What’s in Jason Murray’s Toolbox?

Welcome to "What's in ______'s Toolbox?" a series dedicated to uncovering and sharing the practical tools and resources that people actually use in their creative jobs. Let’s skip the chit chat and get our hands dirty!

Meet Jason

• Profession: Senior Art Director/ACD
• Location: New York City
• Website: jasonmurray.com
• Famously, known for: My TI-30xa calculator getting a shoutout from Marques Brownlee. That’s the best I got.

The Work Bench

• Primary Tools: Macbook Pro. iPad + Apple Pencil. iPhone. MX Master 3 mouse.
• Essential Software: Photoshop. Procreate.
• Workspace: I love a home office. Quiet and far from humans.

Daily Rituals

• Morning: I sleep in as long as my kid will let me.
• The Work Day: I like to work in short sprints to stay motivated. I set a timer or look at the clock and try to work hard for an hour, then give myself a little break. “It’s like a reward.”
• Evening: Time with family. Food.
• Night: I’m a huge night owl. It’s when I’m most motivated to work on personal projects or side-stuff. So once the family is asleep, I usually work on a YouTube video, animate something, or do some entrepreneurial stuff.
• Productivity: The motivation to NOT stay late has helped me be productive throughout my career. I get a little antsy when chit-chatting or wasting time at the office. It’s made me more efficient and I can proudly say that working late at the office is not a habit of mine (working late on my own stuff is a different story).

Tools of the Trade

Go-to Resources

• Favorite Websites/Blogs: I love The Verge.
• Trade secret: Art boards in Photoshop. I hate when a PSD is treating groups like they are art boards. Art boards!
• Cheat code: I hardly ever export images from Photoshop when I’m trying to work fast and whip up a deck. I just copy&paste them straight over. Sometime have to keep an eye on deck file size. Just experiment with all the copy/paste variations (hold Shift. Hold Option. Hold both.)

Inspiration:

• Artists/Creatives You Admire: My cousin Nathan Williams founded Kinfolk magazine. I really admire the number of projects and brands he’s built from the ground up. His taste is unmatched and defined a generation’s aesthetic. Jon Bellion. Such a beautiful mind. You have to watch his behind-the-scenes on YouTube. Casey Neistat & Van Neistat are my all-time favorite YouTubers.
• Books/Movies/Podcasts: Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon is my most widely recommended creative book. But also Batman: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder (the Greg Capullo art is very cool).

Mental Tools:

• How Do You Overcome Creative Blocks? Lower the stakes. Don’t try to do a big thing. Just pick up the pencil and play for the sake of play. Rick Rubin talks about this lots in The Creative Act.
• Go-To Techniques for Brainstorming: I subscribe to Jason Bagley’s philosophy. Let your unfiltered subconscious flooowww.

Favorite Project

• Project: TheToolbox.art I’ve really enjoyed building this website and community.

Parting Wisdom

• Top Piece of Advice: Make more small things. It’s better to make something than nothing. And I find that most creatives can START projects, but have a hard time actually finishing them. Reach more finish lines. Give yourself some easy wins. Let the momentum build.

You can follow Jason and his work on YouTube, Instagram, or jasonmurray.com.

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