What Everybody Ought to Know About Motion Designer Evan Cooksey

If you’ve worked with Origo in the past or are considering partnering in the future, you may be curious about the unique individuals whose hard work and creativity set our agency apart.

Origo believes that these people — with their professional accomplishments and personal interests — are our biggest asset. So we are launching a new blog series that spotlights each of them, starting with our Motion Designer, Evan Cooksey.

Evan has been with us for about a year and has added so much to our team. Evan has a deep creative skillset in animation, motion graphics, and video. But he also brings fun-loving energy into our office and a wardrobe of wild shirts and jumpsuits. Yes, you heard right. Jumpsuits.  

After graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2008, Evan gained a wealth of connections and experience in digital production and animation and started his own freelance company. Those experiences led him to join the team at Origo.

While his professional background is certainly impressive, we learned that Evan is a man of many talents and interests outside of the office, including stand-up comedy and…flying airplanes. Read the Q&A below to learn more about Evan!

Q: What’s your favorite part about the animation process at Origo?

A: Animation is mostly technical actually, and I love developing new techniques that help things function better. One of these is called “rigging”, which helps to control a highly complex group of parts, like a face with emotive eye gestures and mouth articulation. It’s like building a machine within a machine!

Q: How do you prioritize daily growth in your personal life? 

A: My wife and I love to travel and have plans to go to Germany someday so we are trying to learn German. We are using the Duolingo app to become more fluent in the language. We’ve been competing with one another on who can learn more, and so far, she’s been beating me pretty badly.

Q: If you could switch jobs with anyone else at Origo, who would it be and why?

A: I’m not sure about the specific job since I like mine so much, but if there were one person’s skills I’d want to have, that would be Karen Hagans, one of our Art Directors. She is amazing and designs so beautifully under tight deadlines at times. She’s always trying new techniques and styles that inspire me and knocks it out of the park every time.  

Q: You have been honing your craft for quite some time. Are there any industry role models you look to for inspiration?

A: There are probably too many influences to name. I could look back as far as brothers Max and Dave Fleischer in the 1940s. Their work done in Superman is an amazing accomplishment. They invented techniques that every animator commonly uses to this day, almost a hundred years later. More recently, I am influenced by geometric motion designers such as Jr. Canest (OrdinaryFolk), Sander van Dijk, and Emanuele Colombo. 

Q: What do you like to do on your days off?

A: I love spending as much time as I can with my 19-month-old son, Jean-luc, and my wife, Mary. Jean-luc is growing up so fast that I try to be there every moment I can! If I have any extra time after that, I actually love to animate because I genuinely enjoy it that much.

Q: What is one thing you’re looking forward to in the future?

A: I am looking forward to continuing to push myself professionally to new levels. I feel like every six months I’m taking the first step towards something I couldn’t do a few years ago. There is so much good work out there it’s hard not to feel small in this sea of talent. But what I’ve found as I push forward is that the community is much smaller than what I imagined. At the end of the day, we all just like animation.

Q: Tell us three things most people don’t know about you.

1. I did stand-up comedy for a while in my 20s. It was part of this practice I used to do where I tried something I hated until I learned to like it eventually.  
2. I used to fly airplanes in high school, and I got my pilot’s permit before getting my driver’s permit. The last time I flew, I landed a plane by myself.  
3. I love to fix up cars. I’ve replaced my front struts on my car, and last year I took apart my exhaust system, rebuilt it, and re-attached it, which is pretty hard to do.

Q: What was the last book you read?

A: “Oil!” by Upton Sinclair. I picked it up because I love history and reading. But this book has been one of the biggest ones I’ve read in a while. I’ll let you know when I actually finish it.

Q: Do you have a motto or personal mantra?

A: “I’ll give it a whirl.”