When I started working on promo graphics for Everybody Still Hates Chris, I wanted to show the different sides of being a teenager in New York City. Growing up here myself, I knew that world pretty well. One thing you can’t miss in this city is the graffiti—it’s everywhere. And back in the 1980s, when the show is set, street art was at its peak. Some of the most legendary graffiti artists even have their work featured in the series.
So I ran with that idea for my trailer, building the look around bold, graffiti-inspired visuals. It came out looking really cool—but after a while, I realized the vibe was a little too dark and intense for such a lighthearted comedy. I still love how the animation turned out, but in the end, it just wasn’t quite the match I was looking for.
Next, I went for something a bit more relatable to the everyday life of a teenager—school. Almost everyone knows the feeling of opening a spiral notebook in the middle of class and doodling away when you should’ve been paying attention. This concept instantly felt more playful than my previous one, and the animation had a lot of energy. But in the end, it came off a little too busy and somewhat out of sync with the show’s overall vibe. It was a step in the right direction, but I still hadn’t quite landed on the look I wanted.
For this round, I pulled a lot of inspiration from the original live-action Everybody Hates Chris. One of the main settings in the show was Chris’s family apartment, with its walls covered in ornate, vintage wallpaper—
a look that instantly stuck with me. I loved how that wallpaper gave my animation the same warm, familiar vibe as the original series. But in the end, it still felt a little too tied to a live-action style instead of something made for animation. I was definitely getting closer, but it still wasn’t quite there.
For this one, I wanted to lean into pure nostalgia. Anyone who grew up in the ’80s or ’90s remembers watching their favorite shows on an old CRT TV—the fuzzy picture, the static, the random distortion. Total throwback vibes. I thought it’d be fun to start the animation with that retro look, then snap into a clean, modern image. It looked cool, but in the end, it felt a little too heavy-handed and complicated for a message that needed to be quick and clear. Fun experiment, but not the winner.
Sometimes the simplest solution really is the best.
Using background art from the show, I animated the logo directly into an environment that felt authentic and true to its style. The muted wall color acted as the perfect backdrop for the bright, colorful logo, while the spray-paint effect and springy text brought it to life in a way that felt perfectly in sync with the show’s personality. In the end, this approach proved to be the right
choice—and I couldn’t be happier with the result.
Here’s something you’re not gonna find anywhere
else—the unused trailer for Everybody Still Hates Chris. I poured a lot into this one, especially the typography, making it fun, lively, and packed with personality. It felt like such a perfect fit for the show.
But in the end, the team decided to go a different route and focus more on the real-life Chris Rock. This version never made it to air, but honestly? I had a blast putting it together, and I’m excited you get to see it here.
