Nick Nazzaro

I'm Nick Nazzaro (he/him) and I'm a visual artist working in TV animation, games, and apparel. I grew up in Boston and now live in Los Angeles where I work on shows like Invincible, Rick and Morty, Mighty Nein, Transformers, Midnight Gospel, and more. 

In a sentence, how would you describe your work?
I like to make my personal work simplified in form and interesting in color combinations. I really am enjoying making sci-fi work right now and specifically vibrant and fun sci-fi work to contrast with a genre that is pretty full of bleak, muted, and realistic depictions. 

What mediums do you like to work in? 
The vast majority of my work is digital these days but I have always enjoyed drawing with pens, markers, painting with watercolors, and even sculpting. Printmaking is a big passion of mine and I do a lot of riso printing these days.

As an artist, are there any tools that you would perish if you left the house without them?
I really do try to always bring pens with me but honestly I don't leave the house that much. 

Do you have a dream project you'd like to work on someday?
There's a few but they're so close to happening I can't even mention them because then they'll never happen. A truly unrealistic dream is to have my own sci-fi show based on my works that I get to make a lot of merch for.

In contrast with other sports, why do you think aliens would be most receptive to basketball?
The lower gravity really helps with dunking. Baseball would be too difficult because solid contact would literally send a ball to the moon. Football is too dangerous on Earth and would be even more so in deep space. 

Can you talk a little about your design process? Where do you draw your inspiration from, and how do you workshop your design from draft to final?
Recently I've been trying to draw in a way that fits within a certain brand I've created for myself so that I have constraining rules to follow. Astronauts, aliens, and robots are my current bread and butter and as long as I have the theme down I can draw however I like and keep everything to just a few colors for consistency. 

Do you have a favorite feature of the sock design?
The overall color I think will go really well with some of my favorite sneakers.

Ankle or crew socks for preference? 
I used to be 100% ankle and now I want crew socks whenever possible. Ankle socks eventually give up on me and slide under my feet. 

For more of Nick's work, check him out: 

Website: www.nicknazzaro.com and www.ultrafarout.com

Instagram: @thenazzaro and @ultrafarout