About Me

I’m Stephen Bailey, a professional freelance illustrator based in Palm Harbor, Florida, with 30 years of experience creating illustration that moves product off shelves. I offer the kind of hands-on, boutique creative service that’s hard to find at any level — personal attention from first brief to final file, every single project.

I specialize in character design, food and product packaging illustration, mascot development, and realistic food art for major CPG brands. My client roster includes Kellogg’s, Keebler, Froot Loops, Ace Hardware, Mattel, Disney, Dannon, Justins, and Safeway — brands that don’t hire twice unless the work is exceptional. And brands that keep coming back because working with me feels like a collaboration, not a transaction.

Every engagement begins the same way — a real conversation with the creative director. I take the time to understand the brief, ask the right questions, and stay accessible throughout the entire process. Fast responses, clear communication, and zero hand-holding required on your end.

From there, I digitally build the scaffolding of my characters with pencil-style sketches. My insistence on this hand-drawn concept phase before any texture work begins is a deliberate creative discipline — one that gives even the most complex mascot or character illustration a foundation rooted in real draftsmanship. Once pencils are approved, those sketches are refined and developed into finished art using a Wacom® tablet, Adobe Photoshop, and Illustrator. The result is the slick, high-detail, production-ready finish that art directors and packaging designers depend on to meet tight deadlines without sacrificing quality.

In an era when generative AI can produce a character in seconds, what it still can’t do is listen — really listen — to what a brand needs and bring genuine creative judgment to the solution. That’s what I bring to every project.

I  studied at the Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio — where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Illustration with a minor in Advertising Design — and have called Florida home ever since. Along the way I’ve worked with brands and agencies across the country, from Los Angeles to New York, delivering illustration that holds up on shelves in every market.

Influenced early by Norman Rockwell, Walt Disney, and the Warner Bros. animation tradition, I built a career translating that reverence for craft into illustration that performs in the real world. Florida-based and studio-disciplined, I bring the responsive, personally-invested creative partnership that major brands deserve — and that’s increasingly rare to find.