“Orlando is my context,” he says. “But it’s all subconscious. With the cardboard art festival, for instance. Just seeing what we did this year compared to the direction it’s taking as we plan for next year is very cool. And that progress happens just from opening it up to more and more people and their submissions. I didn’t seek to make those changes, they happened naturally. Same thing with the SIT project. Someone just donated a bunch of beach chairs, how Florida is that?” He is referring to his best known and longest running endeavor, the SIT project.

Simon, whose role on the Toon Boom team was to ensure the product worked well for artists.

it’s his first Emmy. But as for when we might drop by his animation studio to check out the statuette? “I don’t actually get one,” Simon said with a laugh. “But I did get a picture of it.”