Michael Simon Toon

I’m currently based out of Downtown Los Angeles, participating in multiple projects based in the US, UK and Europe. I also provide freelance consultation for investors planning to develop property. For 2011 and 2012, I’ve been commissioned to design and build a series of conceptual interior architectural installations, furniture and lighting for urban and warehouse environments. I’m always looking for either clients, partners and/or investors for any of the multiple eco property developments for which I’ve made plans. I’ve so far designed and developed six projects (nine buildings), since 2003. In 2008, my solar and geothermally powered Angels’ House sold for $3.5M, a county record for highest sale price ever.

My 2004 short film, Thought Moments, is regularly viewed in over forty-five countries and has been hosted on scores of psychology and neuroscience websites and forums. The film has established an alternative model for the interpretation of eye movements and direction in the field of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and in October 2009 was awarded youtube honors for Russia: #5 Top Favorited (of all time) in Education, #17 Top Rated (of all time) in Education and #65 Most Viewed (of all time) in Education.

Thought Moments, UK Short Film, directed and produced by MST, 2004

I was born in Walsall, England, 1977. My mother, a city carer and teacher for the learning disabled, was born in Lucknow, India, and is German, Indian, Portuguese, French and Scots-Irish. My father, a professional gambler and entrepreneur (won first place in a BBC televised poker match with the British Poker Champion, 1978, and was UK speed waterskiing champion in 1975, also televised), was born in Walsall. Illustration was my sole interest in life until age 14, when I took up photography. I would take pictures of anything and everything. In the evening I would turn the kitchen into a darkroom, developing and printing through the night.

I attended Queen Mary’s Grammar School 1988-1993, the highest performing school on the UK national school league table in 1993. It was noticed that I was a proficient illustrator and photographer. I was employed as a photographer for school events and portraits of pupils and staff. I was also asked to revive the school's unused photography department, teaching fellow pupils film photography, processing with chemistry and print production in the darkroom.

From 16 to 18 years old, I attended the Bournville School of Art to study photography, art history and design, whilst at the same time, working as a freelance commerical photographer and assistant. At age 17, I started working for a commercial photo studio ORIGINS, for corporate clients and major advertising agencies, including SONY and McCANN ERIKSON, as well as more local clients in the heavy engineering, manufacturing and defense industries. I used to show my personal work at local art galleries, and at 18 years old I was asked by Birmingham’s CUSTARD FACTORY (now one of the largest communities of artists in Europe), for a solo exhibition of my photography of bikini clad transsexuals at their gallery.

At 18, I went to Bangkok to become an ordained Buddhist Monk, studying Theravada Buddhism under the late Master PRA MAHA UTHAI, one of Thailand's foremost Buddhist scholars. I lived and studied at GOLDEN MOUNT TEMPLE (WAT SAKET), wearing the saffron robes, shaved head and eyebrows. Everything I learned in the temple, has proven to be extremely practical, so far.

At age 19, I traveled across Southern California and spent most of the next eight years in Hollywood, Los Angeles. I photographed actors and designed flyers for clubs, raves and parties. I was given office space at renowned studio, A&A Graphics, (now APC), which was California’s hub for club, rave and concert promotions. They produced the now famous Coachella visual identity, and are now one of the largest direct marketing studios in America.

I worked as a freelance photographer, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and animator. I worked as a freelance Art Director at SONY MUSIC/COLUMBIA RECORDS in Santa Monica, designing CD/cassette album cover art, and poster advertising. I also worked for ATLAS PRODUCTIONS in Santa Monica, producers of the cult feature film BARAKA, as well as national television advertisements for McDONALDS, BUDWEISER and MOLSON. I art directed and designed magazine print advertising for their services.

In 2001 I started working as a freelance artist at the studio of 23D FILMS in Hollywood. 23D was founded, and is operated by, award winning former character animators for Southpark, The Simpsons, Futurama and King of the Hill, and creators of animations for Tool, Tupac and Eminem music videos. I worked as a consultant to 23D FILMS, refining character artwork and testing alternative computer based methods for the 'ink and paint' process, which circumvented the need for outsourcing to LASER PACIFIC (Ink and Painters for Simpsons, Futurama), who had previously been employed by 23D to render broadcast quality animations, at considerable expense. I was able to successfuly prove the technique with an interstitial for NEW LINE CINEMA produced entirely in-house.

While working as a freelance consultant, I used to photograph my close friends and family. In 2000, JUXTAPOZ published EROTICA magazine which featured an eight page editorial on my personal portrait photography and polaroid photography.

In 2004, Cleopatra Records, Hollywood, published HOLLYWOOD ROCKS, a hardback book about Hollywood Rock Bands of the 80’s including Guns and Roses, Chili Peppers and Motley Crue. I assisted as editor and designed 110 of the 210 pages.

I was asked to art direct and design the University College London graduation ceremony program, for the graduating year 2000. I was given complete artistic freedom, and was told only to consider that, “people will have worked extremely hard to be able to receive one of these.” UCL is one of the world’s top ranking universities.

In 2004, I travelled the UK to produce THOUGHT MOMENTS, a short film which the British Arts Council accepted into their library for exhibition at international film festivals. THOUGHT MOMENTS is named after a lesser-known term used in Buddhism to describe the sequence of thought processes that occur after a physical or mental object enters the mind. A subject that I became familiar with while I was a Buddhist Monk in Bangkok, eleven years before. The film has achieved relative popularity, especially amongst teachers and students of psychology and buddhism. A google search for “thought moments” whether in English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, German, Portugese, Korean, Polish or Arabic, results in pages of reposts of the film, and consequent discussions on buddhist, neuroscience, health, psychology and NLP websites, forums and blogs. The film has been reproduced by high school students in Sacramento and Turkey, and set as coursework for psychology bachillerato (A levels in the UK, Advanced placement in the US) by a psychology professor in Spain.

In 2006, I put forward a design proposal and business plan for a property redevelopment project to Straight Line Developments Ltd. Straight Line consequently purchased the site and commissioned me to design and build a luxury home. I designed Angels’ House and assembled the construction team - Case Study Construction. I marketed the property mid-construction and it was bought within two weeks of being advertised, in 2008.

I was inspired by the modern architecture in Los Angeles and by the houses of the Case Study Program, a project created by Arts & Architecture Magazine, in Santa Monica, LA, that was active from 1945 to 1966. The Case Study Program commissioned architects and designers like Charles and Ray Eames, Mies Van Der Roe, Eero Saarinen and Richard Neutra to create the ideal home. For Angels’ House, I designed the building and all its contents, from the furniture to custom manufactured light fittings, so that the end result might be more of a singular concept, or a sculpture, rather than a collection of separate ideas.

In 2010 I collaborated with artist and writer, Dr Rachel Armstrong (Senior TED fellow and UCL teaching fellow) to produce the short film, Protocell Circus, which has so far been featured at the Royal Society’s British Film Institute, South Bank, London, Chelsea Art Museum in Manhattan, and Google Headquarters, New York. The film features microscope video footage of inanimate matter forming into chemical cells called ‘protocells’ produced and captured on video by Dr Armstrong. It is the first film ever to show the physical process of life forming from simple chemistry, otherwise known as abiogenesis. It would seem to validate Aristotle’s ancient theory of spontaneous generation and may even provide an insight into the origin of all life on Earth. I enhanced and edited the original video footage, as well as post-producing, sound-designing and writing both the subtitles and narrative for the film. Dr Armstrong refers to the subtitles that speculate as to the protocells’ motivation as “their thought moments.”

I currently have plans for multiple eco developments, including the mixed-use conversion of the Capitol Garment Building; a twelve floor, neo-gothic, reinforced concrete building in good condition, in the center of the fashion district of Downtown Los Angeles, and also for the design and construction of an eco residence in Malibu. The architectural installations which I have designed and built will be sold through fab.com from March 2012.