Francis Cleetus

Francis Cleetus

The cartoonist at a book launch event
Nationality Indian American
Occupation Creative director, tech cartoonist, mural painter
Notable work It's Geek 2 Me
Website [http://www.franciscleetus.com

Francis Cleetus (pronounced fran-sis klee-tuhs) is an Indian-American copywriter,[1] art director,[2] creative director,[3] mural painter[4] and tech cartoonist.[5] He picked up all these skills while working on multinational brands at ad agencies in India, Hong Kong and the US.

A member of the National Cartoonists Society of America, Francis is the creator of the tech toon It's Geek 2 Me. Francis has drawn hundreds of cartoons for the Pittsburgh Tech Council's TEQ magazine, Tata Consultancy Services' @TCS magazine and other publications. In the course of his day job as a creative director, he has also created award-winning advertising campaigns for HP, Philips, Maker's Mark, Nike and MTV, among others.

Francis lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States with his wife and two daughters, and continues to create new cartoons, murals and ads for a global audience.

It's Geek 2 Me cartoons

Main article: It's Geek 2 Me
"It's Geek 2 Me" cartoon characters.

A tech cartoon about people and their off-center relationships with computers, the Internet, social networks, smart phones, mp3 players and e-book readers, "It's Geek 2 Me" pokes fun at the ubiquitous role of technology in people's lives. Francis self-published his first compilation of tech cartoons in 2012 as a paperback titled Wish Your Mouth Had A Backspace Key in the United States through Amazon.com.[6] In 2013, a new compilation titled It's Geek 2 Me - Total Timepass Tech Toons[7] was published by Hachette India for the Indian subcontinent.

Adding finishing touches to a mural.

Indian art murals

A self-taught mural painter, Francis has been creating contemporary designs based on classic Indian motifs for various corporate and pro bono clients since the eighties. In 2012, the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh commissioned him to recreate ceiling murals from a 16th-century Palace in South India[8] for their 'Tropical Forest India'[9] exhibit. To combat the high humidity and temperature of a tropical Arboretum, he created the murals on hardwood panels with acrylic paints and finished them with a water-resistant varnish.

Print Ad for Kentucky Tourism.

Advertising campaigns

An insightful copywriter, art director[10] and creative director, Francis has created advertising campaigns across traditional, digital, social and unconventional media at ad agencies in three countries. After spending his formative years in the ad business at Draft FCB in India, he moved in the mid-nineties to Hong Kong and worked at Ogilvy, JWT and D'Arcy, before relocating to the United States in 2001 to work at Doe-Anderson, the seventh oldest ad agency in the country. His integrated advertising campaigns[11] have crossed geographic as well as cultural borders, and won a host of international creative awards.

Compilations

  1. Total Timepass Tech Toons (August 2013, Hachette India, ISBN 978-93-5009-624-6)
  2. Wish Your Mouth Had a Backspace Key (October 2006, Amazon.com, ISBN 978-14495-8712-3)

References

  1. ↑ "Print campaign for Moen faucets". Ads of the world. Nov 12, 2008.
  2. ↑ "Magazine ads for Maker's Mark bourbon". Best Ads on TV. November 30, 2005.
  3. ↑ "Ad campaign for Mohawk Flooring". Adland TV. June 5, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Ceiling Murals at the Phipps Conservatory". Upper St. Clair Patch. February 16, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Cartoonist launches Cartoon compilation". Upper St. Clair Patch. April 3, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Pittsburgh cartoonist takes aim at technology in It's Geek-2-Me tech cartoons". PopCity Media. May 4, 2011.
  7. ↑ "Hachette India releases "Total Timepass Tech Toons"". Hachette India. Aug 15, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Ceiling Murals at the Phipps Conservatory". Upper St. Clair Patch. February 16, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Tropical Forest India exhibit". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. April 5, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Campaign for Pearl & Dean". Advertolog. February 1, 1998.
  11. ↑ "Maker's Mark ad campaign". Best Ads on TV. November 30, 2005.

External links

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