I’m an illustrator from Saint Paul (Minnesota), now living in Northeast Minneapolis (also Minnesota). My degree is in Comic Art, and I currently sell art supplies.
In my art, I pursue a balance between old-world craftsmanship and digital refinement in the spectrum of character design, pictorial narratives, and print illustration. With any project I am working on, I approach it with creativity, curiosity, commitment, and communication.
So what have I been doing for about a year? I've been making a card game called Ad-Man!
Ad-Man! is about advertising characters/mascots. Playing the role of an advertising executive, you use mascots to gain the product accounts from clients to sell things like soda pop, baseball teams, and fabric detergent. A round has cumulative turns, so players add more and more mascots into the mix with the hopes of getting a high number, which will win the product. There are a lot of opportunities for creative decision-making.
It is my goal to raise (at least) $8,000 to print one thousand decks of this game. And then, to put forth a quality, entertaining product with lots of replay-ability and balance. The majority of the monies raised through Kickstarter will be used for the printing costs, with additional money being used for things like covering the cost of copyright registry, leasing a UPC, and buying a full year of hosting for this site, which will be used to sell decks and promote other gaming concepts.
The winner has the most Product cards at the end of the game. Product cards have a symbol, and only mascots with that same symbol are of use in winning the account for that product. Mascot cards have three symbols, each with a value: they’re best for some products, but can be used for others, where that mascot has some appeal.
Players take turns playing mascots with the appropriate symbol, until no more can be played in that round. Depending on choices made, players either refresh their hands by 1 or 2 cards at the end of the round.
There are many opportunties for creative decision making, and an unexpected level of balance- it is difficult to run away with a crushing lead! There are also additional rules for playing with children, extremely large groups, alone, 2-player, and in a college setting.
"What Can I Do To Help?"
Great question! with an easy answer. When the Kickstarter is live from May 1st through May 31st, go to the site, find my project, and pledge as little as $20. You can back more money if you want, and there are premium incentives to do so.
After you pledge at least $20, tell your friends! Tell anyone you think would either enjoy helping out an independent artist or enjoy independent games, or both! As I say in the video, "the goal is so do-able. Let's make this happen... together!"
... SO! That's what I've been working on. Now here's some mascots.
More coming soon!
TTYL!
Remember last year when I advertised my website on the back page of City Pages, the Twin Cities alternative weekly newspaper? Well, I had to stop for economic reasons, but now, I've decided to continue. Hopefully it'll be helpful! (This one here ties in nicely to LOST-Cram '10!)(Speaking of which, check out my friend Heather's blog for some great DHARMA cakes she made for a LOST party I hosted for the February 2nd premiere.
A bit of freelance came my way in a very serendipitous way, and eventually I'll post it here (I'm waiting for it to have been printed before posting). In the meantime, here's Thom Pham, the owner and chef at AZIA, a terrific pan-Asian cuisine restaurant in Minneapolis. I'm pleased how this looks!
I'm still working on the Linendoll's Beer portfolio piece. Until then, here's another bit to tempt you with!
If you live in the Twin Cites and surrounding metro, you're probably aware of City Pages, a free weekly arts/news/ad newpaper, found virtually every where. I bought some ad space for a year, and minis, like the one above, are going to be printed on the back-page bulletin board. Keep in mind, this is advertising, and I'm not going to try to claim a published credit out of it. I'm hoping that if you see it, you've seen my website, and by extension, this blog.
Grover's Mom is coming soon- I need to compress the files to reasonable web-safe sizes, and do some advertising on the usual social network sites. But soon!
I've been dying to show off somethings I've been working on for Junkyard Empire. Pretty soon I can, or at least some of the creative process that's been leading toward the project.
This is an exciting project. Go here to whet your appetite.
I've come back from an interview for a part-time job. I'm not going to go into that until I hear back from them, but it'd be pretty awesome if it happens.
In another bit of news, I bought some ad space in a popular Twin Cities weekly to (hopefully) bring more attention to my website and my illustration/comics/design services. Keep your eyes open for that!
I'm now going to get to work on a bit of freelance. TTYL!
(PS: No, not done yet- "Pangaea Station." Twitter it. NOW I'm done, for now.)
So what have I been doing for about a year? I've been making a card game called Ad-Man!
Ad-Man! is about advertising characters/mascots. Playing the role of an advertising executive, you use mascots to gain the product accounts from clients to sell things like soda pop, baseball teams, and fabric detergent. A round has cumulative turns, so players add more and more mascots into the mix with the hopes of getting a high number, which will win the product. There are a lot of opportunities for creative decision-making.
It is my goal to raise (at least) $8,000 to print one thousand decks of this game. And then, to put forth a quality, entertaining product with lots of replay-ability and balance. The majority of the monies raised through Kickstarter will be used for the printing costs, with additional money being used for things like covering the cost of copyright registry, leasing a UPC, and buying a full year of hosting for this site, which will be used to sell decks and promote other gaming concepts.
The winner has the most Product cards at the end of the game. Product cards have a symbol, and only mascots with that same symbol are of use in winning the account for that product. Mascot cards have three symbols, each with a value: they’re best for some products, but can be used for others, where that mascot has some appeal.
Players take turns playing mascots with the appropriate symbol, until no more can be played in that round. Depending on choices made, players either refresh their hands by 1 or 2 cards at the end of the round.
There are many opportunties for creative decision making, and an unexpected level of balance- it is difficult to run away with a crushing lead! There are also additional rules for playing with children, extremely large groups, alone, 2-player, and in a college setting.
"What Can I Do To Help?"
Great question! with an easy answer. When the Kickstarter is live from May 1st through May 31st, go to the site, find my project, and pledge as little as $20. You can back more money if you want, and there are premium incentives to do so.
After you pledge at least $20, tell your friends! Tell anyone you think would either enjoy helping out an independent artist or enjoy independent games, or both! As I say in the video, "the goal is so do-able. Let's make this happen... together!"
... SO! That's what I've been working on. Now here's some mascots.
More coming soon!
TTYL!
