Christopher Bretz

Work History

• Owner/Artist

  Christopher Bretz Art & Design

  June 2009 - Present

  Toronto, Canada Area

  I create illustration and concept work for various entertainment and software clients. I also provide marketing assets, art direction, and small business advice and mentorship. Among my clients are Glu Mobile, Sega of America, Empty Clip, 2K Games Marin, Centrify, Sourcefire, and others.
• 

  Art Director

  Amber

  December 2020 - January 2022

  Toronto, Canada
• 

  Senior Art Director & Marketing Manager, Security

  Cisco

  December 2013 - October 2019

  Toronto, Canada Area

  I worked within the global product marketing department of Cisco producing high quality digital, print, and event content for a variety of campaigns and products. My group was responsible for much of the graphic design for Cisco Security at large industry events including RSA, Black Hat, and Gartner. In 2018 a reorg put our team under the Product Marketing (PMM) group helping build and manage an internal creative services team. I was also involved with creating and designing a new internal thought leadership report called the Cisco Cybersecurity Series.
  I became involved with security marketing by first working on contract with the startup Immunet in 2010, handling their graphic design, marketing materials, and web management. Immunet was later purchased by Sourcefire for $21 million (2011), after which I brought into Sourcefire's creative services/product marketing team. Sourcefire was later acquired by Cisco for $2.7 billion (2013).
• 

  Executive Art Director

  Sega Of America, Inc.

  March 2008 - May 2009

  San Francisco, California

  I was the Executive Art Director for Sega of America, operating in the A&R and Product Development groups. I reviewed new potential products, assessed graphical quality of our developers, created and enforced aesthetic standards, reviewed art pipelines, helped developers meet their goals, and coordinated with the Marketing and Creative Services groups so the games reach the market with a unified vision. I also personally produced content in conjunction with Sega’s creative services group. Although I very much enjoyed the role, ultimately it required much more travel than I anticipated and I left to setup my own studio. I continued to work with Sega for several years after leaving.
  Projects involved with: Aliens, Alpha Protocol, Cipher Complex, Conduit, Daisy Fuentes, Sega Genesis iPhone, Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Shinobi, Thor, and others.
• 

  Director of Art, Executive Staff

  Sega Studios San Francisco

  April 2006 - April 2008

  San Francisco, California

  Continued to be responsible for the Art department after Secret Level was acquired by Sega and renamed Sega Studios San Francisco. I worked with the project art Leads on the visual development on the studio's titles, and managed the growth of the department. Projects included Golden Axe: Beast Rider and Iron Man and several smaller ones.

• Lead Artist, Art Director, Executive Staff

  Secret Level

  July 2000 - April 2006

  San Francisco, California

  I was one of the owners/founders of Secret Level. I was responsible for starting a new art department in 2000 and grew it to a 60+ person group across dozens of successful projects over the next 6 years. I controlled the artistic direction of our projects, and set the visual quality for the company. I also managed the art staffing and hiring, training, and contributed to the overall company management through its executive staff. I also still found the time to do actual artwork on almost every project. Secret Level was acquired by Sega of America for $15 million in 2006.
  We developed with several technologies, including; Unreal, Unreal 2, some Unreal 3, Lucasarts EVE engine, and our proprietary Riders engine, among others.
  Projects: Unreal Tournament Dreamcast, Starfighter: Special Edition, Jedi Starfighter Xbox, Magic: The Gathering - Battlegrounds, America's Army: Rise of a Soldier, Final Fight Port, Golden Axe: Beast Rider (preproduction), as well as numerous smaller projects, demos, and work for hire.

• Lead Artist, Art Director, More...

  H2O Entertainment

  November 1995 - July 2000

  Vancouver, Canada Area

  I started as an artist with H2O and took on increasing art direction and management responsibilities. While always involved in the hands-on artwork, I also organised the setup of a new company satellite office in San Francisco and coordinated the production and art of the New Tetris. I worked closely with publishers throughout project developments including the NOA Treehouse, Blue Planet Software, and THQ producers.
  Projects: Tetrisphere, The New Tetris, Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage

• Artist

  Virtual Games

  November 1994 - November 1995

  Calgary, Canada Area

  My first industry job, before even leaving college, was doing visual development for an early MMRPG called Stimslum built for a proprietary dialup network hub.