I may be tiny, but I'm STRONG!

A quick little 8-bit exercise . . .

A little raspberry jam to go with that peanut butter and chocolate

I had a great meeting with Laura at MAQ last week. She seemed to have a genuine interest in helping me with my career path. During the portfolio review, she asked if I had any examples of my web design skills - and I really didn't have anything to show her. When I think about myself as a designer, it's in terms of composition, color, flow and visual interest. But, in thinking this general way, I had neglected to show any of my specific web projects. So, I'm about to add a 3rd page to the portfolio - one that is specific to my visual design and UI skills (web design). Here's a sneak peek ...













And be sure to check out the final - it's up now!

Work has been Looney

For the past couple months I've been helping the great folks at Looney Labs. They make the awesome Fluxx games and a bunch of other super fun games. My role has mostly been that of the Photoshop Magician and I've done a bit of graphic design and layout of some of their new marketing materials (posters, flyers, postcards, etc). The magic part is taking their press-ready files and making 3D mock-ups. Here's an example . . .

The Odd Ark

The Odd Ark's Blog has launched! Heidi and I have been busy coming up with a biz plan for those animals I made for my then niece-to-be. We're kicking it off with a blog and we've set up an Etsy storefront for you to purchase signed, archival prints of all your favorite Odd Ark characters. It's sort of a "soft launch" - as we're still trying to get all our processes nailed down - we're hoping to do a big launch in the spring (with some PR!). So, feel free to head on over to The Odd Ark Blog, become a fan and subscribe to the feed. 

peanut butter and chocolate (cont.)

Last week I shared with you a jpeg of my soon to be launched "Freelance Graphic Artist" site. Here's a peek at what I'm calling the "Fun and Games" site . . .

separating the peanut butter from the chocolate

I've come to the conclusion that not everyone sees that my broad set of skills is a good thing . . . which is a little crazy, since my non-game work keeps me in-touch with the latest trends in visual style, design and usability - and my game work is constantly offering new solutions to visual challenges in the advertising and marketing world. It's like a dirty little secret that each offers so much to each other, but neither really wants to acknowledge it.

I read this the other day on JON SCHINDEHETTE's blog and it stuck with me . . . "You need to be creative and conceptual first and foremost. No matter what you work on, you need to bring something imaginative to the table. Everything else is about having the eye, the communication skills, the energy to follow through and the intestinal fortitude to stomach the stress and pick your battles."

I think that sums me up - creative and conceptual - and it really shouldn't matter what category or label you put on the work. But, I'll pick my battles and keep the secret. I'll separate my portfolio and resume into two. I'll put the peanut butter on one plate and the chocolate on the other - and I won't even mention the graham cracker and toasted marshmallow that I also have to offer.

Here's a peek at my design for the agency side . . .

Early morning thoughts

Woke up at 4 this morning. Just couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about the ending and if it was clear enough what was going on, so I set right down and started on a revised final frame. I'm really happy with the way it came out . . . so much so that after I replaced the frame in the short, I made a wallpaper for my desktop and thought I might share it with you . . .

The link in the last post will now show you the updated version of the short. Cheers!

annnnnddd . . . ACTION!

As most of you know (my faithful 6 followers), I have been taking 3D modeling, animation and video game design courses for the past year in an effort to transition from art directing table top games to art directing video games and animation. I've learned quite a bit and this animation really shows off some of my new skills. I'm going to continue working on this (adding additional characters, sets, animation and dialog) - so consider this just a taste of what's to come.

Click here to see Gertie's Garden in HD (warning: if it runs slow or jerky, hit the "Turn HD Off" button in the upper right corner).

Okay, let the job offers begin!

An update on Grandma . . .

Just thought I might share a little progress . . .

Grandma

Just thought I'd share a character I've been working on for a game and animated short. Her name is Gertie.

What if . . . Xeko had been a video game?

Greetings! Well, I am up for this gig at a software/console maker... let's call them "MiSo." They are looking for someone to help develop some UIs for internally developed IPs for their uber cool new motion tracker hardware peripheral. The team was having a hard time understanding how my card UI could translate to a video game - so I spent a few hours and developed these 2 samples based on the Xeko collectible card game I Art Directed. They turned out pretty well, so I thought I'd share 'em. Let me know what you think!

By the way, if you have kids, and they like games and animals, you should really check out the Xeko game. Go to xeko.com to find a store near you!

Game UI

For the past twelve years, my "day job" has involved the creation of UI designs. Whether it's for games, kiosks, websites or interactive museums, one thing remains constant: Make it so seamless and intuitive that most users don't even notice it.

To do this, you first need to have a clear understanding of the brand and how you want the user to interact with it. The next step is to work with the Art Director or Creative Director to extend elements of the brand (or Intellectual Property) into the UI. Getting these things worked out up front can save you a lot of time and effort. When designing UIs for tabletop games, this planning stage is critical.

Unlike video games -- which can have any number of inventory screens and can change based on what the character is holding or doing -- collectible card game UIs require ALL elements to be presented at ALL times. They also require a lot of forward engineering for maximum backwards compatibility (once it's printed, there's no going back and releasing a patch/update for the UI) - so it is extremely important to always ask a lot of questions up front. These questions often lead to discoveries and opportunities to improve the UI. The key challenge, of course, is to fit all of the necessary information into one tiny 63mm x 88mm space (or an even smaller space, if you happen to be creating a base for a miniatures game).

Now, I'm not saying that designing a tabletop game UI is any harder than designing UI for video games. But tabletop game UI design presents its own unique set of challenges -- and having developed an expertise in this area, it gives me a unique respect for maximizing space through creative simplicity.

Above are a few examples of tabletop game UIs I've designed . . .

Greetings from the jungle!

My little sister is going to have a baby. She's done the nursery up in a "jungle theme" (which, apparently, is theeee hot theme right now), and asked if I could contribute some artwork.

So, I set out on a mission (safari, if you like) to create some animals to look after my little niece-to-be. Each started off as the same white ball of clay. They were formed, shot on a black background, and then rolled up again to become the next animal. I opened them up in Photoshop, clipped them out, placed them on some royalty free and very composited backgrounds, and then colored each animal. If you look closely, you can see my fingerprints in their little clay faces.

Please forgive the watermark. I'm considering putting prints of these up for sale and while I would love to see these in every jungle themed baby room across the nation/world, I'd like to make a little money in the process.

Feel free to drop me a line if you're interested in these . . . or maybe something specially made just for you.

honeycomb engine

corvus, a fellow game nerd i met a couple months back posted some logo options for his new rpg game engine on his blog . . . and while the engine itself is really exciting and interesting, the logos feel very old school tsr . . . sorry corvus :)

anyway, i wanted to show him a concept that had more juice. i think this captures an element of his engine (you place tokens into various hex-shaped holders) as well as being a bit more dynamic.