Syd Weiler

In addition to being an exquisite visual development artist, illustrator, and animator, Syd Weiler is a partnered Twitch Creative streamer, as well as a current member of the Microsoft Creator Council and a 2016-2017 Adobe Creative Resident, during which she grew a creative community through streaming. Currently, she is creating Photoshop brushes and building an archive to refine the tools.

She infamously created the viral internet sensation Trash Doves, a digital sticker pack for iOS, licensed by Facebook. After her little ‘Trash Dove’ artwork unexpectedly went viral overnight, she had to quickly learn how to navigate the positive and negative aspects of online stardom. The country of Thailand is still feeling the effects. We don’t want to get into it, so just Google it if you’re feeling feathery.

Syd also helped develop and kickstart Jenny LeClue, an interactive choose-your-own-adventure mystery game with memorable characters, a unique aesthetic, and an apically tangled mystery. She is a proud graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design, where she studied animation and illustration. She loves video games, hats, tea, hair dye and her dog Beezly. As you will soon realize, her interview is hilarious and filled with surprises. 

Q. Last show you binge watched?

Photoshop brush tool by Syd WeilerI’m obsessed with Little Witch Academia! It’s an anime show that Netflix produced or translated, but it is about witch school and it is so cute and good. I’ve probably watched it twelve times since it came out.

Q. Purple Rain or Purple Drink?

Purple Drink. Prince is fine. I like Kool-Aid. I get a lot of Prince references because of the trash doves.

Q. Do you have any interesting bird poop stories?

Syd Weiler's Trash DoveBesides the last six months of birds of my own creation shitting on me daily, I have like four distinct memories of being pooped on at Disney World. Every single time I go to Disney World, a seagull or some bird is just like ‘she is having too much fun, gonna ruin her shoe or bomb her hat’, like at every stage in my life. It’s probably passed down through generations of seagulls. It’s the happiest place on Earth but those birds are watching for you.

Q. Do you wash the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher?

Yeah, you have to wash debris off and stuff, otherwise your dishwasher gets disgusting. No one wants a stinky dishwasher, and you don’t want to scoop out the old, gross bits from the bottom of the dishwasher.

Q. Best thing you’ve ever found in the trash?

Eww. That’s my answer. Although, I did find my passport in the trashcan last week. It fell off my desk, so I am pretty happy I found that before I took the trash out.

Q. Pad Thai or iPad?

Jenny LeClue by Syd Weiler(Laughs) At this point, I have to say Pad Thai because I have ethical and moral issues with Apple. I am a Windows elitist over here.

Q. What is something that everyone looks stupid doing?

Don’t look at the eclipse without glasses, you dumbasses. That is is just a recent observation, but I saw everyone outside of my apartment looking at it without glasses.

Q. If animals could talk, which do you think would be the rudest?

Dog Avatars Designed by Syd WeilerI think about this a lot. I think about whether or not animals have inner dialogue. I think about dogs, because I have a dog. I feel like I underestimate her a lot, because she doesn’t have a wide scope of understanding. She doesn’t know what rain is, like the whole evaporation cycle or what a cloud is, or there’s loud noises. She doesn’t know what thunder is, she is not a scientist. But sometimes I catch her looking at me and I can see in her eyes that she is probably like ‘What are you doing, you hairless monkey?’, so I feel like animals probably judge us in some way. I think the rudest animals are Canadian geese, which is funny because of the stereotype of Canadians being so nice. One bit me a few years ago when I had to chase it out of our band practice field, and they seem very uncultured and condescending. They leave Canada and come down here to be mean.

Q. Cheese, soft or hard?

SyD Weiler tea gifAny! And all! Please. Yes. Thank you. I had a bunch of cheese at like 4am yesterday. I have been on steroid medication, because I’ve been having an allergy reaction to something, so I have been waking up at like 3 or 4am, and can’t go back to sleep. I spent an hour in bed looking at pictures of spiders on my phone, and I got hungry so I got up and ate a bunch of cheese. My boyfriend wakes up and asks what I’m doing and I’m just awake, eating cheese, and looking at spiders.

Q. If you could steal one piece of art what would it be?

I thought about this one a lot. Honestly, I like museums, and I like when things are put up for all to see. I would never steal something like that for myself. If I came into posession of something like that, I would give it back.

Q. Florida, it’s not just _________ (fill in the blank).

Gators living in sewers, but that analogy can be applied to most aspects of life, because you never know what you’re gonna get.

But wait, there's more....
Dumb Questions for Smart Designers with Syd Weiler
The Complete Series of Interviews