When a friend sent him an article featuring outrageous high school yearbook portraits from the 1980s, he was inspired to ‘throw in a puppy’ the way he did designing toys at Mattel.

“I’m a child of the ’80s, so the more I scrolled through these portraits – these kids had huge hair, incredible makeup, just unapologetic style,” he said. “And as I looked through them, they resonated with me and they brought me joy, and every one I looked at brought a bigger smile on my face. So I had the insight of ‘throw in a puppy.’ What if I did portraits of dogs? What would that look like?”