerver, though it’s far from recklessness or aimlessness! I’ve merely come to prefer taking the scenic route. I don’t wanna be siloed. I’m a mercenary in my utility and flexibility to hop on projects at any point in the timeline and help launch them into port. I place equal importance in knowing how to build the plane on the runway and pulling her above the clouds.

I’m a crafter of the micro-moments, low on ego and high on laughs. I believe that design is for everyone, inclusive of everyone, and accessible to anyone.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

There’s this rad European market a few blocks away called Provodore. We’d split the Italian and Parisian sandwiches plus a bottle of orange wine before meandering to the Southeast Industrial District to check out some street art. There’s also this treasure of a store called Cargo full of artifacts from around the world and I know we’d stop through there. Then we’d go up to this bar called Moloko filled with pixel screens, black lights, and busts submerged in fishtanks.

Next we’d grab some tortas at Güero before wandering through the Lone Fir Cemetery. After that we’d hit up The Zipper, or more specifically the bar Paydirt and Basilisk for fried chicken sandwiches.

On the final morning we’d with a hike through Forest Park and follow it up with a soak at this relaxing (clothing-optional) spa called Common Grounds. Finally we’d visit Farmhouse Kitchen for some fantastic Thai food.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

Professionally: Mister Fobes for inviting me into this world, Brandon Brown for polishing me, Claire Fraze for smelting me, Erich Fletschinger for bellowing my flames, and Michael Kingery for liberating me to ruffle some feathers.

Personally: Thank you to my friends Hugo (@hoyotee), Eli (@mysticcircuits), Katie, Clarisse, and my partner MG for your love and encouragement to design for myself more. And to the newest inspirations in my life, thank you to Blue and Megan Diana.

Website: mousey.design

Instagram: instagram.com/joemousey

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/joemousey

Twitter: twitter.com/joemousey

Image Credits
Black bibs photos by Henny @carhenlo and side profile @byanthonytaylor. Thank you dudes for capturing my light and sharing yours with me for an afternoon.