I’m a designer and builder of buildings, interiors, installations and furniture; a filmmaker; photographer; illustrator; graphic designer; animator; and developer; I’m founder and designer for a design and build firm in Venice Beach, California. I’ve made short films which are utilized by both teachers and students, from high school to post graduate, and professionals, in the varying fields of neuroscience, psychology, facial expressions, nlp, evolution, synthetic biology and architecture (word-search for the terms, “toon,” “thought moments,” or “protocell circus,” to locate said references); they are reproduced and referenced around the world, both as part of the curriculum, and independently, by bloggers, ESL teachers, (at least one) Zen Buddhist monk journalist, referenced in university print-published books and research papers; and a broad spectrum of practitioners internationally. In 2008, Angels’ House, a UK solar and geothermal-powered house which I designed and built, sold for £2M ($3.5M), setting the record for the highest ever sales price for a single-family residence in the county of Staffordshire. In 2012, it was referred to as one of four “modernist marvels for sale” in a Telegraph article, “The rise of the Modernist, eco-friendly home.” In 2018, Japan’s longest running fine art magazine published in print, Bijutsu Techo, nominated my short film, Protocell Circus, as the most significant bio-art  [in the world] in 2010. In March 2022, Popular Mechanics published an article about my design for a new type of utility-scale photovoltaic mounting system and consequent ‘discovery,’ “Woah, This Designer Found a Brand-New Fibonacci Sequence.” In 2023 I built the first installation using this design, a 40-foot tall aluminum structure with 1,008 LEDs, on Single Tree Lane, in Joshua Tree, California. As of 2024-2025, my websites receive over 125k unique visitors annually and steadily increasing over 20 years, from over 130 countries; the US, North and South America, Russia, Europe, and Asia; from China to the Kingdom of Bhutan; from Australia to the Island of Tuvalu.

My 2004, pre-HD (480p) short film, Thought Moments, continues to be viewed, year after year, and a different version of the film that I also produced, on which I superimposed a theoretical model for the interpretation of eye movements, has been established as a viable alternative to the existing visual access cues used in the field of neuro-linguistic programming. Google searches for different nations for thought moments return pages of reposts and references to the short film, besides English; in French, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Polish, German, Thai or Tamil, on various Buddhist, neuroscience, nlp, health, psychology, language, and religion websites, forums and blogs. In 2010, I co-produced the short film, Protocell Circus, which was exhibited at the Royal Society’s British Film Institute, in South Bank, London; in the Chelsea Art Museum, and at Google HQ, in Manhattan, New York; and at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria. According to Wikipedia, at time of writing, Protocell Circus is one of 42 noteworthy “Documentary films about science” - a category that also includes Powers of Ten, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, and A Brief History of Time.

When Iceland’s banks collapsed in 2008, as a non-Icelandic, Englishman, his own wealth was gone. But because of how he raised me - to build and to fend for myself - I was able to give back to him, at the end, with money I had earned designing, building and selling the most expensive residence ever sold in my county, which I had financed from nothing.

I was born in Walsall, England, 1977. My mother, born in Lucknow, India, a great, great, great, granddaughter of Princess Helena and Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, worked for 40 years as a government carer and teacher for the learning disabled. She is of mixed heritage: German, Anglo-Indian, Portuguese, French, Scots-Irish. My father (d. 2012), an Englishman, also born in Walsall, was a professional gambler, property developer and entrepreneur, winner of a BBC poker match against the British poker champion in 1978, and UK speed water skiing champion, 1975, (though entirely self-taught and without owning a boat). My mother provided for me, and when I turned 16, my father took me to a restaurant and instructed me to apply for a job washing dishes, which I did. It was both my first and last job; since then, I’ve been entirely self-employed as a freelance photographer, graphic designer, print-broker, illustrator, animator, architectural designer, furniture and lighting designer, and fabricator, engineer, and property developer.

Illustration was my only real interest in life until I was 14 years old, when I started to take an interest in photography. At night I would turn my mother’s kitchen into a darkroom, developing rolls of film and printing photographs until the next day. At age 11, I passed the 11+ Exam, which allowed me to attend Queen Mary’s Grammar School  from 1988 to 1993, the highest performing school in the UK according to the first ever national school league table in 1993. The headmaster noticed that I was a keen and proficient illustrator and photographer and so I was employed as a freelance photographer for school events and portraits of pupils and staff. I was asked to revive the school's unused photography department, teaching my fellow pupils (in a pre-digital world) the art of film photography, film processing with chemistry, and print production in the darkroom. Although I was not a member of my school’s British Army and RAF Cadet Force, I was ‘asked’ to wear a uniform (technically drafted) to teach photography (reconnaissance) to the cadets.

From 16 to 18 years of age, I attended the Bournville School of Art (now Birmingham City University) to study photography, art history and design, taking a non-degree course with a stronger reputation for producing fine artists than the same institution’s degree course on the same subject; only students that were already proficient or advanced in photography were selected, and our work was used to teach the degree and post-graduate courses at the same university. At 16, I was half the average age of all the students in my class, the youngest that had ever attended the course. Higher education was still free at the time, for qualified applicants. While I was a student, I was a freelance photographer, and I was a photographic assistant. At age 17, I worked for a commercial studio working for corporate clients and advertising agencies, Sony and McCann Erikson, and local clients in the heavy engineering, manufacturing and defense industries, photographing anything and everything from microchips to tanks, and the machinery that makes tanks (in the pre-photoshop era). I was also a club magazine staff photographer in the EDM scene, going to two or three clubs a night, sometimes every night of the week. I promoted my own work to art galleries, and when I was 18, I was asked by the Custard Factory (the largest community of artists in Europe) to exhibit my hand-printed color photographs of bikini-clad Thai transsexuals in their gallery.

In 1996, upon my father’s suggestion, I went to Bangkok, Thailand, to become a Theravada (the oldest school of buddhism) Buddhist monk for a summer. I was ordained by Somdet Phra Buddhacarya (who became the acting Supreme Patriarch, leader of all Buddhist monks in Thailand until his death in 2013) and I studied directly under the late master, Phra Maha Uthai, one of Theravada's great Buddhist scholars. I lived and studied at Wat Saket (Golden Mount Temple) in Bangkok, wearing the saffron robes, shaving my head and eyebrows, receiving alms every day (begging for food). I also travelled to the forest to study meditation as part of the Thai Forest tradition.

At age 19, I traveled across Southern California and spent most of the next eight years in Hollywood, Los Angeles. I photographed actors and designed flyers for clubs, raves and parties. I was given office space at renowned studio, A&A Graphics (now APC), which was California’s hub for club, rave and concert promotions. It was the crucible for countless underground promoters some of which would become giants of the scene, like Electric Daisy Carnival, Narnia, and Goldenvoice. A&A helped establish the now-famous Coachella visual identity with their flyers and posters, and are now one of the largest direct marketing studios in America.

I worked as a freelance photographer, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and animator. At age 21, I worked as a freelance Art Director at Sony Music/Columbia in Santa Monica, producing and designing album cover art and poster advertising. 

I also worked as a freelance print graphics designer for Atlas Productions in Santa Monica, producers of cult feature film, Baraka, as well as television advertisements for McDonalds, Budweiser and Molson Beer. I art directed and produced print advertising in Variety Magazine, for their services.

I designed the University College London graduation ceremony program, for the graduating year 2000. I was given creative freedom and was told only to consider that, “People will have worked extremely hard to be able to receive one of these.” UCL is one of the world’s top ranking universities.

In 2001 I started working as a freelance artist at the studio of 23D Films in Hollywood. 23D Films was founded and operated by Emmy award-winning character artists and animators for South Park, The Simpsons, Futurama and King of the Hill, and also the creators of animations for Tool, Tupac and Eminem music videos. I worked as a resident consultant at 23D Films, refining character artwork and testing new and alternative computer-based animation methods I had proposed for the 'ink and paint' process. This circumvented the outsourcing of artwork to Laser Pacific (Ink-and-Paint producers in Hollywood for Simpsons, Futurama, etc.), previously employed by 23D to render its broadcast-quality animations at a much higher cost, in both time and money. I successfully proved the technique with an interstitial for New Line Cinema’s 2002 feature film, Run Ronnie Run, (David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Jack Black) for which I also provided illustration, and ink-and-paint. 23D Film’s founder was CEO of Starburns Industries, producer of the first season of Adult Swim’s, “Rick and Morty.”

While working as a designer, I used to photograph my close friends and family. In 2000, Juxtapoz published a magazine, Erotica, which featured an eight-page editorial article on my personal portrait and polaroid photography. 2004-2012, I didn't take any photographs, but by 2012, I picked up the camera again. I initially explored SLRs, but eventually iPods and iPhones became good enough - for me. I see this as the democratization of photography; everyone can see, and remember, using the same eyes, using the same frame, as everyone else.

In 2004, Cleopatra Records, of Hollywood, published the Hollywood Rocks hardback book about the Hollywood Rock Bands of the 80’s, including Guns & Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Motley Crue. I assisted as the editor and designed 110 of its 210 pages. The book inspired a 90-minute documentary, which according to the movie’s own synopsis is, “Based on the best-selling coffee tablebook of the same name.” The film features the actual printed book heavily as a reference (they flip through the pages of it, discussing its contents). The book has also inspired a compilation album, also of the same name, by Deadline Music Records.

In 2004, I traveled the UK to produce Thought Moments, a short film which the British Council have accepted into their film library. Thought Moments refers to a lesser-known term used in Buddhism to describe the sequence of thought processes that occurs after a physical or mental object enters the mind, a subject that I studied when I was a Buddhist monk in Bangkok, eleven years previously. In October 2009, an unauthorized repost of the film was awarded Youtube honors for Russia – No. 5 top favorited (of all time) in education, No. 17 top rated (of all time) in education and No. 65 most viewed (of all time) in education. It is watched in over 130 countries, from Bhutan to Tuvalu, and the film itself is reproduced by students across the world, from Sacramento to Turkey. In 2009, reproduction of the short film was part of the coursework given to students for their psychology bachillerato (the equivalent of A levels in the UK, or an Advanced Placement in the US) by a psychology professor in Spain.

I was inspired by the modern architecture in Los Angeles and by the houses of the Case Study Program, a project created by Arts & Architecture Magazine, in Santa Monica, LA, that was active from 1945 to 1966. The Case Study Program commissioned architects and designers, including Charles and Ray Eames, Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen and Richard Neutra, to create a new vision of the ideal home. I designed Angels’ House, and its contents, so that the result might be a singular concept, or sculpture, rather than a collection of separate and different ideas. I have since developed some of the results of this study to produce a series of architectural installations for domestic and hospitality environments.

In 2010, I collaborated with artist and writer Dr. Rachel Armstrong (Senior TED fellow and UCL teaching fellow, 2010) to produce the short film, Protocell Circus. Protocell Circus is a short film featuring microscope footage of inanimate matter, forming into rudimentary cells, or prototype cells, referred to as ‘protocells.’ These protocells were synthesized in the laboratory and captured on video by Dr. Armstrong as part of her research into new theoretical architectural construction methods. It is the first film ever to show recognizable physical behaviors of life forming from just basic chemistry, also known as abiogenesis. It would seem to validate Aristotle’s theory of spontaneous generation and may well provide an insight into the origin of all life on Earth - Darwin’s missing ‘spark’ that started evolution on its path. I edited the raw footage, added sound design (the original footage has no audio) and wrote its anthropomorphic narrative (the subtitles). I altered the tonal range and frame-rate to highlight the protocells’ most life-like behaviors; so much so, that when Dr Rachel Armstrong saw the final film for the first time, she asked, “Is that my footage?” It was Dr. Armstrong that first referred to the film’s hypothetical subtitles as, “their thought moments.” In 2010 and 2011 the film was featured at the Royal Society’s British Film Institute, in South Bank, London, and in 2011 was presented as part of a discussion panel with Douglas Trumbull (visual effects creator for 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Andromeda Strain and Bladerunner). In 2010, the film was exhibited at the Chelsea Art Museum, in Manhattan, and at Google Inc, in New York. In 2011, it was exhibited at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria, and was referenced in a German Ethics Council paper titled, “The Importance of Synthetic Biology for Science and Society.” The film is reposted and curated online frequently, and used as a reference in religious and political forums.

In 2015, I designed a new type of mounting system of functional cells - any kind - LED, photovoltaic, piezoelectric - any kind of cell that benefits from being distributed across an increased surface at a lower cost than is currently available. It looks like a tree, but this is an emergent property. It is not designed to simply ‘look’ like a tree. It is designed dot be ‘as efficient’ as a tree, and this is an entirely different proposition. Popular Mechanics wrote an article in 2022 - popmech.treeofwaterandpower.com - about the installation. Utility patent, “Fractal Algorithm Branching Mounting System for Distributed Functional Cells,” was granted June 2025: patent.treeofwaterandpower.com

We are currently working on a new lamp product, designed to be the most efficient, functional, popular and accessible lamp in the world. We use our own product every day, and we look forward to releasing it into the wild, and onto the market.

Natural" target="_blank">https://www.biofaction.com/synth-ethic/">Natural History Museum of Vienna https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

MIT" target="_blank">https://contemporaryarts.mit.edu/pub/neocybernetic-art/release/10?fbclid=IwAR1Wc06dntYfklAbhiV2Ip7VqAwBfImhh8FRvQX1daaIko5Yh5R56_3IkuQ">MIT Art Research Paper https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

Goldsmiths" target="_blank">https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/29971/1/MUS_thesis_OhnoM_2021.pdf">Goldsmiths Thesis https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

Duke" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/books/edition/Speculate_This/uO14gvlqztgC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=protocell+circus+%22speculate+this%22+Michael+Simon+toon&pg=PA75&printsec=frontcover">Duke University https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

German" target="_blank">https://www.mpg.de/7423611/werkstatt_leben_tagungsdokumentation.pdf?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en">German Ethics Council https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

Royal" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20120803090324/http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/video/407">Royal Society’s BFI https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

University" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=8oI_CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA364&lpg=PA364&dq=thought+moments+michael+simon+toon">University College London https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

British" target="_blank">http://film-directory.britishcouncil.org/thought-moments">British Council https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Popular" target="_blank">https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/math/a39324360/fibonacci-sequence-found-in-synthetic-tree-design/">Popular Mechanics Mathematical" target="_blank">https://treeofwaterandpower.com/researchanddevelopment/">Mathematical Proof

Telegraph" target="_blank">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/9611852/The-rise-of-the-Modernist-eco-friendly-home.html">Telegraph Newspaper https://casestudydesignandbuild.com">Building Design

Bijutso" target="_blank">https://michaelsimontoon.com/bijutsutecho/">Bijutso Techo https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

NTU" target="_blank">https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/18s2-dm2007-tut-g01/wp-content/uploads/sites/3156/2019/01/Dejan-Grba-New-Media-Art-Links.pdf">NTU Singapore https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

University" target="_blank">http://utweb.ut.edu/rwaggett/biology-lessons.html">University of Tampa https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

Birmingham" target="_blank">http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/lifestyle/house-homes/concept-home-sold-off-plan-2m-3961949">Birmingham Post https://casestudydesignandbuild.com">Building Design

Google" target="_blank">https://www.streamingmuseum.org/post/digital-art-at-google-we-write-this-to-you-from-the-distant-future-program-2">Google Inc. New York https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

Sony" target="_blank">https://michaelsimontoon.com/sonyref/">Sony Music Art" target="_blank">https://michaelsimontoon.com/printdesign/">Art Direction and Design

High" target="_blank">http://elbigotedebernays.blogspot.com/2009/11/trabajo-psicologia-1er-trimestre.html">High Schools https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

IFLScience" target="_blank">https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/brand-new-fibonacci-sequence-discovered-by-accident-in-attempt-to-harvest-sunlight/">IFLScience Mathematical" target="_blank">https://treeofwaterandpower.com/researchanddevelopment/">Mathematical Proof

Blogs and media:

Academia.edu" target="_blank">https://www.academia.edu/31656695/Discovering_People_Empathy_and_Contemporary_Portraiture">Academia.edu https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Genkaku-Again" target="_blank">http://genkaku-again.blogspot.com/2015/08/august-newspaper-column.html">Genkaku-Again https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

El" target="_blank">https://elhurgador.blogspot.com/2017/03/aniversarios-fotografia-clxvii-marzo.html">El Hurgador http://everythingloose.com">Still Photography

Wait" target="_blank">https://susipucci.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/wait-time/">Wait Time https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Zeynep" target="_blank">https://zeynepozel.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/zihin-algi-dusunce-ani-ve-budizm/">Zeynep Ozel https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Konstantine" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/3oFe183">Konstantine Trunin https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Code" target="_blank">https://codenlp.ru/lab/demonstratsiya-kgd-2.html">Code NLP https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

David" target="_blank">https://davidkanigan.com/2012/12/28/thought-moments/">David Kanigan https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Trinergy" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20131213015441/http://www.trinergy.at/roman_braun_blog/eye-catcher/">Trinergy International https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

AND" target="_blank">https://www.andfestival.org.uk/blog/life-on-film-by-stephen-fortune/">AND Festival https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

Spider’s" target="_blank">https://spidersweb.pl/2013/12/zywe-regenerujace-sie-buty.html">Spider’s Web https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

Autodespair" target="_blank">https://autodespair.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/michel-houellebecqs-manifesto-rester-vivant-to-stay-alive/">Autodespair https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

Sudonull" target="_blank">https://sudonull.com/post/203972-Eye-accessing-cues">Sudonull https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

For" target="_blank">https://www.forthepubliceye.com/articles/thought-moments-by-micheal-simon-toons/">For The Public Eye https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

https://quintadacaparota.blogs.sapo.pt">Quinta Da Capa Rota https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Atiestforum.org" target="_blank">https://www.ateistforum.org/index.php?/topic/54417-emergence-teorisi/">Atiestforum.org https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus

Xa6p" target="_blank">https://habr.com/ru/post/43204/">Xa6p Habr https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Ali" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20230323232121/https://www.alicook.com/blog/amazing-way-to-find-out-what-people-are-reall">Ali Cook https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Healing" target="_blank">http://web.archive.org/web/20160218025742/http://www.healingphilosophy.com/2009/12/thought-moments-by-michael-simon-toon.html">Healing Philosophy https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Olga" target="_blank">https://m-my-mail-ru.translate.goog/community/poisksebya/1C0CEF6B79CEAFFE.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp">Olga Rakhmankulova https://thoughtmoments.com">Thought Moments

Wilmington" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20210414042551/http://www.biology4friends.org/evolution.html">Wilmington Friends School https://protocellcircus.com">Protocell Circus