Experience

Art Director, Jam City; San Francisco, CA — June 2013 - Present
  • Work with game design, engineering, and production leads to determine visual needs for new games
  • Establish a small team to concept and prototype the potential game style
  • Create and continually update a comprehensive style guide as the visual look evolves
  • Present all visual direction progress to execs
  • Note all exec concerns to address and work with production to manage expectations accordingly 
  • Partner with user testing, to present visuals and gauge interest from target market
  • Work with production to determine project needs and appropriate timelines 
  • Once game scope is established and green lit for full production, interview, test, hire and train additional internal and external teams
  • Direct teams of 2D and 3D artists, in addition to UI/UX, to produce content on model and deadline
  • Pivot and troubleshoot as necessary, utilizing all resources available 
  • Mentor and direct all teams through preproduction, launch, and live game phases
  • Train/promote artists and Associate Art Directors, to progress their careers and allow them to take on projects of their own
Games: Panda Pop, Paint Monsters, Cookie Jam, Juice Jam, one unreleased 2D project, one unannounced 2.5D project, and world building on Champions Ascension, a 3D MMO

Visual Development Artist, Contract; San Francisco, CA — Feb 2007- September 2013
  • Provide preproduction artwork for animated film and game companies.
Notable Clients: Concept Art House, Illumina Studios, Polygon Entertainment, Image Metrics, Pocket Gems, etc. 

Character Designer/ Art Director, BTS Film LLC; Italy/New York — Sept 2009 - Aug 2012
  • Art Directed 3D team in Italy, designing characters, creating model/texture packets, and providing redlines/paint-overs for guidance
  • Created many storyboards and consulted the director on pipeline process

Studio Art Director, Concept Art House; San Francisco, CA - March 2011-July 2012
  • Worked directly under CEO to establish a successful production pipeline
  • Met with clients to determine project-specific needs, then establish and maintain an appropriate approval process
  • Bid hours for contracts
  • Hired, trained and oversaw internal Art Directors for all departments (2D, 3D, Flash)
  • Responsible for quality of all final product
  • Trained my teams to identify red flags and problem solve on their feet
  • Oversaw up to 25 contracts at once
Notable Clients: Lucasfilm, Blizzard, Riot Games, Kixeye, Zynga, and Kabam to name a few

Art Director, Concept Art House; San Francisco, CA - Oct 2009 - March 2011
  • Directed outsourcing production team to maintain project quality over multiple contracts
  • Daily interaction with clients, pushing assets to final approval

​Art Director, Expression College; 2006-2007
  • Organized a team of students and negotiated school funding to create preproduction materials for an animated short film
  • Responsible for Art Direction, leading story meetings, character design, and storyboarding

Intern, Pixar; Emeryville, CA - Jan 2006 - March 2006
  • Selected and prepared a variety of artwork for the gallery show Pixar: 20 Years of Animation
  • Organized and sorted all preproduction artwork for Pixar's movie Cars

Education
Animation Collaborative; Emeryville, CA - Advanced Character Design and Storyboarding 2013
Expressions College; Emeryville, CA - BS, 3D Animation and Visual Effects 2004-2007
Lincoln University; Jefferson City, MO - BS, Studio Art 1998-2001

Software Proficiency
Photoshop, Maya, Unity, iWork, Office, Google Docs, Jira, Basecamp, and Trello