Creating
The desire to make and create is in all of us. We are all creative. How we express our creativity and where it saturates our lives is unique to each of us and constantly evolves. My creative journey started with cartooning and illustration, shifted to 3D video game environment building, and most recently evolved into graphic design.
Fresh Friday
In 2011, I wanted to share my love of old soul and jazz music with friends, so I began creating 30 minute mixes ripped directly from my collection of original vinyl records, each with a unique cover. I created a new mix every week for 2 straight years. The weekly deadline offered an incredible opportunity to push and grow my graphic design skillset, and eventually led to album cover designs for several local Austin musicians, including Elias Haslanger and Akina Adderley.
Click on the above image for more details.
Album Covers
Working on the Fresh Friday project led to opportunities designing album covers for local Austin musicians, ranging from jazz to soul to folk. I like to balance my designs with modernity, nostaliga, and subtle storytelling.
Click on the image above to explore the album covers in detail.
Cartooning
I learned a ton about storytelling, comedic timing, and character development during my years as a comic strip artist. I started drawing strips at the age of 8, published a bi-weekly strip in the Austin American-Statesman at 16, and published a daily strip in the Daily Texan during my years at the University of Texas.
Miles' 3rd Birthday Invitation
Holiday Card 2014
Holiday Card 2016
Problem Solving
George Lois famously stated that "Creativity can solve almost any problem. The Creative Act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything." I see all creativity as problem solving, and no experience better encapsulates that philosophy for me than developing mixed-reality software for the Microsoft HoloLens.
Fragments
I took a huge career leap of faith in 2012, agreeing to join Microsoft's Platform Next team without being told what I'd be working on. I was quickly placed onto the NUI Publishing team as the Art Director, working with studios across the globe to develop new experiences for hardware that would become the HoloLens. We partnered with Asobo Studio on a handful of experiences for our burgeoning new hardware. I collaborated with Asobo ADs to explore the look and feel of in-world holograms. Our goal was to build an immersive AAA experience that highlights the emotional impact of digital characters in your physical space, showcasing the magic and technical ingenuity of the HoloLens. Fragments is the title in which I spent the majority of my time.
HoloLens Case Study - Fragments
Director: Nick Junke | Producer: Jessica Zahn
I had the opportunity to propose and participate in a Case Study video for our HoloLens Marketing team. During our development of Fragments, we bravely shifted our polish focus to vastly improve the player's interactions with the game's digital characters, allowing them to stand or sit anywhere in your room. All of the footage in the video is directly from one of our Developer Kits and takes place in my personal living room.
Young Conker
We developed Young Conker with Asobo Studio in parallel with Fragments. Conker was our first HoloLens "platform game" where gameplay exponentially changed based on your setting. We focused our visual design on elements that highlighted Conker's awareness of your room, with specific animations for walls, ledges, and furniture. This is the same tech we utilized for the HoloCall in Fragments.
Dub Bang Joe
The early development of this HoloLens "platform game" was much different from the title we ended up shipping, built around an alien named Joe, originally "Dub Bang Joe." Working on a new IP required extensive character design explorations, focus testing, and flexing our storytelling muscles. Though we ended up shifting focus to our Conker IP, we were all very proud with our final "Joe," especially how well the character and story design fit with our new futuristic hardware.
Click the above image for a deeper look at Joe.
HoloLens Posters
Art Director: Mike Harnisch | Concept Artist: Patrick Shettlesworth
During the development of the world's first holographic computer, we printed a set of internal posters to align the teams to our larger vision. I developed the illustration style alongside Patrick Shettlesworth, derived from the seamless flow of digital content, with continuous lines and type that is integrated into the world.
Click the image for a detailed look.
Storytelling
Emotionally resonant design starts and ends with great storytelling. Everything I create tells a story, whether it's a logo, an album cover, or a visual treatment for a video game. Color theory, shape, and composition permeate throughout my work and are all intended to service the larger story and goal of each piece. Design choices are motivated by relatable concepts that uniquely and simply connect with each viewer or user on the appropriate emotional level.
Each example included here all follow this philosophy, with diverse audiences and stories that span the emotional spectrum, from logo design to short films to thought leadership.
Design Day 2017: Emotion Lotion
For Microsoft Design Day 2017, I put together a presentation that put focus on our Creative Process at Microsoft, highlighting an opportunity for more investment in Emotional Connection, particularly early in production. Citing Film and Video Game development as an example, I presented a case study illustrating how crafting an emotional flow into your creative process early on can build a stronger relatable connection with the customer, as well as accelerate internal alignment.
Click on the image for more detail.
Windows NEXT Branding
Creative Director: Mike Harnisch | Visual Designer: Vemmy Zhao
Tasked with rebranding "Windows Experiences" to "Windows NEXT," I collaborated closely with team leadership and our talented Visual Designer, Vemmy, to develop a new look and feel for our organization, without distancing ourselves from other groups within Windows. Vemmy's "Tangram" concept, with its modular simplicity, hit all of the right notes and has quickly become ubiquitous across our organization.
Logo Design
Logo Design offers some of the most challenging and rewarding work a designer can undertake. I aim to keep things simple and easily identifiable while also providing a deeper meaning that becomes richer over time. Each logo designed for Cool Your Jets is created with these tenets in mind.
Click on the above image to explore the various logos I have designed since 2010.
Collaborating
The encouragement and celebration of all ideas is integral to the success of any creative process. It is the alchemy of thought, the juxtaposition of varying perspectives, that powers innovation and differentiated thinking. My current team, Source, is a central team within Windows NEXT which helps align our app teams with the rest of Microsoft. During our rebranding, we chose to represent ourselves as a bridge with the motto "Build Together," an approach that has effectively helped foster several cross-Microsoft initiatives, including the Fluent Design System.
Fluent Design System
Working horizontally across Windows NEXT, I collaborated with Creative Directors and Art Directors to push the new Fluent Design System look and feel, as well as ensure it was consistently applied across all first-party Windows applications. My team employed the Calculator app to validate new Fluent controls, such as the Acrylic Material brush and the Reveal Highlight, as illustrated here in this marketing video using many of the clips we captured directly for our 2017 //Build presentation.
Spatial UX Explorations
I spoke at //Build 2018 about the future of Fluent controls, with a focus on Spatial computing scenarios. With a mixed audience of 2D and 3D developers, I showcased the emotional impact of Mixed Reality, the importance of keeping our customers in "The Flow," and how 2D applications can have meaningful results in Spatial Computing experiences when the UI utilizes space in order to allow the user to interact with digital content in relatable ways.
Click on the image for more details.
The Old Republic: Alderaan
I worked in game development as an Environment Artist from 2001 - 2012, shipping four titles. Building worlds ranging from boxing arenas to street fighting areas to Star Wars planets required direct collaboration with all disciplines. As a Planet Lead on Star Wars: The Old Republic, I worked closely with Designers and Engineers to ensure emotionally impactful worlds that were technically performant.
I approach video game environments as I do the rest of the my artistic pursuits: with efficiency and attention to detail.
Click on the image above for a more detailed look at Alderaan.
The Old Republic: Hoth
As a huge fan of Empire Strike Back, I was thrilled to lead the Hoth effort during my time at BioWare. Working closely our talented engineers, we pioneered a shader system where existing textures could be visually impacted by the terrain of each planet, allowing for every asset on Hoth to be snow-packed and frozen, an important storytelling element for a supposed uninhabitable planet.
Click on the image above for a more detailed look at Hoth.
Def Jam: Icon
Shipped in 2007 for Xbox 360 and PS3, Def Jam: Icon was a fighting game slightly ahead of its time, with environments that bounced and moved to the beat of the fighter's chosen song (or songs uploaded by the player), creating countless music/venue combinations that deepened and enhanced gameplay. As an environment lead on the LA Rooftop and Southern Corner levels, I worked closely with designers on the tuning of each venue, as well as engineers on the technical aspects in which we brought each arena to life.
Click on the image above for more details.