Alfred Hitchcock
My lil Alfred Hitchcock bobble head sits on the corner of my desk to remind me to always aim for excellence with every design I create. He's one of my all time favorite artists that has contributed so much to film and has maintained such a high level of consistency with respect to quality throughout his entire career.
Almost every shot in his films can be broken down and analyzed to uncover a treasure trove of elements that contribute to cinematic genius. This is even more impressive when you consider how limited technology was during his era.
His passion, work ethic, and mastery of his craft still inspires me to this day.
"If I won't be myself, who will?" - Alfred Hitchock
Nikola Tesla
With countless inventions under his name (a lot we still use to this day), in my opinion, there is no one that used their natural talents for a more positive purpose than Nikola Tesla.
Not many people know that the third star to the left of the Chicago flag represents the 1983 World's Columbian Exposition (AKA Chicago's World's Fair) in Chicago where Tesla powered over 200,000 light bulbs for 27,000,000 visitors from around the world with his alternating current generators. At this time, harnessing this amount of electricity to power and light an event of this enormous scale was never seen before. This display also showed the rest of the world that Chicago was able to rise from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire which destroyed a large portion of the city just 22 years earlier.
His obsession with one day providing the entire earth with free, clean energy has always made a big impression on me. To me, it was clear that he was motivated not by money, but by how he can use his talents to contribute to humanity.
"The desire that guides me in all I do is the desire to harness the forces of nature to the service of mankind." - Nikola Tesla