Atkinson was Director of Design Vancouver from 1992-95. He has done volunteer design and building for TETRA, fabricating assists for disabled people. He has published articles about computer imaging in architecture. In 1983 he established the Atkinson Iconography Studio which he works out of and in 1995 he established the "Derling Whirvish" Lamp Company. He works as a landscape painter, architect, iconographer, and radio documentarian.