Michael Dashow

Michael Dashow

Artist / Art Director for fun, appealing projects

Senior Art Director / Senior art lead / 21 yrs

Oakland, CA, United States

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Sr. Art Director

Star Wars: Uprising (2015)

Sr. Artist

Diablo III (2012)

Character Artist

Diablo II (2000)

Sr. Art Director

Spirit Lords

Art Director

Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North

Skills
Skills Clear
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Art Director and award-winning artist experienced with digital and traditional illustration, concept design, 2D and 3D game asset production. My expertise is with strong, colorful, engaging work appropriate for casual and mid-core markets. Keen visual sense, excellent communication skills, great mentoring and team-building abilities, lots of experience managing external art pipelines, and a good sense of humor.
Work History

  • Art Director

    GREE

    September 2016 - June 2017

  • Art Lead

    Tether Studios

    September 2019 - December 2022

    Create all art, visual design, UI/UX, icons, logos, concept art, character design and illustration, animation, effects, app icons, marketing art, etcetera, for skill-based mobile game titles. I also do all of the implementation of said art in Unity. Some games titles that I've done all of the art for include Bubble Cube 2, Party Blast, and Super Blast.

  • Senior Art Director

    Kabam

    December 2011 - November 2015
    San Francisco / Redwood City, CA

    Sr. Art Director of the KabamRPG studio on mobile titles including "Star Wars: Uprising" and "Spirit Lords." I have also been involved with many of Kabam's past mobile titles. I help make games look great, and I work with teams to ensure that they have the resources necessary to make fantastic games. Also I ensure that the collective art team is communicating well and have plenty of educational and enrichment opportunities, including life drawing, art demos, field trips, and more.

  • Senior Artist / Art Director

    Blizzard Entertainment

    February 1998 - June 2005

    Produced much of the character art for 'Diablo II' and then went on to lead and/or be involved with a number of unreleased titles. Created character artwork, concepts, and environments and UI artwork for 'Diablo III.'

  • Creative Director

    Kabam

    January 2011 - December 2011
    San Francisco / Redwood City, CA

    VP-level position in charge of hiring art, sound, and narrative staff, representing all creative resources to the rest of the company and the executive level, and ensuring the happiness of the art team throughout all studios (SF, Redwood city, and Beijing China) through events such as life drawing, artist-sponsored lunches, art demos, field trips, etcetera. Grew the company art team from 7 people to 70+.

  • freelance artist

    Self

    1990 - 2011

  • Art Director

    Kabam

    May 2010 - December 2010

    Kabam makes social games for web platforms, with an emphasis on more depth and strategy than the average casual title. Currently I oversee visual direction and art resources over several internal studios and numerous projects. I have built the art team from a half-dozen artist to ~40 (and growing.) I took point on the entire rebranding of the company, the redesign of the entire web site, and am currently managing 7 games. I also fill in where necessary, and acted as Art Lead on two projects that were at the time understaffed. I am also involved in all planning for future company growth.

  • Art Director

    hi5 Networks

    September 2008 - May 2010

    • Defined the visual style for the games Organized Crime and The Legend of Spirehold, managing a small team of concept artists to develop the visual look of environments, characters, items and maps for both original IPs.
    • Concepted, modeled and textured all avatars for an online feature where users could create their own versions of themselves and ensured their proper implementation on the site.
    • Produced high-quality illustrations for virtual goods for sale on hi5 and oversaw the production of over 400 images.

  • Art Director

    Meez.com

    July 2005 - July 2008

    Meez lets you make your own 3D avatar for the web, wander around interactive chat rooms, and play games. Or you can simply post your avatar on your web site, or a MySpace page, or a blog. They're fully customizable, they're animated, and you don't have to download any software - it all streams on the web. I designed all of the characters and look and feel for the avatar and room style and managed all asset production for the first three years of this start-up company's life.

  • Art Director

    Donnerwood Media

    2005 - 2008

  • Artist / Designer / Art Director

    Living Books

    1991 - 1998

    I started at Broderbund as a Junior Artist in the Living Books group. By the time I left, I was designing and Directing titles.

  • Director / Designer / Artist

    Brøderbund Software

    February 1991 - October 1997

    I started at Broderbund as a Junior Artist in the Living Books group. By the time I left, I was designing and Directing titles.

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Education

  • BA in English, Studio Art, Computer Science

    Oberlin College

    1987 - 1990