Alex Bellingham
UI and Graphic Designer for VR
Preston, United KingdomI'm currently part of the Immersive Technology Group within Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe specialising in the implementation & design of Graphical User Interfaces for use within Virtual Reality on PlayStation®VR. I've been working in VR and Stereoscopic 3D since 2012 and was part of the early development of PlayStation®VR.
I have a huge passion for graphic design and all things visual, what's more, the understanding of cognition, human behaviour & interaction are incredibly fascinating to me. I find it interesting that we can often just "know" how to act or react, purely based off the way it's been designed. I especially like how this can apply to all manner of things from digital and physical UI, to simply how we find the items in our local supermarket.
What I love about UI design is that it's the best of both worlds; it can not only look great, but it can feel and sound great too, while continually drawing on our primal behaviours and intuition. Add VR into the mix and, well, the entire relationship with UI is amplified; there are no barriers or boundaries anymore - it becomes a completely new kind of immersive experience.
Ultimately, my goal is to create fresh experiences that play a fundamental role in the movement of the creative industry. I want to help in extending the current boundaries of interaction and immersion by exploring many diverse paths within the new medium of virtual reality.
I have a huge passion for graphic design and all things visual, what's more, the understanding of cognition, human behaviour & interaction are incredibly fascinating to me. I find it interesting that we can often just "know" how to act or react, purely based off the way it's been designed. I especially like how this can apply to all manner of things from digital and physical UI, to simply how we find the items in our local supermarket.
What I love about UI design is that it's the best of both worlds; it can not only look great, but it can feel and sound great too, while continually drawing on our primal behaviours and intuition. Add VR into the mix and, well, the entire relationship with UI is amplified; there are no barriers or boundaries anymore - it becomes a completely new kind of immersive experience.
Ultimately, my goal is to create fresh experiences that play a fundamental role in the movement of the creative industry. I want to help in extending the current boundaries of interaction and immersion by exploring many diverse paths within the new medium of virtual reality.
Work Experience
Sony SIEE - Immersive Technology Group
UI and Graphic Designer for Virtual Reality
Immersive Technology Group - a small R&D team within Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Our role is to research & develop techniques, ideas & knowledge surrounding immersive technologies - Stereoscopic 3D & Virtual Reality - to develop best practice approaches to VR.
We share our knowledge with development teams to help create the most immersive experiences possible, playing a significant role in the development of PlayStation®VR hardware & early prototypes/ VR content - Driveclub VR, VR Worlds, RIGS, PlayRoomVR, etc).
My Role
- Explore concepts regarding User Interface Design within Virtual Environments.
- Designing UI flows & Wireframes for front-end menus.
- Creating an application to illustrate how subtitles can be presented in VR.
- Creating & establishing Best Practice approaches to UI in VR to share with development teams within Sony.
- Understanding & implementing new UI & Graphic Design principles for VR.
- Troubleshooting visual artefacts such as low frame rate, colour vibration and scintillation.
- Building of scenes within Unity for prototyping User Interfaces & project demos.
- Compositing presentations from peers using Adobe Premier Pro for deployment to development teams within Sony.
- Responsible for team's branding & graphic design including best practice illustrations, presentation assets & video editing.
- Graphic Design for presentations given by senior members of the team at key events such as Develop: Brighton & Games Developers Conference.
Joshua Bell VR
- I was involved in the creation of our first official digital product release for PlayStation®VR - Joshua Bell VR - a stereo 360-degree video VR experience where users could watch Grammy Award-winning Violinist, Joshua Bell, perform Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 1.
- I was responsible for the creation of the UI, marketing assets & localisation.
- Shortly after release, Joshua Bell VR won us a Lumiere Award from the Advanced Imaging Society for "Best VR Music Experience".
Our role is to research & develop techniques, ideas & knowledge surrounding immersive technologies - Stereoscopic 3D & Virtual Reality - to develop best practice approaches to VR.
We share our knowledge with development teams to help create the most immersive experiences possible, playing a significant role in the development of PlayStation®VR hardware & early prototypes/ VR content - Driveclub VR, VR Worlds, RIGS, PlayRoomVR, etc).
My Role
- Explore concepts regarding User Interface Design within Virtual Environments.
- Designing UI flows & Wireframes for front-end menus.
- Creating an application to illustrate how subtitles can be presented in VR.
- Creating & establishing Best Practice approaches to UI in VR to share with development teams within Sony.
- Understanding & implementing new UI & Graphic Design principles for VR.
- Troubleshooting visual artefacts such as low frame rate, colour vibration and scintillation.
- Building of scenes within Unity for prototyping User Interfaces & project demos.
- Compositing presentations from peers using Adobe Premier Pro for deployment to development teams within Sony.
- Responsible for team's branding & graphic design including best practice illustrations, presentation assets & video editing.
- Graphic Design for presentations given by senior members of the team at key events such as Develop: Brighton & Games Developers Conference.
Joshua Bell VR
- I was involved in the creation of our first official digital product release for PlayStation®VR - Joshua Bell VR - a stereo 360-degree video VR experience where users could watch Grammy Award-winning Violinist, Joshua Bell, perform Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 1.
- I was responsible for the creation of the UI, marketing assets & localisation.
- Shortly after release, Joshua Bell VR won us a Lumiere Award from the Advanced Imaging Society for "Best VR Music Experience".
September 2012
- July 2017
Liverpool, United Kingdom
Education
University Of Central Lancashire
Master of Arts (Games Design) Stereoscopic 3D User Interface Design
September 2012
- October 2013
Preston, United Kingdom
University Of Central Lancashire
Bachelor of Arts (Games Design) User Interface Design
September 2010
- September 2012
Preston, United Kingdom
Awards
Skills
Adobe After Effects,
Adobe Illustrator,
Adobe Photoshop,
Adobe Premier Pro,
Autodesk Maya,
Cognitive Science/Human Behaviour,
Colour Theory,
Human Computer Interaction ,
Poster Design,
Sketch,
Typography,
UI Mockups,
Unity 3D,
Video Editing,
Wireframing,