Robert Kopecky was born in San Diego, California in 1956. He graduated from Patrick Henry High School, San Diego, and went on to Palomar Junior College, where he became a student of the illustrator and cartoon creator, Everett Peck. He continued his college education at San Diego State University, but took time out to become a steel sculpture fabricator in San Francisco, working on monumental projects for sculptor Robert Ellison before completing his education in Graphic Design and Illustration at Pasadena City College, and Art Center College of Design.

     He went on to become a staff artist at Duck Soup Productions Animation and Dyer/Kahn Design in Los Angeles, an Art Director at The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and an illustration and drawing instructor at The Otis Art Institute of Parson’s School of Design in Los Angeles, and at the Art Academy in San Francisco.

     Robert currently lives in Brooklyn, New York and is Art Director of PBS Kids' "Word World" animated TV series. Prior to that he was with Curious Pictures for six seasons of Cartoon Network's "Codename: Kids Next Door" designing the "2x4 Tech" gizmos, efx, and graphics. He continues to do illustration on a freelance basis, and is developing his own projects.

Animation Design:

Nate the Great, PBS Kids/Animagic/Creative Group. Background design.

Word World, PBS Kids. Series background and character design. Product/merchandise concepts, design, and art. 2007

Purple, Herman Miller, 4:00 (min) animated new product introduction film. Character design, direction/storyboard, voice-over.

Codename: Kids Next Door, Cartoon Network/Curious Pictures. Series: six seasons 30 minute programs. Props(“2x4 Tech”) and effects designer. 2000-06

Dad, I'm Not Gay, Oxygen. Three minute animation. Background design and voice talent. 2001. Winner: “Excellence in Design- Sponsored Films,” 2002 ASIFA East Awards Festival

Daria, MTV Animation; six 30 minute programs, Season Five. Background design. 2000

Sheep in the Big City, Cartoon Network/Curious Pictures. Series: Twenty-six 30 minute programs. Designer. 2000, 2001

Good Dog, GTE/Curious Pictures. Two 15 second commercials. Character design.

Mini-Muscles, A Fitness Adventure; Cindy Crawford 30 minute children's animation. Magnet Pictures. Background Design, Art Direction, Director/Designer computer-generated segments. 1999

Oodles, Milton Bradley Games 30-second commercial, 1993, Character design

Animation:

The Four Signs of Manhood, 2:45 (min) independent animated film

Clients have included:

AT&T, Herman Miller, Independent Feature Film Market, Island Pictures, Levi-Strauss, MTV, NBC, Nickelodeon, Pac Bell, Paper Moon Graphics, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Hotel, Playboy Jazz Festival, Time-Life, Universal Pictures, UNICEF, and others.

Publications:

Idea, Porfolio, The New Illustration, Fame 2, The Blue Book, Idea Special: American Pop Culture Images Today, Humor ‘87, American Illustration 7, Heck! Comic Art of the Late ‘80's, Elvis in Art, Recipes for Disaster, Bringing Up Baby, American Illustration 17, Viva La Monkeysuit (Shithead and Winky), In Search of Monkeysuit (Faith and Mr. Floppy), Death Comes to Monkeysuit (Faith and Mr. Floppy).

Periodicals:

Atlantic Monthly, Business Week, Chicago Tribune, Conde-Nast Traveler, Dallas Observer, Entertainment Weekly, Emigre, Esquire, Home, Infoworld, Kiplinger's, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, New York Times, Nickelodeon, Outside, Parenting, PC World, Playboy, Premiere, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Focus, Smart Business, Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated For Kids, Spy, Time For Kids, US News and World Report, Washington Post, and others.

Books:

Curveballs Strikes Again: A Sports Illustrated for Kids Book (Illustrated only)

I Hate This Place (Design and illustration) TV Books/Harper-Collins

Around the World with Shithead And Winky, Chez Sithead- Tales of American Living, Shithead's Book of Love, Shithead Goes to Hell, How it Came to This with Shithead and Winky, Monkeyshaver Comics. Faith and Mr. Floppy, Shithead and Winky, Monkeysuit Comics

Shows and Presentations:

Art Directors Club of Los Angeles, 1982. Show Award.

“The New Illustration,” Society of Illustrators of New York, 1982

“Fifty West Coast Illustrators,” California State University, Northridge, 1983

Illustration West, 1984

Western Publication Designers Association, 1985. Silver Award.

Parsons School of Design, Paris, 1986

American Pop Culture Images Today, La Foret, Tokyo, 1987

Otis Art School of Parsons School of Design, presentation and Senior

Class Assignment, Los Angeles, 1987

“Humor,” Society of Illustrators, New York, 1987

Speaker: The Design Conference That Just Happens To Be In Park City, Utah, 1988

U.S.-U.S.S.R. Cartoon Exchange, San Francisco, 1988

Trends of Illustration in the U.S.A, Hong Kong Designers Association, 1989

Art Directors Club of New York, 1992. Show Award.

American Illustration 17, 1998

Speaker, The Design Conference That Just Happens To Be in Park City, Utah, 2001

Judge, 37th Annual West Coast Show, The Western Art Directors Club, 2002

Computer Skills:

Macintosh literate. Word processing. Adobe Photoshop. Some Adobe Illustrator. Directing experience with Discreet Logic Effect. Cintiq-skilled, Alias Sketchbook. Some Adobe After Effects compilation experience. Some Flash experience.