I set design direction on projects across a $100M+ portfolio of brands — UNO, Pictionary, and Scrabble — working with licensing partners like Disney, the NFL, and Warner Bros. On the other end of the spectrum: clients like the Department of Defense and DARPA. Different worlds, same job — get fluent fast enough to lead.
Every tile on the right is placed by the same three rules, run through a seed:
Change the seed and the rules run again — a different result, the same design. That's the actual job: build the constraints well, then let the system do the arranging. It's also how a good AI-assisted design tool should behave — a collaborator working inside boundaries you set, not a black box.
A few of the colored tiles aren't just color — hover one to see the real project behind it.
Four things I hold onto regardless of the project.
Define the must-have outcomes for the project, then design the form that follows from them — not the other way around.
A person using something you designed should be able to predict how to interact next. Discovery is for the content, not the interface.
Generation is fastest when it's exploring a space you already understand — it should widen your options, not replace your judgment.
A design isn't finished until someone else has tried to break it. Games taught me that before software did.
The strip along the top of this card runs the same rules as the panel above — but seeded once, with my name, and never rerolled. Same system, fixed result. That's the difference between a demo and an identity.
Design systems for UNO, Pictionary, and Scrabble, with a focus on AI-driven product innovation.
The four tags on that card aren't decoration — they're a classification I've used across two decades of work. Unlike the seed above, this one doesn't reroll: a taxonomy that changes meaning isn't a taxonomy. Filter by category, or leave it be — everything's listed either way.
Led design on the first-in-class AI-powered board game in the Pictionary line.
Use Claude, ChatGPT, Vizcom, and Adobe Firefly across concepting, visualization, and prototyping — to move faster without handing over design judgment.
Built a test model and ran structured playtests on a proposed generative-AI game concept. The evidence informed leadership's decision not to move forward — a good outcome, not a failed one.
Leading further AI-driven product work currently in development. Details confidential for now.
Design across UNO's licensed and fandom lineup — sports, film, and franchise crossovers built on the same core system.
A competitive UNO tournament series, with live-streamed finals and a national talent search to get there.
A hand-held electronic version of Pictionary, built as a standalone game device.
Led design on a tabletop roleplaying game and its supporting product line — the start of a still-active interest in wargaming and RPG systems.
A squad-command tactics trainer built with the U.S. Army Infantry School — the player directs a virtual squad rather than firing a weapon directly. Won Best Simulation and Best Original Game at E3.
A mixed-reality IED-defeat trainer built into modified shipping containers, deployed to training installations for Army and Marine Corps personnel.
A custom hardware and software exhibit for the Science Center's Ecosystems hall, letting guests spotlight points of interest on a giant satellite map of L.A.
A theater-wide combat logistics trainer built as decision-making, not data entry — thirteen scenarios on one shell, usable by a soldier on a mountaintop with almost no bandwidth.
A pair of head-to-head counterterrorism strategy sims, a year apart, each on its own statistical model — core curriculum for the Marshall Center's cyber security program.
Motion-controlled augmented-reality drawing games: Takeover, Star Wars, and Air 2.
An augmented-reality take on Scrabble, extending the board through the camera.
The world's first location-based AR poker game — built in under six weeks for a live debut at SXSW.
A Loteria-inspired location-based AR game for Spanish-language Univision viewers, with weekly prizes.
An immersive 3D and 360° tour built for students in grades 4–12.
Mission-command training for counterinsurgency and stabilization operations.
Ten scenarios training soldiers to patrol, observe, and report what they find in the field.
Decision-making and documentation practice across more than twenty modules.
Thirty-six self-paced exercises spanning four key areas of military intelligence.
A classroom trainer for Patriot battery mission planning.
A vehicle-combat trading card game.
A hex-based collectible figure combat game.
A collectible battling-creature toy and game line.
A collectible trading card game based on the popular Hot Wheels brand.
A choose-your-path handheld storytelling game.
If this is the kind of systems thinking you want leading a design team — including the AI-assisted part — let's talk.
Email me