WEST COAST STUDIO
the journey work approach

declan gainey

digital designer • design technologist • ecommerce + motion

santa monica, ca · 310-844-5541 · declangainey@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/declan-gainey9 · westcoastillustrations.com
summary

digital designer and design technologist building ai-enabled motion, social, brand, storefront, and interactive experiences for culture-driven teams. works across shopify, web, content systems, and creative production workflows, with a focus on turning visual direction into shipped digital work.

core strengths
  • ecommerce + shopify
  • brand systems
  • motion design
  • social content
  • campaign assets
  • ui design
  • ai-assisted workflows
  • prototyping
  • asset production
  • creative coding (html/css/js)
  • responsive layout
tools
  • figma
  • illustrator
  • photoshop
  • after effects
  • premiere
  • lightroom
  • vs code
  • github
  • vercel
  • shopify cli + liquid
  • cloudinary
(working) blender · three.js
experience
  1. nile secure
    multimedia consultant (contract) — remote
    2025 – present
    • illustrated and scripted a series of internal comms comic strips that turned security topics into readable, on-brand stories
    • packaged deliverables for email embed and standalone pdf distribution across the organization
    • collaborated asynchronously with stakeholders, shipping polished iterations on tight timelines
  2. west coast illustrations llc
    founder, creative director — santa monica
    2023 – present
    • design and build brand identities, web experiences, and motion assets for client projects end to end
    • built an ai-powered workflow tool that turns unstructured input into categorized task lists (html/css/js + llm api)
    • hand-coded portfolio site with canvas particle systems, scroll-driven animation, and performance-tuned deployment on vercel
  3. amerikid
    co-founder, creative director — los angeles
    2020 – present
    • own the shopify storefront end to end: built with shopify cli + liquid, deployed and managed through github
    • produce motion and short-form content for every product drop, maintaining a repeatable release workflow
    • designed the brand identity and visual system used across the store, social feeds, and product launches
education
university of oregon
b.s. art and technology • 2024
semester abroad: fine art and conceptual design studies, paris
selected projects
  • pacifico dance company: built the website end to end, shaped brand motion and visual direction
  • studio 3: conversion-focused landing page design with pricing flow and dev-ready prototype
  • broken hearts: ai-assisted production pipeline for product imagery and short-form edits
work approach journey contact