Photo: Louise Moraldy: Here comes the afterglow by Marc WathieuDavid DeSandro
Brooklyn, NY
Photo: Louise Moraldy: Here comes the afterglow by Marc Wathieu
Photo: 100/365 by Shari Alisha https://flic.kr/p/poESyG“David collects images of strangers from around the web, and produces dazzling animated halftone portraits with code. His shimmering, kinetic effect lends an intimacy to these otherwise total strangers.”
— Alex, Electric Objects
Where are you typing this from?
My apartment where I live with my wife in Downtown Brooklyn, New York.
Can we see a picture of your workspace and/or desktop?
(Note the cereal bowl juxtaposed with the pile of important papers.)
What do you watch/listen to while working?
I like music, but when I’m really into my work, I like silence. Or the silence of Downtown Brooklyn at least: the hisses, hums, beeps of buses and dollar vans.
What have you been working on lately?
What work of yours are you most proud of?
Masonry is a layout library that you now see all over. It’s five years old, which is ancient as far as JavaScript libraries go. It’s on Beyoncé's tumblr, which is the pinnacle of my existence.
What tools do you use in your work?
Can you tell us about your process?
• Find good image — good range of tones, and hopefully a backlight
• Fiddle image in Photoshop
• Re-render image in canvas with programming
• Fiddle with programming
• Export that image
• Back into Photoshop for post-processing, like cutting a GIF
Repeat that over and over. Lots of small iterations happen. Sometimes they lead to an idea that can be the catalyst for a new direction.
Any last advice for the folks just starting out?
Make time to be creative and make stuff. Whenever I feel down in the dumps, I find that it’s because I’ve been neglecting my creative side. When I start making things for me — not for my job, or for a side-project, just for me — I pop out of that rut.
Top Five Most Influential Visuals
Top Five Favorite File Formats?
What are the best places to see your work?
Whose work do you follow?