Digital art studio · Portland, Oregon & everywhere

Digital art that feels hand‑cut.

Softcut is a small studio of illustrators and animators. We make characters, editorial art and motion that look like someone actually touched them.

See the work Start a project
Cut-paper illustration of three people working in a sunny studio: one drawing on a tablet, one pointing at a monitor full of bold shapes, one holding a mug, with a sleeping orange cat and a big round window.

Selected work

Six recent pieces.

The full portfolio is longer and a little louder. Ask for it.

Cut-paper figure asleep inside a crescent moon above layered night hills, with orange paper stars.

Night Shift

Editorial · Cover

Bold overlapping cut-paper circles, arcs and squiggles tumbling diagonally across a cream frame.

Tumble

Motion · Festival bumpers

Screen-print style poster of stacked rounded buildings at dusk with a small streetcar on a bridge and a huge cream sun.

Dusk Line

Poster · Print series

Cut-paper fox in a blue scarf riding a bicycle through a lime-green forest under a pink sky and a big moon.

Redd Rides

Picture book · 32 pages

Character sheet of a round lime-green paper robot in three poses: waving, holding a paintbrush and jumping.

Bolt

Character · Brand mascot

Matte coffee bag wrapped in a bold cut-paper pattern of halved oranges, leaves and wavy stripes.

Peel

Packaging · Pattern

Services

What we make.

Four things, done properly. Most projects mix two of them.

01

Illustration

Editorial, campaign and spot illustration with a cut-paper heart. Built to print big and scale small.

  • Editorial & covers
  • Campaign key art
  • Spot & icon sets
  • Murals & installations
02

Character design

Mascots and casts with real personality: turnarounds, expressions and props, ready for animation or 3D.

  • Mascots & brand characters
  • Model sheets & turnarounds
  • Expression libraries
  • Rig-ready files
03

Motion & animation

Looping logo animations, explainer sequences and social-ready clips, animated frame by frame or in After Effects.

  • Logo animations & bumpers
  • Explainers
  • Social loops
  • Lottie & web animation
04

Art direction

A visual system your team can keep using: palettes, shapes, rules and a style guide that does not gather dust.

  • Visual systems
  • Style guides
  • Illustration libraries
  • Team workshops

Process

How a project goes.

Typical timeline: two to six weeks, depending on how many things need to move.

  1. 1

    Hello

    Tell us what you need. We reply within two business days with questions, a quote and a timeline.

  2. 2

    Sketches

    Two rounds of rough directions. Ugly on purpose, so the ideas do the talking.

  3. 3

    Color

    We cut, color and refine the chosen direction. One round of tidy-ups is included.

  4. 4

    Delivery

    Every format you need: print, web, social and source files, plus a short guide on using them.

Wide cut-paper illustration of a sunlit studio with arched windows, desks with drawing tablets, pinned paper swatches, tall plants and a sleeping dog on a rug.

The studio

A small studio with big scissors.

Softcut started in 2019 as one illustrator, a second-hand drawing tablet and a lot of colored paper. Today we are three humans and one cat working from a sunny room in Portland, Oregon, with collaborators in Austin, Chicago and Brooklyn.

We keep the studio small on purpose. The people you meet on the first call are the people who make your work.

Years cutting
7
Projects shipped
140+
States served
34
Studio cat
1

“They took a brief that said make it feel like a Sunday and somehow did exactly that.”

Kyle Peterson · Head of Brand, Kip

“Our mascot has more fans than our app. We are fine with it.”

Ashley Morgan · Founder, Plink

“Fast, thoughtful, and the cleanest files we have ever received.”

Brian Walsh · Publisher, Little Fold Press

Contact

Let’s make something.

Tell us about the project, the deadline and roughly what you would like to spend. We will come back with a plan.

  • Email
  • Studio
    Portland, Oregon · remote-friendly
  • Reply time
    Within two business days
  • Elsewhere
    Twitter · @softcut_digital
Rough budget