creative direction

  • Mes Amis

    Jimmy partnered with Mes Amis, the Los Angeles restaurant by acclaimed chef Lincoln Carson, to create a series of hand-drawn illustrations that capture the warmth, sophistication, and conviviality of the dining experience.

    The visual identity features expressive ink-style drawings of intimate dinner parties, bar conversations, and refined service—scenes that echo the restaurant’s ethos of timeless hospitality. These illustrations were seamlessly integrated into the logo, menus, business cards, and packaging, establishing a cohesive identity rooted in artistry and storytelling.

    Thompson’s drawings elevate Mes Amis beyond a dining space, transforming it into a living tableau of friendship and culture. His collaboration demonstrates:

    • Narrative illustration – bringing to life the social rituals of dining with fluid, character-driven sketches.
    • Hospitality branding – translating atmosphere into visual identity for menus, collateral, and guest touchpoints.
    • Timeless elegance – balancing Parisian café nostalgia with contemporary Los Angeles sophistication.

    From hand-sketched logos and signage to bespoke business cards and shopping bags, Jimmy Thompson’s work for Mes Amis gives the restaurant a visual soul—an identity that feels personal, memorable, and effortlessly chic.

  • National Geographic — Newly Found Dinos Illustration Series

    Commissioned by National Geographic, Jimmy created a bold, high-impact illustration series celebrating newly discovered dinosaur species from around the world. Designed to engage a younger audience, the series blends scientific facts with expressive typography, energetic color palettes, and character-driven dinosaur drawings—transforming paleontology into something playful, accessible, and visually electric.

    Each poster spotlights a different species—such as Bathysaurus, Regaliceratops, Caihong juji, Stegouros elengassen, and Moros intrepidus—rendered in Thompson’s signature style: vibrant shapes, loose sketch-driven outlines, and a mix of matte and neon tones that bring prehistoric creatures into a modern visual language. Facts like height, weight, age, and discovery location are integrated directly into the compositions through hand-lettered typography, wrapping around and interacting with the dinosaurs themselves. This gives every piece a sense of motion and personality, turning raw data into graphic storytelling.

    Across the series, Thompson uses punchy, unexpected color combinations—lavender with mint, coral with deep green, teal with blush pink—to defy the earth-tone conventions of dinosaur art. Border motifs and layered textures echo zines, trading cards, and retro posters, grounding the project in a fun, editorially playful aesthetic aligned with National Geographic’s youth programming.

    The result is a set of illustrations that make science feel exciting and alive—bridging education and art through dynamic, contemporary design. Each piece invites the viewer into the world of newly discovered dinosaurs with curiosity, humor, and an unmistakable visual voice.

  • National Geographic — Journey to the Amazon Illustration Series

    Jimmy partnered with National Geographic to create a visual series capturing the spirit of the Amazon through bold, modernist illustration. Each poster distills a different facet of the rainforest—its waterways, wildlife, waterfalls, and vast geological forms—into simplified shapes and vibrant, contemporary color palettes. The series transforms one of the world’s most complex ecosystems into a sequence of striking, graphic impressions.

    Working in a style reminiscent of mid-century travel posters, Thompson reduces the Amazon’s overwhelming detail into clean vector forms, layered color fields, and atmospheric abstraction.
    • One composition reimagines river deltas and sediment patterns as a flowing map of organic shapes.
    • Another frames a winding river in deep jungle shadow, punctuated by a parrot silhouette and soft pink water that glows under the canopy.
    • A third spotlights a monumental waterfall rendered in cool blues, its mist and cascading planes suggested through overlapping gradients.
    • Others portray the region’s open waterways and horizons through bold contours and minimalist geometry.

    Across the series, Thompson balances narrative clarity with artistic restraint. The work isn’t a literal documentary representation; instead, it evokes the feeling of the Amazon—humid air, dense foliage, shifting light, immense geological scale. Each piece carries the unmistakable National Geographic visual identity, enhanced by Thompson’s refined sense of color, composition, and visual storytelling.

    The result is a cohesive collection of modern travel-inspired posters that invite viewers into the Amazon not through realism, but through atmosphere, mood, and design.

  • Uncle Paulie’s | Tee

    Tee Design for Uncle Paulies

  • National Geographic — Global Ecosystems Illustration Series

    Jimmy created this vibrant poster series for National Geographic, illustrating distinct ecological regions across the globe with his bold, modernist visual style. Each piece functions as a stylized travel poster—merging graphic clarity, saturated color palettes, and simplified natural forms to celebrate the diversity of our planet’s landscapes.

    Aceh, North Sumatra
    In this composition, a pair of gibbons moves across a sunlit branch, framed by tall coral-toned trees and layered jungle foliage. Thompson strips the rainforest down to expressive shapes and warm pastel hues, capturing the gentle motion and intimacy of life in the canopy. The piece evokes the humid, atmospheric quiet of Sumatra’s forests while keeping the imagery playful and approachable.

    Tarma, Central Peru
    This poster transforms the Andean highlands into a dreamlike, color-blocked landscape. A magenta mountain rises dramatically against a soft blue sky, with rolling fields and stylized vegetation radiating outward in bold stripes and geometric contours. Thompson’s use of unexpected color—pink peaks, teal shadows, apricot sun—turns the region’s rugged terrain into a vivid, contemporary scene.

    Beni River, Bolivia
    Depicting the lush river valley leading toward a towering sandstone cliff and cascading waterfall, this illustration highlights the dramatic contrast between Bolivia’s steep rock formations and its fertile river plains. Thompson uses sweeping lines and layered greenery to guide the eye through the composition, creating a sense of depth and motion. The palette—cool blues, warm ochres, and bright mint greens—invites viewers into a serene yet powerful landscape.

    Across the series, Thompson balances editorial storytelling with graphic minimalism, resulting in illustrations that feel both iconic and emotionally resonant. Each piece honors National Geographic’s legacy of exploration while presenting the natural world through a fresh, design-forward perspective.

  • The Atlantic

    Illustration for The Atlantic on spec

  • Baxter of California – Social Media Campaign

    I creative directed + directed these fun stop motion product videos for Baxter of California

  • WAV | Artist Proposition Video

    Loved working on this Artist onboarding video for WAV where my frames lead the way to creating the overall look and feel. The inherent eclectic nature of the app needed to translate visually. The result is a frenetic smorgasbord of styles.

  • Michael Jordan | Nike spec
  • Spotify – Onboarding Video

    Frames were designed for Spotify’s onboarding video directed at artists to augment their profiles and boost engagement with fans.

  • EATER’S GUIDE TO THE WORLD

    Style frames for Hulu’s original series “Eater’s Guide to the World.” Made at Brainbow

  • Baxter of California – WTF Series

    I wrote, produced and directed a suite of comedic ads for Baxter of California‘s “WTF” campaign.

    Co-directed by Adam Greene

    Co-written by Ian Ghent

  • Machine Gun Kelly | Tee Design
  • The New Yorker | Illustration
  • The Grace Helbig Show – E! Channel

    Grace Helbigs’s wild personality was punctuated by these fun graphics included in the show package for her debut show on E!

  • Adam Carolla and Friends Build Things | SpikeTV
  • W Hotels

    A pitch for a Summer Travel campaign, made at Brainbow