design, short-form video, photography + words for communities and causes.
selected work
2012 to nowAlmost ten years as the whole digital department at Pat’s Games, a 30-year-old game store in Austin. Graphics, carousels, reels, captions, email. Community engagement up 159%.
photography
30 framesPortraits of the artists and friends around me, an Impala afternoon, a crew shoot with a lot of phones, and a wedding at sunset. Contact sheets at the end, because the in-between frames are half the story.
about
I’m Charles Stephens, most folks call me Chucky. I make design, video, photos, and words that help people get it: the rules, the story, the reason to show up.
At Pat’s Games I design the graphics, cut the reels, write the captions, and helped turn a competitive hub into a third place where new folks feel welcome. Before and alongside that, I spent over a decade as a teaching artist, helping young writers tell their own stories out loud. Same craft either way: take something dense, make it clear, make people feel seen.
- photoshop
- illustrator
- premiere pro
- after effects
- final cut pro
- capcut
- canva
- wordpress
- mailchimp
- meta business suite
on the mic
“I turn my life’s tangles into 16‑bar spells.”
Rapper and poet. Jazz is often my medium, whether it’s rapping over Pharoah Sanders or Ethiopian jazz samples. Every song is the one I needed at that moment.
- winner, national poetry slam2017
- winner, southern fried regional poetry slam2017
- nominee, austin chronicle best hip-hop artist2022, 2023
- grantee, city of austin live music fund$20k+
shows + flyers
2021 to 2026Nights I threw, hosted, or played around Austin: Homies Rap Good, two release shows, SXSW week, a benefit, and the going-away party that closed out my Austin run.
hit me up
Design and content roles, freelance, shows, or just to connect.