Our Staff

The Duke & the Duck Productions is a small company, with only 2 full-time staff (the founders) and a number of talented contract illustrators, animators, programmers and audio geeks. Despite our size, we have managed to work with a number of cool partners and more than a few great clients. Here’s a little bit more about our founders.

Dave Ellington, aka “The Duke”

In addition to being the reigning company ping-pong champion, Dave is our resident “Animation Director” which means that anything to do with making things move is his responsibility.

Prior to starting The Duke & the Duck Productions, Dave was a staff animator at Precision Graphics where he worked on informational motion graphics for the textbook and education industries. Before that, Dave was a student at Parkland College where he won Best in School prizes for his work each year. Dave also has a degree was in Wildlife Conservation and has spent more afternoons than he’d like to remember collecting muskrat poop and catching crawfish for those lab classes.

Alex Herder, aka “The Duck”

On his business card it says that Alex is the “Business Director” which means that he is responsible for finding clients, keeping them happy and making sure we don’t run out of hot cocoa.

Prior to starting The Duke & the Duck Productions, Alex was responsible for the online marketing at Voxiva, a DC-based software company with offices in 13 countries around the world. Before that he founded a cooperative bike shop in Urbana, IL where he went to the University of Illinois and met The Duke. He currently lives with his fiancée Melissa and a cat that is far too fat for her own good.