videos

The PSA

This is a video I made with five friends to help restore cuts to their budget. I did the editing, storyboarding, illustration, and animation. In 2016, it was nominated for a Chicago/Midwest Emmy in the category of best PSA.

 

The Campaign Video

This is a short video I produced for the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016. I wrote, illustrated, and animated it with the aim to convince viewers of Sanders’ electability while also respecting their time. Although Sanders did not win the nomination, the video itself was widely popular, reaching over 1.5 million views.


 

The Instagram Video

One time I spent nearly an entire hour scrolling through Instagram. Afterwords, I felt awful. That was an hour I was never getting back. To make myself feel better, I illustrated and animated this loopable GIF. Then I put it on Instagram.

 

interior design

The Therapy Space

For a project in my Experience Design masters program, I designed a therapy space optimized for patient self-disclosure. With a literature review, patient interviews, questionnaires, and virtual reality prototypes, I learned that the interior design of these rooms can dramatically impact how people feel opening up about their emotions.

 

games

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The Card Game

There are things you play and things you play with; the former is typically a game, whereas the latter is usually a toy. However, what I designed, although a game, is arguably more fun to play with than to play. This is because players make the rules as they go. By laying out cards side-by-side, they can write rules such as "Blue team cannot draw" or "Players must discard." With hundreds possible combinations, most of the fun comes from discovering how to morph it into a completely different game.

 
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The VR Game

One fascinating part of VR is how much freedom players have to express themselves. Specifically, the ability to move their heads and arms naturally allows for much more nonverbal communication compared to traditional video games. Wanting to explore this potential, I began designing a game where players need to high-five another online player among a sea of AI characters. Since the player avatars look like the AI avatars, the humans need to use nonverbal communication to distinguish themselves from the computer characters. Unfortunately, my programming skills

 
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The Hands-on Music Game

Using an Arduino microcontroller, a pneumatic tube canister, alligator clips, and tinfoil, I developed a game in which players have to get to the end of a song. By forming a circuit through physical touch, players keep the music going. But if the connection breaks, the song restarts. Initially, music only paused if the circuit broke, but after playtesting, I discovered that was too easy. After several iterations, I eventually made a game fun enough that my friend requested I bring it to his wedding.