a collection of voice memos and other things

cuffgod creative direction, sound design, epic vibes

Lead by Samuel's desire to see his design work in as many forms as possible (print, fabric, virtual, etc...) this project was a collaboration between tattoo artist @izzystabs and cuff. cuff's designs were first conceived and created by him, and then traced and redrawn by Isabelle, before tattooing them on clients who claimed each artwork.

cuffgod concept, graphic design.

A creative prompt-ish journal designed to encourage and inspire playfulness within your everyday creative (or non-creative) scribbles- whether that be through words, illustration, etc...

"I believe creativity is like any muscle in your body, in the sense that it must be worked-out in order for it to grow and become stronger. Doing silly, daily doodles and getting into the habit of jotting down little thoughts whenever they pop up is, in my eyes, the best way to jump-start your creativity. Small, but routine tasks like this can help to get those creative muscles moving so you can be flexing on fools in no time with all of your eventual, epic, artistic endeavours."

This is a self-published journal that aims to encourage practicing creativity in a light-hearted manner. It can be found for sale here.

cuffgod original concept, book design and layout, graphic design, creative direction.

For this project Samuel worked with Artist and Teacher, Kyle Stewart, to create a usable, custom, true type font file.

Using Kyle's original paper and pen sketch of the alphabet as a starting place, Sam extracted the letters, creating a vectored image for each one. Using a font creation tool, he decided the spacing, size, angle, etc... for each letter. Cuff's work also consisted of typing and playing around with different letter combinations to assure the font kept it's hand-drawn feel while simultaneously gaining some uniformity.

cuffgod graphic design, creative direction, and file creation.

Hamilton to Tobermory is a photo journal of my first ever bike-trip which took place mid-September 2021.  

For me, this documents what was an extremely beautiful and meditative experience. It is my hope with Hamilton to Tobermory that I can pass along, at least, some of this beauty through select photos.

HTT is 40 pages of photos accompanied by a few words and illustrations, presented in a 5.8" x 8.3", perfect-bound, 100lb satin-paged book, complete with 110lb gloss covers featuring a matte finish for a smooth texture.

cuffgod book design and layout, original words, and photography.

An interactive side-table inspired by the malleability of our spaces and environments--how our environment and our personal spaces are always changing and growing with us--designed so that the table can be modified and played with to fit the mood of the space that it’s in (but mostly just because I thought spinning logs would be fun). This piece is made up of multiple 9" long, 5" in diameter, logs that rotate on an iron rod, and are separated by washers which go unnoticed from most angles. This gives the wood-base a very natural feel, that-of-which is combatted by the industrial tone the glass top (held on by magnets) offers. The recurring characteristic of roundness ties all the contrasting elements together to express an overarching theme of life and eternity. 

The magnetic table-top offers a sturdy surface- holding objects from laptops, to full nalgenes, etc...- yet also offers an easy and safe way to remove the glass-top making the table pleasingly mobile.

cuffgod original sculpture/woodwork, design, and photography.

This is a product and packaging design concept I dreamed up surrounding a project that stemmed from a desire to recycle scrap wooden beams from my family's old barn which blew down in 2008. Although I never got around to following through with this project, I hold it dear to me and am proud of the story-telling I was able to accomplish through the package/zine design. 

cuffgod original sculpture, design, graphic design, and zine layout.

Combining play and experimentation with the concept of sculpture and product design, these candles began as a fun project to see what shapes and figures could be made of traditional candle sticks. This transformed into an on-going project to design and make candle holders and candles that seem simple and unfinished in a minimalist way, while simultaneously abrasive in their natural-yet-unnatural form.

cuffgod original sculpture, design, and photography.

Inspired by a love for the outdoors, and imagined as the ideal Nalgene accessory, this sticker is an original illustration by cuffgod made as a fun project. Get one for your own Nalgene here!

cuffgod original illustration, graphic design, and photography.

Eat Your Fruit is a project in which Samuel was commisioned by Carewear to design a tshirt in support of a Canadian charity of his choice. His chosen organization was I Challenge Diabetes. 

To accompany the tshirt (which has small emblems inspired by fruit stickers placed all over),  Samuel also designed stickers and photographed them as if they were actual fruit stickers.

cuffgod original digital illustration, graphic design, and photography.

Paulo Leon is a Canadian musician, producer, singer and rapper. Partly Stabalized, Partly Curious, released August 29, 2020, is Leon's fourth album. The musician himself said that this specific artwork inspired him to begin creating this album.

cuffgod original artwork, repurposed with artist's aesthetic and creative vision for cover art.

This table originated as an old wooden coffee table. Refurbishing consisted of sanding, repainting, and tiling, in addition to conceptualizing its design.

cuffgod original design.

Jay Portal is a Canadian music producer, and rapper with over 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Watch My Dreams Become Nightmares is his fourth album and was released June 26, 2020. 

cuffgod performed photography for this album artwork and contributed in the creative direction and editing of the final artwork. Samuel worked with the artist to determine a vision and the two meshed their ideas together to conceive the final image.

Inspired by an illustration, this project repurposes an old watch into a conceptual piece on time and its relation to sadness and longing. This watch believes that  the disregard for time (as a societal construct) may allow an individual to focus on the things that matter- free of any time restraints.

cuffgod product concept and design.

Work Clothes explores clothing and everyday textiles—looking at the way in which they deteriorate in relation to how they are used by the wearer. 

Specifically, Work Clothes is a series of photographs that aim to examine the stories of my father’s work clothes. Entertaining themes of dust representing death and the passing of time, this series responds to that notion, while also bringing to light the juxtaposition of the deterioration in clothing representing use and movement, and in turn, representing life. This is achieved through the placement of the original colour photographic prints in different locations of my dad’s work clothes and work environment, e.g., work boot, toolbox, back pocket, construction site, and so on. The final series of photographs show signs of actual wear and tear and the texture of materials used on the job, right on the physical prints themselves.

Digital Dust is a series of images made in response to Eva Stenram’s “Per Pulverem Ad Astra”, 2007 for an assignment in NPF 568 at Ryerson University. 

The works goal is to focus on the disruption of images caused by technology in relation to the disruption of Stenram’s images by the dust that was used in their development. By using cracked phone screens in combination with digital scanning, this group of images aims to examine the power of the platform digital images are viewed on, and explore a digital form of manipulation in the developing process.

Select images taken from this project were used as the front and back covers of Undusting - a collective book featuring work from the Winter '20 NPF 568 class. This book worked as a collaborative retrospective of the class and gave Samuel the opportunity to work with a team in organizing, editing, and stylizing content, as well as marekting and branding the book.

Zander's GREENHOUSE runway took place November 30th, 2019 in an actual greenhouse run by the city of Hamilton. This was a pivotal event for Zander as it showcased the brand's fullest and most successful collection to date. Surrounding this event were also multiple pop-up shops planned and run by Samuel, along with Matthew Alexander (founder of Zander). 

Samuel's responsibilities for the GREENHOUSE runway included communicating with location representatives and securing the greenhouse location, in addition to model casting/communications, hair & makeup casting, video & photography direction, and collaboration on fashion design.

As one of two cofounders of fashion brand Zander, Samuel played a lead role in event design, model casting and communications, event marketing, and planning for Zander's 2018 runway. This was a great learning experience that resulted in the development of key leadership and communication skills within a team environment.

The event conisisted of a private viewing of the Art Gallery as an intro to the event, which was followed by  seating and a conceptual, performance-art inspired runway. The evening was capped off with a social event where multiple fashion vendors were available to shop including Zander and all the new looks shown on the runway. 

Over 120 guests were in attendance, not including the 20-30 models and team members.