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.