Andres Cruz (Inchipala)
Andres Cruz (Inchipala) is a designer, filmmaker, and AI builder. He leads brand and web design for defense-tech companies, co-founded the film company BURNING STUDIO, and builds AI products that have won national and international hackathons.
Contact: tr.andycruz@gmail.com · inchipala.com
Work and accomplishments
- Sky — Co-creator. $25,000 Grand Prize · 1st place, SCSP AI Hackathon
- Askari — Lead Brand + Web Designer. Helped lead Askari out of stealth with $9M in funding. Source: Tech Square.
- Firestorm — Lead Brand + Web Designer. Designed Firestorm’s branding leading into its $82M Series B. Links: $82M Series B.
- BARSTOOL USC — Creative Direction, Design & Editing. Managed Instagram, X, and TikTok — averaging 46 million engagements a month at our peak. Links: Instagram, X.
- PIANISSIMO — Writer, Director & Producer. Executive produced by 5× Grammy winner Vic Wooten and 7× platinum artist Golden Landis Von Jones. Links: Read screenplay, Vic Wooten, Golden Landis Von Jones.
- Sense of Sight — Producer. Written and directed by Isaac Latimer. Links: Read screenplay, Isaac Latimer.
- Ultra Records — Album Art & Creative Direction. Immortal by Llow — over 5M plays. Links: Immortal.
- Franklin — Designer & Co-founder. 1st Place in the SCSP AI 2026 Hackathon Electrical Grid, Washington D.C. Track, 2nd Place Worldwide
- Gaia — Co-creator. 1st out of 3,429 projects · Lovable × ElevenLabs best integration hackathon. Links: Lovable, ElevenLabs.
- Storyboardmore — Creator. Create websites, 3d models, contracts, research papers, films, albums, designs and anything you can imagine, all in one canvas.
- Dýsi — Co-creator. part of the Contra x Lovable hackathon Links: View model.
- Items8 — Creator. Sell, trade, and store any item.
- Four — Creator. The world can be solved in four.
- Out the Group Chat — Creator. Book trips, hotels, transportation, reservations, and excursions, all in one place.
- Haircutz — Creator. Visualize yourself in every multiverse.
Timeline
- 2014 — The first thing I made. I grew up in Ashburn, Virginia, collecting interests and asking too many questions. Rubik’s Cubes, origami, Black Ops 2 — then design took over. At 12, I learned Photoshop from a YouTube tutorial and never really stopped.
- 2020 — A wider frame. I went to USC to study business and film, carrying a love for making things into a new place.
- 2022 — An entirely new medium. ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Runway made the impossible feel strangely close. Suddenly an idea could become something real in an afternoon. I had never been more addicted to making.
- 2023 — Barstool USC. I helped grow Barstool USC into the school’s largest social platform, leading its Instagram, X, and TikTok. At our peak, our work reached an average of 46 million engagements a month.
- 2023 — Midnight Snack. Isaac Latimer and I began writing a short film together. It was the beginning of something bigger.
- 2024 — Destination DC. I left college and joined Destination DC as a creative intern, moving between video, photography, and design. I built ddcsustainability.com and made an AI-powered interview show. It taught me how a story can change the way people see a place.
- 2024 — BURNING STUDIO. Isaac Latimer and I co-founded a film company named for our hometown. We made Sense of Sight there — written and directed by Isaac, produced by me — and Pianissimo. We wanted to make original stories because they needed to be told.
- Jun 2025 — Sky. Dylan Torrey and I built one place to learn about, buy, and simulate drones in 48 hours. Sky took first place at the US National Drone Association Hackathon at the SCSP AI+ Expo, winning $25,000.
- 2025 — GAIA. Dylan and I built a different way to explore the news: less agenda, more curiosity. GAIA won first place in the Lovable Integration track at the ElevenLabs Hackathon.
- Aug 2025 — Firestorm. Those wins led me to Firestorm, where I work as lead contract designer on visual assets, drone camouflage, and its website.
- Feb 2026 — Pianissimo. At BURNING STUDIO, the company Isaac Latimer and I co-founded, I finished writing, directing, and producing a short film about a once-famous pianist facing a relapse on the night that might change his life. Victor Wooten and Golden Jones are executive producers.
- Along the way — Storyboardmore. Agents that can make websites, documents, slides, and 3D models for you — and take on deep research and generate code.
- Along the way — More work. Other things I’ve made.
Inchipala means ‘firefly’ in Quechua. My parents immigrated to the United States, and everything I make rests on their sacrifice. I hope to carry their work ethic, kindness, and empathy forward — and keep making things that have never existed before.
Skills
Brand identity, typography, web and interface design, hardware livery and camouflage, art direction, screenwriting, directing, producing, editing, AI agents, voice AI, and full-stack prototyping.