Trip was drawn to advertising long before he illustrated and eventually painted. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he first worked as an Art Director with ad agencies Leo Burnett, Chicago, and with Saatchi & Saatchi, New York. But working with and hiring his favorite illustrators through the help of being an Art Director gave him an intoxicating look into their side of the creative world. He decided to change gears and illustrated the 16-book chapter series ROTTEN SCHOOL (RL Stine, HarperCollins). The series was optioned twice for feature development. Trip went on to create character design for Blue Sky Studios. He has illustrated a number of other children's books and helped develop characters for animated features and commercials.