About Me
As a Game Designer, Producer, and Artist...
I am passionate about working together with my fellow creatives to craft immersive experiences that captivate and engage players on an emotional level. I believe wholeheartedly in games' ability to do good throughout their life cycles, that they can touch both their creators and their players in deep and unexpected ways. With a diverse educational experience culminating in an MFA in Games and Interactive Media from American University, I have honed my skills in cross-functional communication and developed a versatile skill set that allows me to help bring unique ideas to life.
As a Graphic and Visual Designer and Digital Artist...
I combine my creativity and technical expertise to craft visually stunning, intuitive, and highly personalized designs. I enjoy the process of creating each piece just as much as I do designing the pipelines and tools to get there. I consider much of my art to be celebrations and reflections of their core topics, but sometimes I'm also just there to have a bit of fun.
As a fan of the medium of games...
I love spending my time experiencing games old and new, analyzing what makes them work, seeing how I can break them, and theorizing on what inspirations may have gone into them. When I am not making games myself, I'm reading about people's experiences with them, how they have been moved by them, what struggles it took to make their own. I volunteer my time on committee juries so I can give back to the industry that has given me so much whilst always seeking new inspirations.
Experience
Download resume: pdf
Education
American University
2020-2023
Related Projects and Experience...
Stony Brook University
2016-2020
Related Projects and Experience...
Master of Fine Arts | Games and Interactive Media
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Produced & co-directed a 5 member team for a 1.5 year capstone project [Scorched Earth] commenting on the climate crisis.
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Created the full art treatment for Heartache, a classmate's capstone project, using illustrator pattern generation to iterate through all 7 levels in less than 1 week.
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Prototyped 15+ game projects across digital and physical media, ranging from traditional card games to VR immersive films.
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Utilized my capstone project and thesis to explore ways to ethically integrate AI use in brainstorming and production.
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Final GPA: 4.0
Bachelor of Arts | Music
Minors in Computer Science and Digital Art
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Finalist for the 2019 SBU Games Design Competition.
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Prolifically active member of the Spirit of Stony Brook Marching Band, holding 2 leadership positions in my time.
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Recipient of the 2020 Alumni Award Scholarship
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Recipient of the 2018 Theodor Presser Scholarship
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Final GPA: 3.48
Employment
GAMING GOURD
2023 - Present
Jun 2023 - Present
Related Projects and Experience...
Co-Founder and 2D Games Artist | Gaming Gourd
Currently working on a comedy beat 'em up game in Unreal Engine 5.
Read more about it at www.gaminggourd.com
Art:
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Create concept art and mood boards for visual feel of current projects.
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Develop pipelines to optimize iteration between art and design teams.
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Advise on scope and resource requirements of proposed art ideas.
Marketing:
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Design and manage company branding, website, and outreach.
PLAYFUL CITY LAB
2020 - Present
Aug 2020 - Present
Related Projects and Experience...
Designer and Game Instructor | Playful City Lab
Former positions held: Research Assistant, Graduate Assistant
Currently ending of our 3 year grant project Engaging Beyond Our Walls.
This grant was funded by the Institute for Libraries and Museums (IMLS) and sought to help bring neighborhood games to cities and towns nationwide through libraries and public institutions using our in-house game engine, Hive Mechanic.
Read more about the tool at https://www.hivemechanic.org
...or read about our lab and the project at https://playfulcity.net/go/
Design and Testing:
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Develop template games and tests for proprietary tool Hive Mechanic.
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Conduct quality assurance tests, detailed bug reporting, and user-base
outreach to inform feature requests and improvement proposals.
Art:
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Design graphic designs for both in-house and participant use, including marketing materials, game assets, website graphics, etc.
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Perform voice overs (V0) for template games and video guide content.
Teaching:
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Manage communications and host office hours to assist EBOW participants in learning the tool, Hive Mechanic, as well as teach game design fundamentals, host participant brainstorming, and troubleshoot project blockers. Most participants had little to no prior game design thinking experience prior to instruction.
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Develop comprehensive documentation, curriculum materials, and design workshops for users of Hive Mechanic.
Research and Production:
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Co-authored multiple publications, most prominently the EBOW Recipe Book for story game recipes and the (soon to be officially published) Hive Mechanic Cards Dictionary.
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Manage participant trackers, integrations, and materials documentation using Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides.
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Co-hosted interviews with 10+ participants and lead analysis efforts to assess overall project success.
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Advise on production improvements in asset management and agendas.
Some Related Projects and Experience...
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Freelance as CORALINEDARKDESIGNS
2018 - Present
Jul 2018 - Present
Graphic Designer & Illustrator | Freelance
Freelancing position run as CoralineDarkDesigns, an online graphic designer and digital artist who works with small clients on brand design, motion graphics, title cards, illustrations, character commissions, and more.
Art and client outreach:
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Deliver high-quality original designs tailored to each client's branding needs.
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Design logos and branding guidelines for online creatives.
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Design characters, character illustrations, and portraits.
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Create motion graphics and graphic designs for short film, video, and livestreaming content.
Marketing:
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Manage personal brand's online presence through websites and social media.
Worked with clients such as IndieCade, Deblias Sisters Productions, Sídhe Productions, D&A Productions, and more.
INDIECADE
2021 - Present
Fall 2024
Related Projects and Experience...
Awards Producer and Art Director | IndieCade
As the latest iteration of my continuing relationship with IndieCade, I took on an expanded role fully encompassing the production, art direction, and editing of the 2024 IndieCade Awards Festival. Through my efforts to properly celebrate this years cohort of nominees and winners, I overhauled large swaths of the festivals visual design to better align with the stylized appearance of many modern indie game titles. Once the Awards were completed, I shifted focus to creating the visual look for this years pilot run of the Creators Retreat, and made my way out to Los Angeles to assist in running the event.
Art - Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, Video Production, etc...:
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Produced and edited multiple 1+ hour long videos featured in a festival collectively seen by 2 million+ viewers across all platforms.
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Designed visual look for 2024 awards festival seasons, including
logos, graphic designs, motion graphics, promotional materials, and infographics. -
Core Programs used include: After Effects, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Photoshop, and the Adobe Creative Cloud.
Production and Project Management:
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Created and managed detailed production packets for the Awards
shows, assuring creation and fulfillment of 300+ total assets. -
Assisted in hosting of pilot year of Creators Retreat Event in Los Angeles, California.
Programming:
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Updated all prior custom Essential Graphics templates created using Adobe After Effects
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Pipeline was once again further optimized using custom shortcut sets controlled using a Loupedeck CT.
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Programming Language used: Javascript - Adobe ExtendScript
Fall 2023
Related Projects and Experience...
Art Director and Associate Producer | IndieCade
In this contract role, I reprised my position as the lead graphics and motion graphics designer for the 2023 IndieCade Main Awards Festival, refreshing the suite I had generated in 2021 and programming in new layers of customizability to drastically improve its efficiency and ease of use. With the role expanding to Associate Producer I also took up a large amount of the project management and participant/partner communications, working closely with the lead producer to assure no assets were missed.
Art - Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, Video Production, etc...:
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Produced full multimedia suites with over 100+ assets for IC23 Awards livestream and social media presence, comprising of custom motion graphics, video overlays, edited video compilations, and more.
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Edited the full set of graphics treated footage used throughout the award festival's runtime.
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Core Programs used included: After Effects, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Photoshop, and the Adobe Creative Cloud.
Production and Project Management:
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Managed communications and asset collection with 40+ participants, facilitating communications with our partner production company, Atomic, and assuring all required assets were received from all participants.
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Maintained, organized, and tracked all core visual asset libraries with the Google Drive suite, implementing color codes to assure all asset statuses were clear at a glance.
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Worked with lead producer to determine and fulfill all asset requirements to fill the full runtime of the Awards ceremony, keeping close communications in making sure all asset libraries and databases were up to date and on schedule at all times.
Programming:
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Programmed 7+ custom essential graphics templates using Adobe After Effects, drastically improving the efficiency of the full editing process and allowing for time to create full asset sets which were originally out of scope. This set was also able to be easily handed off to other editors following the competition of my contract, and has seen continued use for further graphic treatments since.
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Pipeline was further optimized using custom shortcut sets controlled using a Loupedeck CT.
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Programming Language used: Javascript - Adobe ExtendScript
Aug 2021 - June 2022
Related Projects and Experience...
Graphics and Community Specialist | IndieCade
In this short contract role turned year long internship, I worked closely with IndieCade's core team to produce the pilot run of IC's Horizons festival in 2021. Through the internship's term, I created all of the core graphic designs and motion graphics used by IC, including all motion graphics treatments used in the 2021 Main Festival, as well as the marketing and outreach materials for IC's various events. Additionally, I built and managed the IndieCade Horizons Discord server, running several initiatives to engage the server's user base and performing viewer analysis which resulted in new events in subsequent festivals. The role culminated in the second run of IC Horizons in 2022, where I further expanded the graphics suite created the year prior.
Art and Marketting:
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Designed graphic suites for 3 core festivals (Horizons 2021-2022; 2021 IndieCade Main Festival) and various other events, including the Greenlight Jam, IndieXchange, Systemic Design, and Playable Theater.
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Created sets of overlays, motion graphics, and frames which could be mixed and matched to keep the experience fresh and give longevity to the graphical assets.
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Illustrated playful server emojis and graphics to engage each festival's viewership up to and throughout their runtimes.
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Designed marketing suites, including fliers, posters, gifs, and short video clips for use through social media and email campaigns.
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Core Programs used included: After Effects, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Photoshop, the Adobe Creative Cloud, and Clip Studio Paint.
Project Management:
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Managed core visual assets library using Google Drive Suite.
Community Management and Engagement Analysis:
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Created and moderated the IndieCade Horizons Discord Server, as well as moderated the core IndieCade server and Twitch chat.
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Engaged server members with chat events, such as Q&As and Discussion Boards.
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Analyzed overall engagement during festivals, culminating in several suggestions used in future runs of the Horizons Festivals.
INSTITUTE FOR IDEAS
2022 - 2023
Jun 2022 - May 2023
Related Projects and Experience...
Studio Assistant | Institute for IDEAS
Art:
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Created promo materials and report graphics for AR/VR content.
Testing:
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Performed QA testing and bug reporting for in-house VR experiences.
Communication and Outreach:
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Showcased VR content at the 2023 UFVA conference - New Media section, particularly featuring the project Space Ocean Library (SOL), which I directed and created 2D/3D art for.
Co-Founder & 2D Games Artist | Gaming Gourd
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Volunteer
2023 - 2024
2024
Aug 2019 - May 2020
Aug 2018 - May 2019
Committee Jury | IndieCade
Student Challenge Jury and Awards Juror | G4C
Flute Section Leader | Spirit of Stony Brook Marching Band
Field Tech | Spirit of Stony Brook Marching Band
Programs and Tools
Art
Adobe Creative Cloud
Core Expertise
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After Effects
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Illustrator
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InDesign
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Photoshop
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Premiere Pro
Some Experience
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Animate
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Audition
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Fresco
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Substance Designer 3D
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Substance Painter 3D
Additional Art Programs
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Blender
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Clip Studio Paint
Production
Google Suite
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Docs
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Drive
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Forms
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Sheets
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Slides
Microsoft Office 365
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Word
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Excel
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PowerPoint
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OneDrive
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OneNote
Websites
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Wix
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Wordpress
Atlaissian
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Confluence
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Jira
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Trello
Additional Production Programs
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Figma
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Miro
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Notion
Design and Programming
Platforms
Tools
Programming Languages
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Unity
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Unreal
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Construct 3
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Hive Mechanic
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Twine
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Visual Studio Code
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GitHub
AI (as part of toolbelt)
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Github CoPilot X
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ChatGPT
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Midjourney
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Perplexity
Core Expertise
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C#
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CSS and USS
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Javascript
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Mermaid JS
Some Experience
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C++
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HTML
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Java
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Python