justin tompkins




Looking for chances to pause and witness moments of magic, through conversations, art, love and travel.

Bio & Information


I’m an American art director, photographer, filmmaker and artist utilizing analog and digital processes. Currently working in art direction, design and content creation.

In 2015, I purchased my first camera inspired by moving and still images I saw online. After becoming enamored by the world of W Eugene Smith, I began to study journalism. I approached the subject diligently and discovered a cacophony of outlooks and visions. But I needed more. I wanted to editorialize. I explored photography further, venturing into different camps of styles, disciplines and appreciations.

Soon after began my curiosity into brand identity, recognition, championing, and consumerism. I picked up the practice of design, focusing on such directions as product and branding. Advertising became a rational next step. I walked into a school of thinking with openness. Learning of new and old, big and small, right and wrong wasn’t far from what I gained with journalism. A field of matryoshka dolls, all lining up in an array of regiment and uniform.

An ever-woven thread began to pinch me little by little. Storytelling is rooted in my initial curiosities. Whether it be about why a discipline caught my attention or how I can tell a story via a discipline. The more I pick up the more life seems to overlap. Perhaps this is why I’m in search for something that doesn’t exist yet. A something that isn’t easily overlapped. Joining me on this search is the content I’m making along the way. Aiming to give people a sort of freedom for their imaginations to run around in.


Minor Bird
by Robert Frost

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;
Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.
The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.
And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.





Exhibitions & Publications & Awards

2023 - Gainesville 48-Hour Film Competition (Florida)
                2023 Finalist
                2017 Grand Winner
                2016 Finalist

2022 - Vellum LA (Los Angeles)
                Billboard Installation

2021 - ObscuraDAO - NFT
                Int’l Comm Project

2021 - PaperTimes (NYC)

2019 - Graphis New Talent Annual (USA)
                Booklet / Short Film / Photograph
                Silver Award(s)

2018 - Colored (Chicago)

2017 - Negative Feedback (London)
                Printed Zine

2017 - 67th Annual Green Eyeshade Awards (USA)
                Documentary / TV
                First place (WUFT-TV)

2017 - Permutation (Gainesville, FL)
                Art Exhibition

2017 - TEDxUF (Gainesville, FL)
                Conference

2016 - Raurfest (Atlanta)

2016 - TEDxUF (Gainesville, FL)
                Superfun! Gallery

2016 - Hearst Journalism Awards (USA)
                Multimedia (16th nationally)


2015 - Hearst Journalism Awards (USA)
                Multimedia (20th nationally)


Clients:

AirBnb • American Airlines • AT&T • Cars(dot)com • Chase Bank
Circle K • CME Group • Coca-Cola • Cole Haan
Cox Communications • Cricket • DJ’s Cast Iron Burgers
Doritos • Duracel • Footlocker • Ford • Hard Rock • ICSC
Jared • Jordan • J.P. Graziano • Kaiser Permanente • Kay
Manuka Honey • Meat District • Playstation Pokémon
Ring • Scope • Shark Ninja • SK-II • T-Mobile
The Fenway • The Home Depot • The ‘Quin House
Uber Eats • Universal Studios • White Claw • Zales



Studio Raining Sun
^ my little studio