Digital Art and Design immerses you in a melting pot of digital experiences and prepares you to thrive in an ever-shifting media landscape.

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Within the Digital Art and Design program, artistic diversity is very encouraged. It shows in my portfolio pieces as I created many pieces with different software, materials, subject matters, and styles. Not only did I learn many different ways of approaching digital art, the assignments always pushed me out of my comfort zone.

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My ‘Patty Meltdown Marketing Animation’ and ‘Cola Crave’ explore motion in different ways. One is animated, shifting focus between foreground and background, while Cola Crave is a still image that creates the illusion of motion. Before attending KCAD, I only ever worked with static imagery, not really thinking about movement. I had a fascination with figures, yet only ever focused on creating portraits. Through my time at KCAD, I expanded my interest, learning how to create dynamic character designs, and bending reality to fit a more stylized look that I deemed to be aesthetically pleasing to me. With my ‘Leftovers’ characters, I explored a more bizarre idea as I realized my creative concepts of a world based on the food pyramid. I illustrated characters by morphing my favorite foods with people, creating grotesque, yet cute character designs. I especially worked with the character ‘Patty,’ constantly redesigning her and testing out alternate ideas to strengthen my concept.

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Apart from still images and animations, I have a fascination with the development of game concepts, whether it is video games or card games. For example, I developed ideas for an app called ‘Drag Over’ a game that explores how we imagine identity and gender by letting the player break free from gender roles and explore the art form of drag. My three digital illustrations ‘New York Campaign’, ‘New England Campaign’, and ‘King George’ show special attention to composition, perspective, and lighting, as well as posing character and creating narratives through the different depictions of characters. All three are part of the Powder Keg Revolutionary War Game, a collaborative production by the students of the Grand Rapids Public Schools Museum School, KCAD, and Open System Technologies as part of the EPIC project. This historically educational card game allows the player to replay the revolutionary war, form alliances, and decide the fate of America.