ART / UI / LEADERSHIP CONSULTANT

• <STEALTH STARTUPS> – Character/avatar, HUD/UI, art style for mobile & PC/console projects.
• GALLIUM STUDIOS – UI/branding/style dev and leads mentoring for Will Wright’s Proxi project.
• WB GAMES – Art leadership at WB Boston focused on mentorship and accelerating team potential.
• REDEMPTION GAMES – UI concepts, style dev, storyboards, and art for narrative and puzzle titles.
• GAME VISION – Style, UI, and content consultation for overseas game dev and animation clients.
• FACEBOOK GAMING – 2021 sponsored seminar on content best practices for western audiences.
• DAYBREAK GAMES – Reviving a classic MMORPG for console/PC. Style dev, mockups, key art, logo.
• THOUGHT PENNIES – Prototypes, style guides, branding for original AAA IP + indie pixel art pitches.

STUDIO ART DIRECTOR

Led cross-functional leads team in dev and live ops. Transitioned art production from internal to co-dev, with new functional structures for art, UI, tech art, and animation. Created processes for key art, logo, and marketing assets plus pipelines for new avatar art. Directed cosmetics (literally) and UI.

ART DIRECTOR

Founding team member, built and led art team for a AAA UE5 RPG in the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar IP; art style development/ style guides, roadmaps, pipelines, avatar system design.

ART DIRECTOR

Storyscape was the high-bar HBO/AMC/FX-like play in interactive narrative gaming, lauded for its quality art, mature writing, and inclusive representation. Original shows aired alongside IPs like James Cameron’s TITANIC and The X-Files. I built the art style, art production pipelines, and art/cine team.

Developed a high-quality illustrative character art look. Established pipelines for art creation, review, and implementation. Hired, trained, mentored, and managed artists and cinematic directors plus freelancers/outsource studios to create art for 10 shows in popular genres – period, romance, comedy, drama, horror, fantasy. Production design for flagship shows’ characters, likenesses, and locations plus all key art and logos. Best practice and IP guides. Hands-on tech art, paintovers.

STUDIO ART DIRECTOR | ART DIRECTOR

Art leadership in multi-/single-project capacities. Grew art team with top talent from Blizzard, Bungie, ILM, EA, CCP, Weta, DreamWorks. Fostered a community noted for skill-sharing, camaraderie, and efficiency. Created style guides, pre-viz, concept art, hands-on with prototypes. Established hiring, mentoring, dev best practices. Worked closely with IP partners, establishing Kabam’s pedigree as a solid licensee. Art Leader in the latter day “Kabam RPG” studio specializing in action & strategy RPGs.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR, PUBLISHING

Creative consultation for 3rd-party publishing partners in China, Korea, Japan, Europe. My strike team of creative directors, editors, and translators handled all content culturalization, localization, and reskinning for western markets. Drove UI/UX best practices, reskins efforts, audio (sfx/score/VO) re-recording plus L10N/editing/writing, and creative (key art, branding/logos, App Store copy, CI).

ART DIRECTOR | LEAD ARTIST

I grew the AD role away from hands-on art to directing several leads to overseeing multiple projects. Established and validated art styles, maintained quality and morale through effective critique and mentoring. Led tools dev for author-friendly pipelines, anticipated issues then pushed resolutions, built robust network of freelancers and vendors. Designed avatar systems for 3 games.

As Lead I wore many hats in this 9-person startup – did everything one could in art (concepts, models, UI, levels, lighting, VFX, rigs, animation, cinematics, &c.) plus marketing/packaging/site design, technical art (optimization, tools, physics, palettes), art production (hiring, tracking, scheduling, outsourcing).

SENIOR ENVIRONMENT ARTIST

Built, textured, lit campaign levels + multiplayer maps, and designed the protagonist for a Deus Ex product.

LEAD ARTIST | ARTIST | ANIMATOR

Led original projects that extended Accolade’s sports-centric portfolio into “core” action strategy genres. I exercised elevated autonomy over my teams and projects, with direct contact with the game press and use of cutting-edge SGI tech for some of the earliest lip-sync and 3D rendering in games. As a flexible generalist I created pixel/ painted/ 3D art, UI, concepts, cinematics, marketing materials.

To create ambitious and visually-appealing action, narrative, and role-playing games with good people.

Ken is a game industry art director and illustrator with over 30 years of experience leading teams and creating game art. He is skilled at both developing original IP and working with top global brands across diverse genres and styles. A highly technical and versatile “full stack” art director, Ken has hands-on expertise at every stage of development, from prototype through launch and live operations.

An expert in art pipelines and real-time engines at any scale, Ken has shipped more than three dozen titles on console, PC, mobile, and handheld platforms. He has built multiple art teams, projects, and businesses from the ground up, with decades of experience managing outsourcing and directing remote teams.

Known for his eye for detail, strong sense of style, and actionable direction, Ken brings both creative vision and development savvy to every project.

• Shipped award-winning games on most platforms – console, PC, handheld, web, mobile.
• Microsoft, EA, Sega, Disney, THQ, LucasArts, Eidos, Accolade, Kabam, 21st Century Fox, WB, Netflix.
• Long history servicing top IP – Star Wars, LotR + The Hobbit, Titanic, The X-Files, The Godfather, Conan, Hunger Games, The Sims, Disney's Tangled, Game of Thrones, Games Workshop, Beyoncé, and more.
• Flexible stylistic range – realistic, stylized, ‘core/midcore, f/sf/horror, casual/family edutainment.
• Wide genre experience – RPG, narrative, strategy, RTS, action, FPS, education.

• Strong traditional, technical, and 2D/3D digital art skills.
• Strong vision plus sense of branding & style, with expertise in environments, avatar systems, and UI.
• Proven leader and mentor who keeps creative teams focused, motivated, and improving.
• Excellent cross-functional production skills, skillfully manages parallel projects/priorities.
• Excellent outsourcing relationship, production management, and roadmapping capabilities.
• Proven track record of producing great art + content across multiple platforms and styles.
• XBOX, PlayStation, PC, Wii, DS, PSP, Dreamcast, SNES, Genesis, web, iOS, Android.

• 3D Studio MAX, Maya, Spine, Adobe suite, Substance suite, Blender.
• Unreal Engine, Unity, XCODE, Havok, Scaleform, PBR pipelines, custom engines.
• Basecamp, Trello, Miro, MS Project, Smartsheet, Airtable, JIRA, P4V, Sourcetree, Git.
• HTML, CSS, C, Perl, js, PHP, ActionScript, LUA, MaxScript.

BFA Illustration, 1994, Academy of Art College, San Francisco.

Figurative illustration with a focus on graphic storytelling.

Founder/publisher @ Puppy Toss Comics Collective, 1992-1998, Berkeley.

Instructor in Sequential Art program, 1993 and 1994, Academy of Art, San Francisco.

Interests: motorcycles, horror, The Beatles, classic illustration, open world games, glitter, old bones.

Art direction and game art portfolio at https://kencapelli.com/portfolio.

See for an extensive list of recommendations.

TITLE + EXPERIENCE SUMMARY

ART DIRECTOR

Netflix Stories – iOS/Android, Netflix – App Store 4.8★

ART DIRECTOR

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Dark Frontier – XSX/PS5/PC, unreleased

ART DIRECTOR

Storyscape – iOS/Android, FoxNext/Disney – App Store 4.8★

STUDIO ART DIRECTOR | ART DIRECTOR

Pocket Tactics (working title, tactical RPG prototype) – iOS/Android, unreleased 

Star Wars: Uprising – iOS/Android – App Store 4.9★, Editor's Choice Awards

Drakonsoul RPG – Web/Facebook, unreleased

The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age – Web/Facebook

The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth – iOS/Android – $100m+ rev

Trojan War: Rage of Zeus – Web

Final Eden – Web – full reskin, <4 months

The Godfather: Five Families – Web/Facebook

Edgeworld – Web/Facebook

Dragons of Atlantis – Web/Facebook

CREATIVE DIRECTOR, PUBLISHING

The Hunger Games: Panem Rising – iOS/Android, Kabam

Lord of the Rings: Legends of Middle-earth – iOS/Android, Kabam

Creature Academy – iOS/Android, Netmarble

Metal Skies – iOS/Android, WeMade

Divine Might – iOS/Android, Gfan

Blades of Excalibur – web, JoyYou – full reskin

Ravenmarch – web, GameReign – full reskin

Wartune: Hall of Heroes – iOS/Android, 7th Road/Hoolai

Reign of Conquerors – iOS/Android, Minoraxis

Runes of War – iOS/Android, Pearl in Palm

ART DIRECTOR

BEYONCÉ: Star Power – XBOX 360 Kinect/PS3 Move/Wii, unreleased

Disney’s Tangled – Wii/DS, Disney Interactive

The SIMS 3: Life Moments – Wii, EA – multiplayer aspect of console port

The SIMS 3 – Wii, EA – full technical evalulation for console ports

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter – Wii, THQ

My AMAZING Story – XBOX 360, Microsoft Game Studios (1st party)  – unpublished

Booty Blocks – iPhone

Brain Quest: Grade 3&4 and Grade 5&6 – PSP, EA

Battle Of The Bands – Wii, THQ

Smarty Pants – Wii, EA

After Burner: Black Falcon – PSP, SEGA

Conan: Queen Of The Black Coast – PSP, THQ – unreleased

LEAD ARTIST

INFECTED – PSP, Majesco

Armed and Dangerous – XBOX/PC, LucasArts – Award-winning

Giants: Citizen Kabuto – PC/XBOX, Interplay – Multiple Award-winning

SENIOR ARTIST

Project: Snowblind (Deus Ex franchise) – PS2/XBOX, Eidos

LEAD ARTIST

Slave Zero – Dreamcast, SEGA

Slave Zero – PC, Infogrames

Deadlock – PC – Editor’s Choice Award

ARTIST | ANIMATOR

Jack Nicklaus 5 – PC – ★★★★★ rating + Editor’s Choice Award

Hardball 6 – PC

Unnecessary Roughness 95 – PC/Genesis

Hardball 4 – PC/Genesis

Zero Tolerance – Genesis – first and only FPS on classic consoles