Sandwiches, sculptures, and soul-searching: meet the guy making Logan feel SuprOrdinary

LOGAN — A viral YouTube video highlighting a beloved local sandwich shop is doing more than drawing clicks — it’s launching a new kind of creative storytelling venture for graphic designer and Logan resident Devin Mathews.

Mathews, the mind behind the emerging YouTube channel SuprOrdinary, recently released a debut episode centered on Logan’s Heroes, a longtime staple in Cache Valley. The video, which showcases a thoughtful rebrand of the sandwich shop, quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of views and prompted an outpouring of emotional responses — from laughter to tears.

“As I started filming this sort of theme of change started creeping in,” Mathews explains, “not only  because I felt like I was going through a big change but Cache Valley was going through this big change. The mall was being torn down and all these other things. I wasn’t planning on having it be this meaningful episode.”

Mathews, a Utah State University graduate, built a career in Los Angeles working with top-tier design firm Buck, producing motion graphics for tech giants like Apple, Meta, and Google. But the grind of corporate design work left him creatively unfulfilled.

“I started to feel like just a piece in a machine,” he said. “After my cousin passed away during the pandemic, I hit a point where I really questioned whether I was on the path I wanted.”

That soul-searching led to SuprOrdinary, a passion project born from Mathews’ desire to use creativity to give back — and to rediscover joy in the process of making. The first episode sees him revisit Logan’s Heroes, a college haunt that left a lasting impression thanks to former owner Hamid Salehi’s warm customer service.

“It was one of those few places that felt like Cheers, where, like, everybody knows your name,” Mathews says. “Even though I know he didn’t know my name, he treated me like we were best buds. And I think everybody felt that way.” 

The result is not just a design showcase, but a heartfelt tribute to a community institution and the man behind its counter. Mathews even convinced Hamid — a self-proclaimed social media holdout — to join him for a fishing trip interview featured in the episode.

But the video’s power lies less in the makeover and more in the journey. Mathews documents not just the redesign, but his own creative process, doubts and discoveries. That emphasis on process over polish resonated with viewers, including many fellow creatives.

“I got so many messages of people saying how it moved them, or how it is making them think differently about how to be creative and people saying how they were like in tears and stuff like that, which I was just kind of surprised,” Mathews explains. “I was a little shocked by how much it moved people, especially people in creative fields who feel somewhat unfulfilled, and people even just not in creative fields.”

Since launching, the channel has released a second episode, this time featuring a multi-day trek into Logan Canyon to create a massive rock sculpture — of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — using only natural materials. That project, done with his brother, pushed Mathews far beyond digital design and back into the kind of unfiltered, playful creativity he loved as a kid making music videos with cousins.

“These were the purest creative moments of my life,” he said. “There was no YouTube back then — we just made things for fun.”

Now, Mathews is applying those roots to a full-fledged creative pursuit. The success of his first videos even caught the attention of Buck, his current employer, which offered to help fund and support future episodes. The channel now includes a “partnership with Buck” credit.

The goal, he says, is to eventually focus on SuprOrdinary full time. But for now, he’s pacing himself by producing episodes in seasonal batches, allowing space for experimentation without burning out.

“I don’t want to create my own prison,” he said. “Money isn’t everything. Creative control, work-life balance — those are priorities too.”

As streaming platforms increasingly scout YouTube content for episodic adaptations, Mathews isn’t ruling anything out — not even Netflix. But he’s also clear-eyed about the trade-offs.

“It’d be amazing to reach more people,” he said. “But not at the cost of why I started this — which is to make something meaningful, and something my younger self would be proud of.”

His advice to fellow creatives? Don’t wait.

“I think people are looking for human things right now in a space that’s becoming increasingly less human, I guess,” he adds. “Start with what you have. Start with where you’re at. Let those who are indecisive continue to be indecisive and just be decisive.”

Episodes of SuprOrdinary are available on YouTube. Mathews hints that the upcoming installments will continue to stretch his comfort zone — and maybe the audience’s expectations as well.