Art Direction  ·  Visual Development  ·  Creative Leadership

Ken
Capelli

Art Director  ·  Games

I step into ambiguous, high-stakes creative situations and establish clarity — on art style, pipeline, team structure, and quality bar. 30+ shipped titles. Every major platform.

Profile

30+
Shipped titles
32yr
Industry experience
A–AAA
Startup to Netflix, Disney, Microsoft

Who I Am

I'm an art director with extensive experience building the visual identity of games — from scrappy 9-person startups to mid-sized A–AA teams to Microsoft, Netflix, and Disney-backed studios. I've shipped over three dozen titles across every platform, built art teams from the ground up, and worked across game development from concept to live operations.

I specialize in the hard part: stepping into ambiguous, high-stakes creative situations and establishing clarity — on art style, pipeline, team structure, and quality bar. Whether embedded hands-on, advising leadership, or leading the art organization directly, I bring the experience to move quickly and the taste to execute with confidence.

I work best with early-stage studios, teams scaling from prototype to production, and leadership looking for a senior creative partner to guide art direction, team structure, and art production with a collaborative, steady approach.

  • Broad genre range: RPG, narrative, strategy, action, fashion, quiz/puzzle, kids/education
  • Experience across major IP including Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, X-Files, Titanic
  • Known for combining visual direction, technical understanding, and collaborative leadership

Capabilities

What I Bring

Visual Development

Art style creation and creative direction from conception through production, with a strong instinct for visual identity and the ability to build alignment around clear, cohesive visions.

Narrative / IP

Expertise in narrative-driven games, translating complex lore and flagship IP into cohesive, character-focused visual styles and production design.

Co-Dev & Outsourcing

Extensive experience leading external production, guiding vendor selection, style alignment, and maintaining asset quality and accountability across distributed teams.

Full-Stack Art Direction

Fluent across 2D, 3D, character, environment, key art, cinematics, UI/UX, and tech art — directs across disciplines and contributes hands-on when needed. Engineer-friendly.

Team Building

Studio-level art leader who builds strong, craft-focused teams. Combines hands-on experience with a collaborative style to keep artists aligned, motivated, and growing.

Pipeline & Process

Defines workflows, asset pipelines, and art review processes, working closely with production and cross-functional teams to support planning, tracking, and delivery.

Selected Work

Portfolio

Full Portfolio

Track Record

Select Impacts

Built and led art teams from early development through production across multiple studios — from initial hires to scaled organization.

Supported teams from prototype to vertical slice, reducing rework and improving creative alignment across design, engineering, art.

Transitioned art production teams to co-dev models, improving scalability and consistency across internal and external partners.

Established outsourcing and global collaboration strategies across distributed teams spanning the US, Asia, and Europe.

Mentored leads and senior artists into expanded roles, strengthening team performance and long-term studio capability.

Directed art on titles with $400M+ cumulative revenue, including The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth and Star Wars: Uprising.

Career

Experience

2020 – Present
Independent
Project-Based
Art Director

Clarifying product vision, accelerating team capability, and strengthening execution across remote teams.

  • Engage across early-stage concepts, pitches, and in-progress development — providing visual guidance and establishing art direction.
  • Establish style guides and create visual targets for in-game visuals and user interface.
  • Contribute hands-on to UI/UX, avatar systems, in-game and key art as needed.
  • Guide art leads and teams through feedback, critique, and creative mentorship.

Partners: Netflix Games, WB Games, Gallium Studios (Proxi), Daybreak, Redemption Games, and stealth startups.

2021 – 2023
Thought Pennies
Studio Art Director

Built a production-ready art organization from the ground up, capable of supporting AAA development.

  • Built and led a high-caliber art team for an AA/AAA Unreal Engine 5 RPG on a major game IP.
  • Directed visual development, key art, character and world visuals, and avatar systems.
  • Established production workflows and long-term art direction.
  • Collaborated with design and engineering to align gameplay systems with visual direction.
2017 – 2020
Fogbank
Studio Art Director

Developed a premium, TV-quality narrative art pipeline — Disney / 21st Century Fox.

  • Built and led art, tech art, animation, and cinematic teams for Storyscape, a narrative platform.
  • Directed visual style across multiple genres and licensed IP (Titanic, The X-Files).
  • Developed technical animation pipes and art production processes for episodic content delivery.
  • Partnered with production, engineering, and design to enable scalable narrative content.
2011 – 2017
Kabam
Studio Art Director /
Sr. Creative Director

Scaled teams and publishing creative across top-performing titles and long-term studio capability.

  • Studio-level art leadership across distributed, multi-team environments (up to ~35 artists).
  • Directed global publishing creative, including branding, marketing, localization, and dev relations.
  • Partnered with development teams across the US, China, Korea, and Japan.
  • Led art direction on multiple projects and licensed titles from kickoff through production.
2000 – 2010
Planet Moon Studios
Art Director /
Lead & Senior Artist

Full-stack art leadership delivering multiple shipped titles with a lean, highly adaptable team.

  • Played a key role in shaping the studio's visual identity across multiple titles for EA, THQ, SEGA, Disney, and Microsoft Game Studios.
  • Contributed to Giants: Citizen Kabuto and Armed and Dangerous, both regarded as cult classics.
  • Worked across character, environment, cinematics, interface, and gameplay-facing art systems.
1994 – 2000
Accolade
Animator → Lead Artist

Built a deep technical and creative foundation across the full game art stack.

  • Lead on early 3D PC titles including Slave Zero and Deadlock, with dedicated player followings today.
  • Developed foundational generalist experience across full-stack game art, from creation to direction.

Get In Touch

Let's Work Together

Available for art direction engagements — embedded, advisory, or contract. Early-stage studios, teams scaling to production, and co-dev transitions are my sweet spot.