Excellent Cardigan is the name under which Robert James Driscoll works — a designer, educator, and sound tinkerer. I work where clarity meets chaos. Over the past two decades, I've helped brands, books, and bands find their visual voice. Currently Art Director for Corporate Marketing at Penguin Random House.

Portfolio illustration

I'm drawn to projects with feeling. The weird ones. The earnest ones. The ones where design isn't just solving problems — it's making magic.

When I'm not designing, I'm can be found working on new modular patches, developing workflows using AI, or wandering bookstores.

Additional Credit:

Brand Design: Robert James Driscoll Web Design: Robert James Driscoll
Branding / Website

Guitargate

Full brand ownership for an online guitar education platform — custom type, logotypes, product design, web, email, and social across the complete brand system.

Case Study

Additional Credit:

Design & Engineering: Robert James Driscoll
Design / Development

Read Down Suite Generator

A custom AI tool built with Claude Code that generates seasonal campaign assets from transparent PNGs — background removal, dithering, genre-specific palettes, and ISBN-driven book placement. Reduces manual work across the design team.

Case Study

Additional Credit:

Art Direction: Robert James Driscoll Illustration: Kyle Letendre
Branding / Marketing

PRH Pride

Full campaign for Penguin Random House Pride — site, social, email, and a printed zine. Illustration collaboration with Kyle Letendre.

Case Study

Additional Credit:

Art Direction: Robert James Driscoll
Marketing / Design

PRH Banned Books

Visually bold campaign for Penguin Random House Banned Books — full marketing campaign spanning social, email, and digital advertising.

Case Study

What I'm up to now.

Raising Nico

My toddler is in a synth-drumming, kazoo-shrieking phase. It's… inspiring?

Launching OGMA

Building a studio for the weird, the whimsical, and the wonderfully out-of-scope.

Experimenting with AI workflows

Sharing use-cases, leading live demos, and mentoring designers through the good (and not-so-good) tools.

Writing new music

Exit Wave has a few songs brewing — dark, melodic, cinematic stuff.

Staying inspired

Currently reading "How Buildings Learn," revisiting Brian Eno's diaries, and collecting grainy paper textures.