Meet Matthew Dunnerstick of Heroic, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Dunnerstick.

Hi Matthew, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started in writing and film. My first feature, The Custom Mary, premiered at the HBO New York International Latino Film Festival and went on to win eight festival awards before landing on Hulu. That project taught me how much of getting a creative thing made is actually production logistics, technology, and finding the right collaborators, not just the creative work itself.

After that I kept moving between disciplines. I wrote, directed, coded, made early digital art projects, ran a satire publication, and worked with other artists on their projects. The pattern that kept showing up was that artists and small institutions had real ideas but no infrastructure to get them out into the world cleanly. So I started building that infrastructure for them.

That eventually became Heroic, my agency in Los Angeles. We do design, web development, social, video, media buying, and creative production for founders, artists, and institutions. Over the years we have worked on projects for Getty, LACMA, Disney, Pixar, Netflix, Marvel, BMW, and Red Bull, among others. The company started under a different name and rebranded to Heroic as the work expanded.

Around 2021 I co-founded Arsnl Art with a few partners. Arsnl is a digital art studio focused on producing work with established and experimental artists in new formats. The most well-known project from that period was Frank Stella’s Geometries, which is now in the Whitney’s collection. We have also produced work with the quilters of Gee’s Bend and other artists exploring how physical and digital practices can sit alongside each other.

These days my time is split between running Heroic, producing through Arsnl, and my own creative practice. The throughline across all of it is the same one I noticed early on. Good ideas need both elegance and execution to actually land, and most of the interesting work happens at the intersection of art, technology, and culture.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Got it. Here is a revised version that includes that.
No, it has not been a smooth road, and I think anyone who says it has is editing the story.
The first big challenge was the gap between creative ambition and the resources needed to actually execute. Independent film taught me that early. My first feature, The Custom Mary, eventually found its audience, but I have several other films and books that were turned down and never published. That is part of the work that does not get talked about much. Most of what you make does not land, or does not land in the form you imagined, and you have to keep going anyway. Learning how to sit with that without letting it stop the next project is its own skill.
Building an agency in Los Angeles has its own version of that. Early on, the work was constant, but it was also reactive, taking what came in and trying to grow from there. Figuring out how to position the company, who we wanted to work with, and how to say no to projects that did not fit took longer than I expected. The rebrand from Stick Creations to Heroic was part of that process. It looks like a name change from the outside, but internally it was a lot of decisions about what kind of agency we actually wanted to be.
The shift into digital art and Arsnl came with a different set of challenges. We were producing work in a market that was moving fast and had real volatility. Some of the projects we are most proud of, like Frank Stella’s Geometries, came together during a period when the broader space was getting a lot of skepticism. Holding the line on quality and on the artists we wanted to work with, while the market noise got louder, took discipline.
There is also the basic challenge of running a small business that does ambitious work. Cash flow, hiring, keeping a team motivated through slower stretches, balancing client work with my own creative practice. None of that is unique to me, but it is real, and it does not stop being real once you have a few wins on the wall.
The thing I have learned is that the obstacles do not really go away, they just change shape. The skill is getting better at working through them without losing the reason you started.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Heroic, LLC?
Business name:
Heroic, LLC
Description:
Heroic is a boutique creative agency based in Los Angeles. We work with founders, artists, and institutions on design, web development, social, video, media buying, identity, and creative production. The agency started over fifteen years ago and rebranded from Stick Creations to Heroic as the scope of the work expanded.
What we actually do is sit at the intersection of creative vision and technical execution. A lot of agencies do one or the other. We do both under the same roof, which means an artist or founder can come to us with an idea and we can take it from concept through design, build, launch, and ongoing support without handing it off to three other vendors. That tends to be the difference for the people who hire us.
The client list reflects the range. We have produced work for or alongside Getty, LACMA, Disney, Pixar, Netflix, Marvel, BMW, and Red Bull, and we have also built sites and campaigns for independent artists, galleries, and small businesses who needed the same level of craft. The size of the budget is not what determines whether the work is interesting to us.
I am also the co-founder and CMO of Arsnl Art, a digital art production studio that works with established and experimental artists on new formats. The most recognized project from Arsnl is Frank Stella’s Geometries, which is now in the Whitney’s collection. We have also produced work with the quilters of Gee’s Bend and other artists exploring how physical and digital practices sit alongside each other.
What I am most proud of is that the work has held up. The campaigns, sites, and projects we have made over the years still function and still represent the people we made them for. In an industry that often prioritizes speed and trend over craft, that consistency matters to me.
For anyone reading, Heroic is the place to go if you have a real creative ambition and need a team that can both imagine it and actually build it. We are not the cheapest option, and we are not trying to be. We are the option for people who want the work to be good.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up in Massillon, Ohio. If you know Massillon, you know it is a football town. Tiger Stadium, Friday nights, the whole town shows up. Massillon football is one of the most storied high school programs in the country, and growing up there you absorb that whether you play or not. There is a real pride in the place, a sense that what you do matters and that you do it at a high level.
I was online early too, before most kids my age knew what the internet was, and I think that shaped a lot of how I see things now. It was a place where you could build something and put it out into the world without anyone giving you permission, and that stuck with me.
I was always a reader, but I was also always artsy. Those two things did not feel separate to me. Books, films, drawings, code, it all felt like different ways of making something. I was the kid who would get pulled into a project and not come up for air until it was done.
So you had this combination growing up. A town that took excellence seriously and a kid whose version of that was making things on a screen instead of on a field. I think that mix is part of why I ended up in a career that crosses disciplines. The work ethic came from one side and the curiosity came from the other.
If there is a personality trait that has stayed consistent from then to now, it is probably stubbornness in the good sense. Once I get interested in an idea I have a hard time letting it go until I figure out how to make it real.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://heroic.art
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/HeroicArtCodex
• Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/HeroicArtCodex

Image Credits
Matthew Dunnerstick