After a 12 year absence from creating his own art, Derek started to focus on his personal work in 2009.

His first personal project, Born in Concrete, was undertaken to dispel his biases towards expressive art, overcome his own perceived limitations and to rejuvenate his creative spirit. This collision of Soviet inspired retro sci-fi and Jewish mystical and qabalistic symbolism has evolved into a filter, or framework, that emotions, ideas and images are pushed through to be given shape and form. This project was well received, being featured in numerous exhibits, international publications, as well as book and album covers, It continues to unfold and expand....

This second edition of the original book features a gallery section of artwork, a chapter on the artwork created for use as graphics on snowboards, the snowboards and the corresponding marketing material as well as a chapter on the creation of a resin model kit by Industria Mechanika.

A section of the book is also dedicated to a step-by-step breakdown of how one of the art pieces was created.