Xander Davis

Designer / Creative Director

Chicago, IL, USA
To make incredible things with incredible people.

Work Experience

XD&A

Owner / Freelancer

Independent design agency of Founder & Creative Director Xander Davis, with a focus on serving entertainment industry clients worldwide and game UI / UX Design & Art, Branding, Graphic Design, Design Art Direction, and Creative Direction.
October 2013 - Present Illinois, United States

Astrogun Studios

Owner / Indie Dev

Independent creative studio, focused on design and game development. Licensed by Nintendo. Through this, I manage and direct a total team size of 14 contractors from around the world. My responsibilities include Business Administration, Management, Creative Direction, Executive Producing, Art Direction, Development Direction, Game Design Direction, Audio Design Direction, Human Resources Management and Recruiting, Accounting, Budgeting, Marketing, and Public Relations. Additionally, I work on projects directly with the team in the following capacities: Producer, Writer, Screenwriter, Game Designer, Concept Artist, Illustrator, 3D Modeler, Texture Artist, 3D Animator, UI Artist, Unity Developer, Programmer, Visual Scripter, Sound Designer, Musician, Cinematographer, Editor, Post-Production VFX. I will also conduct R&D skunkworks prototyping under Astrogun Labs, which includes virtual reality prototyping, and will provide training resources for my project teams as needed. I produce and manage milestones with Jira and Freshbooks, and coordinate production over cloud services such as Beanstalk. http://www.astrogun.com / http://www.cidergame.com / http://powergrid.astrogun.com
July 2012 - Present Illinois, United States

Petroglyph Games

UI Manager

Started as UI Designer, promoted to Sub-Lead UI Designer, promoted to UI Lead, and promoted to UI Manager of newly formed UI Department, where I am overseeing UI art and design direction and team management (scaling between 8 - 10 people) with multiple engines and UI tech for multiple triple-A titles simultaneously. Ended in mass layoffs.
April 2012 - April 2013 Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Vigil Games (THQ)

UI Director

Formed and led a UI team to design for Darksiders 2 for Xbox 360, PS3, PC in three months before studio / publisher closure. The game shipped.
November 2011 - February 2012 Austin, Texas, United States

Xaviant

Senior Game Designer / Writer / Senior UI Designer

Worked on an action RPG with CryEngine 3. Game Design, world-building, intellectual property development, screenwriting, narrative design and organization, writing and maintaining the living GDD, in charge of all User Interface Design and development, creative development with concept team, leading projects between cross departmental production.
October 2010 - October 2011 Atlanta, Georgia, United States

High Moon Studios (Activision Blizzard)

User Interface Artist

UI Artist (Menus, HUD, iconography, typography, etc...) at High Moon Studios (Activision Blizzard) for Transformers: War for Cybertron, a triple-A high-profile game for Xbox 360 / PS3 / PC (out now) which received an IGN rating of 9.0 / 10 "Outstanding".
April 2009 - September 2010 San Diego, California, United States

Sweetwater Sound, Inc.

Senior Designer & Photographer

Graphic design, typographic design, web-design & execution, HTML, CSS, PHP, photography, Photoshop, Flash design, Flash animation, ActionScript, branding/logos for a Fortune 500 company.
March 2007 - May 2008 Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States

SpinWeb Internet Media, Inc.

Creative Director / Flash Design & Branding Specialist

Graphic design, typographic design, web-design & execution, HTML, CSS, PHP, Photoshop, Flash design, Flash animation, ActionScript, branding/logos, project planning, project management, corporate identity strategies, After Effects postproduction, video production, video editing, copy writing, audio production, audio editing, client liaison, sales, seeking potential clients, promotional events
2005 - 2007 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

Education

Wright State University

Graphic Design & Business Administration

August 2002 - August 2004 Dayton, Ohio, United States

Languages

English (Native),

Awards

Bluecat Screenplay Competition

Bluecat Screenplay Quarter Finalist, 'Voting Vertigo'

2010

Adfed

Multiple Awards for Branding, Interactive Design

2007

Adfed

Multiple Awards for Branding, Interactive Design

2006

Skills

Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Animation, Art Direction, Branding, Game Design, Game Development, Graphic Design, Identity, Typography, User Experience, User Interface Art, Web-design, Actionscript, Adobe Flash, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Mudbox, Creative Direction, CSS, Flash Animation, HTML5, Interaction Design, Jira , Layout, Logo Design, Producing, Propellerhead Reason, Screenwriting, Storyboarding, User Interface Design, Wireframing, WordPress,