Led the visual direction and artistic execution for a transmedia game property linked directly to the Defiance television series.

Key Responsibilities

• Visual Direction & Vision: Defined the overarching visual identity, art style, and color palettes. Created color keys during planning to map macro environments, guiding the creation of point-of-interest (POI) concepts for world art teams.
• Transmedia Worldbuilding: Established visual styles and guidelines for alien species, terrain, and world props, ensuring design alignment between the game and the companion TV show.
• Team Leadership & Production: Managed art quality and stylistic consistency across all assets. Directly supervised 3 concept artists, 2 UI artists and was primary client for art and animation leads.
• Character Development: Trained the character team on artistic pipelines and process to match real-world actor likenesses in character models.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partnered with leadership across Game Design, Audio, VFX, Tech Art, and Engineering to maintain technical feasibility and visual cohesion.
• Branding & Graphic Design: Oversaw environmental signage, logos, and in-game branding.
• Hands-on Execution: Produced key concept art pieces, color scripts, and visual benchmarks to establish quality targets for internal and external teams. Below are a sample of my works.

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The Broad-to-Narrow Pipeline: From Vision to Visual Guide

A critical component of my process is defining the aesthetic path from abstract concept to production-ready documentation. I take broad visual goals—like initial color palette mood boards—and incrementally refine them to create clear, build-able visual guides for the world-building team.

Phase 1: Broad Macro-Map (The “Bubble Map”):

We start with high-level conceptual planning, using color “keys” as the base units of the macro map. The specific color-cluster density defines the primary environmental moods and biome distribution across the continent.

Phase 2: Defining Detailed Biomes:

From that macro-map, individual biomes (like snowy peaks, redwood forests, or barren alien plains) are expanded into detailed concept art. This defines the specific flora, lighting, and environmental effects that give each area its identity.

Phase 3: Production-Ready Visual Guide (The Diorama):

The concept is then translated into a precise, isometric 3/4 ‘diorama.’ These final guides are build-able visual blueprints. They explicitly show the tech art and world teams the scale, layer depth, lighting priorities, and asset placement required to realize the biome in-engine. This direct visual guide minimizes misinterpretation and accelerates the world-building pipeline.

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Look Development & Style Exploration

To establish the visual identity of a project, I test distinct rendering styles using a single control composition (a character overlooking a ruined San Francisco skyline). This isolates style from content, allowing teams to evaluate artistic direction, technical feasibility, and mood.

🔼Character designs by Patrick Dailey. Color, Lighting, Illustration, and visual style definitions by me

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Technical Guides & Presentation Standards

Clear concept execution requires unambiguous documentation to bridge the gap between design and 3D production. Demonstrating full-orthographic orthographic schematics alongside fully rendered, variant-level hero assets ensures modeling and texturing teams receive exact visual targets.

Pipeline Principles

• Production Blueprinting: Detailed line orthographics resolve mechanical function, chassis proportions, and hard-surface construction before 3D modeling begins.
• Variant & Texture Exploration: High-end renders establish colorways, material finishes, decals, and lighting responses to set explicit quality benchmarks.
• Communication Standards: While I no longer produce individual asset orthographics hands-on, directly executing these deliverables established an intimate understanding of production constraints and the high communication clarity required to guide downstream teams effectively.

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Transmedia Concept & Environmental Worldbuilding

This collection of my concepts demonstrates atmospheric sci-fi worldbuilding with a focus on scale, material contrast, and cinematic lighting.

Artistic Style

• Painterly Realism: Uses textured brushwork paired with sharp geometric edges to create grounded, tangible environments without requiring photorealistic rendering overhead.
• Chiaroscuro & Volumetric Lighting: Employs high-contrast lighting—such as directional sunbeams in dim interiors and glowing energy sources—to establish focal points and depth.
• Material Contrast: Juxtaposes organic, angular rock formations and natural landscapes against sleek, angular alien tech and industrial metal structures.

Strategic Intent

• Setting Scale & Horizon: Wide-angle landscape concepts map macro environment layout, establishing spatial relationships between alien mega-structures and surrounding biomes.
• Establishing Atmospheric Tone: Mood-driven interior key art sets lighting and color standards for level designers and lighting artists.
• Production Feasibility: Detailed breakdowns of focal assets (such as industrial machinery and interior architecture) provide clear functional blueprints for 3D environment modeling and technical implementation.

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Standardized Functional Architectural Guides

This series illustrates a systematic approach to modular architectural design, pairing exterior form with interior spatial layout to support specific gameplay functions.

Process & Methodology

• Pipeline Sequence: Concepts originated as precise 2D orthographics, progressed to 3D spatial blockouts to validate scale and player navigation, and culminated in final painted concept renders.
• Paired Exterior/Interior Views: Each functional structure type is presented as a two-part guide—showing the outer silhouette alongside the corresponding interior playspace.
• Standardized Design Language: Utilizes consistent visual cues (such as color-coded lighting panels and distinct hard-surface paneling) to establish faction-specific architectural motifs across different functional buildings.

Production Intent

• Gameplay & Spatial Clarity: Human reference scale figures, clear entry points, and high-visibility doorways define player sightlines and navigation paths.
• Modular Reusability: Standardizing structural footprints allows environment and level design teams to efficiently assemble functionally distinct gameplay spaces while maintaining visual cohesion.

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Project Retrospective & Leadership Lessons

Reflecting on executing such a complex crossmedia development cycle yielded key strategic and interpersonal insights for future creative leadership:

Team Empowerment & Interpersonal Dynamics

• Empowerment Over Control: Creative leadership requires trusting and empowering the team rather than micro-managing output. Fostering psychological safety and rapport is essential for successful hands-on mentorship.
• Balanced Communication: Prioritize active listening, composure, and collaboration. Pushing too hard without maintaining strong personal relationships creates friction that degrades team effectiveness.
• Hiring & Strengths Alignment: Hire strategically and align project tasks directly with the established strengths and skill sets of individual team members.
• Maintaining Perspective: Cultivate a positive, sustainable work environment. Balancing high production standards with a supportive atmosphere yields better long-term creative output.

Production & Technical Strategy

• Operating Within Constraints: Creative vision must adapt to existing technical boundaries. Continuous demands for expanded engine capabilities create unnecessary strain on technology and art teams alike.
• Validation of the Broad-to-Specific Pipeline: Establishing a macro-level visual strategy before executing specific details was a major technical success. It provided absolute clarity, ensuring artists never had to guess how their individual contributions fit into the wider world.
• Core Product Focus: Focus resources on making the core game experience stand out independently, rather than relying on external transmedia tie-ins (such as a TV show) to drive success.