Young man with a cartoon character sticker over his left eye, standing in front of red and yellow artwork, wearing a light-colored jacket over a striped shirt.

Tyler Pate

Is Your Next Art Director Illustrator Content Creator Speaker Problem solver Creative Director Storyteller

“I believe great design is equal parts strategy, storytelling, and soul. Whether I’m building out a brand system or illustrating a campaign, I’m all in on creating work that’s both smart and meaningful.”

Expertise

  • Creative Strategy

  • Style Guides

  • Brand Identity

  • Product Design

  • Packaging Design

  • Illustration

  • Content Creation

  • Brand Partnerships

Work completed for:

  • Paul McCartney

  • Samsung

  • TCL Electronics

  • Shutterstock

  • Vita coco

  • Wacom Paramount

  • Playboy

  • POSCA

  • Adobe

  • Circle K

  • Dell

  • Easy Eye Sounds

  • Fandom

  • Marc Rebillet

  • Microsoft

  • Nickelodeon

EXPERIENCE with

  • Brand Design Teams

  • Character Artists

  • Editorial Teams

  • Illustrators

  • Strategy Teams

  • Vendors

Story-Driven Design Rooted in Process,

Passion, and Persistence

Tyler Pate is a multidisciplinary Art Director and Illustrator born in South Carolina and now based in Los Angeles. With over a decade of experience in the creative industry, Tyler blends bold storytelling with strategic design to craft captivating visuals across branding, illustration, and consumer products.

He has developed design systems, theatrical style guides, and marketing campaigns for iconic franchises like SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. His client collaborations span global brands including Adobe, Wacom, POSCA, StickerApp, Universal Studios, Vita Coco, Krispy Kreme, The Black Keys, Jack White, and Paul McCartney—bringing meaningful ideas to life through bold, expressive design.

Tyler also leads The Creative Pain—a personal brand and creative outlet that celebrates the highs and lows of the creative journey. Through this lens, he partners with companies, develops original artwork, and shares insight into the challenges and breakthroughs that shape the design process.

As a community leader and mentor, Tyler is passionate about giving back to the creative industry. He regularly hosts public presentations, livestreams, and workshops that pull back the curtain on real-world creative work—offering honest perspectives, inspiration, and guidance to artists at every stage of their journey

trust the

process

A small reminder to keep exploring. Even these simple and quick ideas are an easy reminder to keep creating and experimenting with styles. Just have fun. #vectorart #illustrator #graphicdesign #illustration_daily
One of the best parts of creating CP work for SpongeBob is the opportunity to bring the odd and silly fandom moments to life. And I’ve always thought of Plankton as an unsung hero, he’s most often portrayed as a villain but he’s si
It’s always a pleasure when my friends over at @adobe reaches out to give me an opportunity to create something fun! This time we developed a batch of vibrant patches for @adobeexpress 🙏🙏🫡 each of these 6 patches are all inspired by various
Panic mode!?!?!? Get it together creative…small reminders that the creative journey is filled with uncertainty, breakthroughs, and inspiration. Just have to push through it. #graphicdesigncommunity #vectorart #illustrator #illustrator #illus
Howdy humans🤠 🤖 I finally turned my cowboy robot into some awesome glitter dust stickers and they are beautiful. Thanks again to the folks at @stickerapp for cooking these up for me👏👏👏👏 #stickersofinstagram #designinspiration #graphicdesign #v
Everyone’s favorite lazy cat. And funny enough this was one of my first Nickelodeon projects I got to work on when I started my Art Director role on the Consumer Products team at Paramount. This was a curated guide of various artist from around
I NEEEEEEED IT!!!!!! I’m very excited to finally share some of the New SpongeBob CP work that I got to work on awhile back. These detailed illustrations will be apart of the latest Krusty Pants collection. I wanted to really lean into the class
It’s better to know and embrace the creative pains, than allow it to prevent the breakthrough. This industry can be tough and push us in some interesting directions. But one thing I always remember, it takes passion for the details, the researc