The Original Mantis Digital

Mantis Digital began in the early days of the internet, back in 1998, when digital animation and interactive media still felt like unexplored territory. At the time, I was experimenting with illustration, Flash animation, and hand-built HTML websites, fascinated by the idea that art and technology could merge into something alive and interactive. Long before social media, templates, and modern web platforms existed, Mantis Digital started as a personal creative studio — a place to experiment, learn, and imagine what digital media could become.

The name itself came from a memory that stayed with me for years. My uncle, who was an artist himself, once talked about wanting to create a family art business. Near the end of his life, he invited us to his home to show us something unusual: thousands of praying mantises had taken over his yard — adults and babies covering the hedges, bushes, and gardens surrounding the house. It felt surreal and unforgettable. Not long after, he passed away, but the image of those mantises and the idea of building something creative together stayed in my mind.

Years later, while searching for a name for my digital art and animation work, those memories suddenly connected. The name Mantis Digital appeared almost instantly, combining the strange beauty of that moment with the future-focused world of digital creativity I was exploring at the time. I registered the domain and began building experimental animation projects, interactive Flash work, and early HTML websites throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Over time, the original domain was lost, and other companies eventually adopted variations of the Mantis Digital name, but this project was the original beginning of that identity.

Today, Mantis Digital Media continues that original spirit of creativity and experimentation. While the company now builds modern websites and digital experiences for businesses, the foundation has always been rooted in art, storytelling, animation, and visual imagination. Mantis Digital Media is both a working digital studio and an ongoing creative project — carrying forward an idea that first began more than two decades ago during the earliest years of the modern web.