Optiflux

My name is Nic Rotondo.

I've been designing art commercially under the banner Optiflux for about 30 years now.

This site is sprawling, akin to an imagination. It acts as scaffolding for me to curate and display the art I make, and can make for you. Optiflux has evolved over a long and winding road, click through for more of the story.

Get Deeper Into theFlux

The primary engine for displaying the wares.

Diggin' deep into the hard drives to gather these projects all together in one place has been a lot of fun. Branding, Logos, Posters, Web Ads, Packaging, T-Shirts, Motion Graphics, Video, and of course… Photography, my never-ending pursuit. Meander the garden, feel free to spin things around and have a keen look, thanks for coming.

Visit the Portfolio

Home to the websites we make.

When Version One of Optiflux.com came online in December of ‘96, the internet was a completely different place. In that era of dial-up modems, before the corporate overlords would ride bandwidth to scale the internet to infinity and beyond, websites were special places, destinations. We emblazoned ours a WebOutpost, a place to linger, have a look around, get caught up in
the webs we weave.

Visit the webOutpost

These four sites are special. We call them the satellite sites. They exist with bespoke designs on their own domains, yet should be considered extensions of the primary Optiflux.com site you’re on right now.

Chicago Dusk 'til Dawn

A love letter to the city, this project unites the cartography of Chicago with images of seldom captured corners of our town.

Visit

Gridwarz

These began in 1997 on Version 1 of Optiflux.com. This is an art site based on the 100-square grid. This latest incarnation in high-resolution.

Visit

theArktype

Examining ideas behind self-sustaining structures, survivalism, and innovative ways of presenting architecture on the web.

Visit

AudioTribe

This will evolve into my place to present original songs, spoken word pieces and sound collage with high edit counts. Skies the limit.

Visit

This is where the writing happens.

Notes, random thoughts and essays, obits of note, Patron Saint dossiers. Strong Coffee and the Hot Lists also live here along with whatever else might fall under the written word. Riding on a sub-domain, theScroll is built in WordPress and fully searchable.

Read the Latest

StrongCoffee

This page collects the exceptional that we run across on the web. These links can be anything really… artists and agencies, YouTube channels, outstanding work in graphics, video or motion graphics, singular examples of web coding that produce extraordinary outcomes, you name it. Have a scroll through and you’ll get the gist.
theTribeScribe

The Recollector. The Revelator.
The Tribe’s memory of its own lore. The overall literary treatment of the Optiflux|MediaTribe. Typography and definition, prose and lyric, screenplay and invention as well as the evolving blueprint of terminology, lexicon, character development and idiom. What this ends up being, the function it ends up serving, is still being pondered. Standby.
PatronSaints

What comes to bare when a maker makes, is the collective amalgamation of all that that maker has ever experienced, studied, absorbed or been inspired by. It’s all part of the cryptic union. Interconnected threads spanning time and experience. The seeds of that memory bring the new into existence. These are the humans that have inspired us. Spanning genre and skill sets, we pay tribute by maintaining dossiers on these exceptional humans.

Terra Firma.

Inner Orbit.

Satellite Sites.

Sometimes not knowing what you’re doing can be the best way to create something original.

-- Rick Rubin --

Every great journey begins where the map ends.

-- Unknown --

These four sites are special. We call them the satellite sites. They exist with bespoke designs on their own domains, yet should be considered extensions of the primary Optiflux.com site you’re on right now.

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty,
many souls must be trampled.

-- Hunter S. Thompson --

This is where the writing happens.

Notes, random thoughts and essays, obits of note, Patron Saint dossiers. Strong Coffee and the Hot Lists also live here along with whatever else might fall under the written word. Riding on a sub-domain, theScroll is built in WordPress and fully searchable.

StrongCoffee

theTribeScribe

PatronSaints

Sometimes not knowing what you’re doing can be the best way to create something original.

-- Rick Rubin --

Every great journey begins where the map ends.

-- Unknown --

These four sites are special. We call them the satellite sites. They exist with bespoke designs on their own domains, yet should be considered extensions of the primary Optiflux.com site you’re on right now.

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty,many souls must be trampled.

-- Hunter S. Thompson --

This is where the writing happens. Notes, random thoughts and essays, obits of note, Patron Saint dossiers. Strong Coffee and the Hot Lists also live here along with whatever else might fall under the written word. Riding on a sub-domain, theScroll is built in WordPress and fully searchable.

StrongCoffee

theTribeScribe

PatronSaints

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty,
many souls must be trampled.

This is where the writing happens.

Notes, random thoughts and essays, obits of note, Patron Saint dossiers. Strong Coffee and the Hot Lists also live here along with whatever else might fall under the written word. Riding on a sub-domain, theScroll is built in WordPress and fully searchable.