Seattle Creates: Maker’s Market + Graphic Design, Gaming, and VR Workshop, 2024
Seattle is booming with opportunity and creative professionals in creative technology. This industry event brought together experts in XR, gaming, creative design, and immersive storytelling, showcasing Seattle's growing creative technology scene. Learn more about the industry and stay inspired to work on projects of your own.
Topics Covered: Mixed Reality (MXR), Spatial Entertainment, Video Game Design, Design Trends, Immersive Storytelling, Virtual Production, Podcasting, Generative Ai, Storytelling in VR, XR
Conference Overall Ratings: Venue (3/5) - Food (4/5) - Speaker Content (3.5/5) - Networking Opportunity (2/5) - Likeliness to Return (5/5) —- more details below
Initial Conference Thoughts - Why Attend? As a content creator, this event sounded like it had a good mix of learning + networking. Also, it was advertised to have “workshop elements”. So, mostly I thought it would be fun to create things alongside others - skill sharing. This event seems like a fun time to explore various forms of media and also see more of the M5 venue space that I got to know just a few weeks ago. Also, they were advertising an “after party” which sounded interesting. This community is a bunch of creatives - fun people to spend time with 😁
Photo Collage & Commentary
Event Format Clarification - Marketing vs. Reality
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"FREE creative workshops for Graphic Designers in Gaming + Tech"
"Interactive workshop experience"
"Training + demonstrations"
Part of a "9-part series of SEATTLE CREATES"
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Five 30-minute presentations/talks
Lecture-style seating (~30 chairs)
No hands-on components
No interactive exercises
No breakout sessions
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Room for Improvement: The term "workshop" was misleading. While the content was valuable, these were presentations rather than true workshops. This created confusion about:
When to visit vendor areas
If/how to participate in hands-on learning
Whether to stay for all talks or explore the maker's market (The event description promised both a maker's market and workshops simultaneously, but the timeline and space setup made this logistically challenging)
Notes from Conference— A mix of notes on the industry information + on the event itself.
This event’s format was unideal and I mean it as a compliment. They had four speeches overlapping with (apparently a workshop) AND a makers market? I never figured out info about the workshops (right! And there were only like 30 ppl there at most, so if I was confused probably everyone was) and then the makers market was fun to visit, but while there, you’re missing out on speeches. Too much was going on at once in the sense that you couldn’t make everything and it seemed like a wasted opportunity for people to learn/shop. I wish they’d given this event MORE time or LESS content - so you’re not having FOMO choices nonstop.
MXR (Mixed/Extended Reality) & Spatial Entertainment: Everything encompassing visual arts, audio, design experience - for audiences in 3D spaces.
I was happy to see this speech presented by a guy I met working in this industry at a UX Unconference event a few weeks ago (actually a number of people from that event + the recent game designers event were here). It was neat to see pictures of the AR/XR/IR he’s working on.
Production designer roles include:
Concerts and entertainment experiences
Corporate events
Working with real-time visuals. LED screen inside of a stage or statue to blend reality with XR
Shows in Vegas mixing animation and production
Notable Examples:
The Sphere in Vegas: VR and screen combo do an amazing job of blending assets with over 30,000 pixels wide of screen.
But the example he showed had like a billion butterflies on it. Monarch butterflies. And if you go do some research online (twitter is where I learned this mostly), you’ll stumble upon the evidence showing these are a symbol of brainwashing/etc. Now every time I see this (a monarch butterfly) i’m like… alright, tiniest chance it’s referring to brainwashing/etc… and Vegas is so seedy in parts. Just saying. I know, butterflies are also beautiful and awesome. Just gotta mention it though. It’s what I noticed. And a number of the musicians / artist doing this VR/AR stuff that were mentioned in this presentation, also have some sorta questionable histories, too. Even ATM some rumors are coming out about them and what they’ve been up to at big celebrity parties - harming others… and it seems it sometimes all ties together. So, I don’t wanna get into it here much more, but it’s not wild to question it all, at least a bit. If I’m not, I feel I’m just playing stupid.
Outernet (outside train station): Immersive interactive space reaching 500,000 people daily. Tremendous amount of visual production.
Just did a partnership with Tetris last week for visual production. Tremendous amounts of visual production. All have little pieces that require graphic visual designers.
Vegas play spaces requiring extensive amounts of visual production pipelines. This whole pipeline has to have support along the entire way.
The Design Complexity Ranges:
Simple: Static content and video
Complex: Artist-driven innovations like multi-angle projection mapped sculptures
Base textures with augmented visuals integration
Best Programs to Learn:
-Tell me why I should use each? Why do all these tools exist when they all look exactly the same? Learn the effects you want to make.
These are the basics and they set you up. These apply everywhere and your creative of where that goes is the only limit.
Photoshop: Working with photos, specific shapes within pixel space
Illustrator: Infinitely scalable shapes and lines
InDesign: Creating presentations and combining assets for client pitch decks
Design Process Tips:
Understanding visual effects across different skin tones and races
Learning program-specific language and workflows
Workflow Example:
Design LED walls in Illustrator
Transfer to Photoshop for effects
Compile in InDesign for client presentations
Illustrator allows you to create shapes. Where you may design the LED walls, design and map out how things will look. Maybe build it in illustrator and bring it into photoshop. Then maybe bring it into In Design to build out more client-ready decks.
VIDEO GAMES & GRAPHIC DESIGN
Career Paths:
UI Design: Player navigation systems
Character Design: Main character development
Level Design: Individual level planning
Environment Art: Background and surrounding development
Marketing: Visual promotion
UI Design Examples:
Different games have information to share with the players on screen, how is that information portrayed?
I loved this!! I never thought about this, but it’s so true. You have to really strategically share a lot of info on screen, without crowding it and having it blend in nice.
Racing Games: Speed indicators, race position
Shooting Games: Ammo count, health, weapon equipment
Fighting Games: Health, money, items, level indicators, card systems
Level Design:
Example: Mario's iconic design teaching player mechanics
Mario has iconic level design. Games help you get into that world and let you know immediately what to do. Navigate the world and viand obstacles. Go down pipes, jump… it teaches the player everything they need to know for how to play the game for the next however many hours.
Multiplayer Considerations:
Different play styles (snipers vs aggressive)
Cover placement
Resource distribution
Make it so people who like to play games differently can all enjoy the game and play through the world. Everyone can get their best experience. For example snipers vs. more aggressive . Places to get cover? Find weapons and healthpacks? Lots of elements go into multiplayer level design.
ENVIRONMENT ART:
The environment tells the story of where you are and what has been going on in this world. It gives the feel of what’s going, it sets the vibe of the series. While you’re going through the different scenery and uncovering cool environments to interact with.
These disciplines all work together to make sure it’s a cohesive package. Make sure “the world” is conveying what you want it.
Guide the player where you want them to go using the environment
(Jazz music is softly playing in the background during a speech, you can see someone is backstage behind the screen holding their phone with it plugged into audio. I think this music has been playing almost the whole time, but, then, the sound becomes staticky mid-speech. Event staff interrupt the speeches to say we should turn off the music and static, then they can't figure out how to turn off speakers and disagree a bit on whether only the static shoudl be turned off, or the music as well. Spoiler alert: later in speeches music is on again. I’ve never seen/heard this before, but I’d say it’s more distracting than not to have music on in the background of presentations.)
Design TOOLS:
UI Design: Sigma, canvas, adobe creative cloud
Character design: adore creative cloud, Maya, Houdini
Level design: unreal, unity , godot
Environment art: adobe creative cloud, Maya
Marketing: canvas, adobe creative cloud
(Presentation files won't load onto the screen, so now the two speakers are improvising their co-speech from memory. Lots of apologizing to the audience and a feeling of panic by the presenters. Keep saying “I don’t know what I should tell ya, I wish it was on screen”. Half of the time given for this presentation had no presentation, however, 15 min in, they figured it out and gave a round of applause to the VR guy. That was a nice way to handle it. After this, the speaker is much more comfortable)
VIDEO GAME DESIGN
Everyone around is interactive with games - mostly mobile games.
It can be hard to have an idea and not know how to get it started - follow the process.
Speaker even used to work on GameBoy Color!
Why do concept art? It’s to make things look great - at a very surface/inital level. Beyond that, it allows us to evaluate ideas in terms o the functionality that asset has within the game. Making sure that if design comes and says “we need a soldier with a bazooka” how do you create this character and make it fit into the game?
How to phase a game concept:
Concept art is the beginning of that process. Working with clients to build out games on android and IOS. Working with former Disney executives, so these guys have been making movies and character sets for many years. They came with a cast of characters they’d done concept art for before. THey’d designed a lite narrative, and then they had a game design idea. Then they brought it to them as the jumping off point - and needed to pull it further. I Like you characters, I like your story, but the game design is terrible. Maybe fun for a niche audience, but it has just failed in market research.
Make sure everything fits together so the player understands the call to actions. You want it to be a clear and clean experience for the player.
Concept art is art directing. You depend on them to help prove out the directions of games.
Look at the market space, look at team, look at talent — Venn diagram: what would be successful as a business, what would team be excited to work on, what is within our capabilities?
People love seeing art and art sells. Projects get green lighted over the art, even just scratched out ideas. It doesn’t have to be spectacular art to sell ideas.
Just has to portray the idea
You must initiate and then match art style. Define color pallets and values. Match the personality of the characters, environment, dialogue
Try to keep the momentum going, keep moving forward. It’s good to feel like you’re getting somewhere - rather than having to rework on projects. You will lose confidence and morale.
(I like how he jumped into the crowd and started talking about what he could see and wanted to show. Joined our view. - they played a video and the audio wasn’t working, so they added in sound effects with their voices kinda jokingly, while watching a video game. IT was fun and funny and they shoudl have done more of it hahah. Ut instead they also just shared behind the scenes info.
Had a group working internationally to get through the production to then get through worldwide launch.
How did you find the overseas artists? Style matching with trusted partners and managers
Communicate well and give quick feedback.
Building out custom user experience - while games take about 14 months of building out assets
(Event timing issues - presentations running behind, only 2 minutes are left for the next speaker according to the original schedule. They ended up letting the speech run 15 minutes late in turn. Making everything delayed a bit too - but no one seemed worried about it. My feeling was, well, they have advertised an “after party” so, many people are planning to stay late, anyway.)
CONCEPT & PRODUCTION
Concept Milestones:
Plant the seeds: answer critical questions that will inform the concept stage and brand development. Create a strong foundation of shared expectations for all stakeholders.
Initial game proposals (develop 5 mood boards to explore theme, tone, and visual style. Market research and competitive analysis Rough pass on design, product, art, and narrative documentation)
(This venue is awkward cause lots of people are leaving their offices for the day and leaving out the door - or entering. Lots of distractions and then down the hall you can hear lots of people)
Think about how players will interact with your game on the first day, first year, first five years. Prepare and be thoughtful about what you're designing for the longevity of that experience.
I’ve never thought of this exact questions so directly before, either… how do you make sure things will still be enjoyable five years into the future? I love this question.
Often just has to have a lot of things to do in the game or the ability to be really creative.
Industry Insights
"Where do you think the video game industry is going? You know, it's interesting. There's a lot of consolidation, contraction that happens every could have years in the industry. The games get launched on these kinda time cycles somewhat tied to consoles. So you can see this happen when there is a doom and gloom period, then a new console comes out and new games come out and somes are winners and some are losers. I think we're kinda in the valley right now... but gaming is the 2nd highest of all entertainment industries globally.
The first is streaming media. Then film/television/music are third. 200B/year industry. 100B/year = mobile games alone. Build games for phones that work great on phones so that as many people can play as possible. Free to play games. Anyone can download titles and have fun for free."
AI may replace jobs at first, but then it will probably end up just making humans faster. Get AI to do laundry and dishes, not what I love doing the most. The most success will be those doing things that take friction out of the equation for being creative.
The models they make are not good - six finger beasts. It is good for “mood boarding”, getting rough feelings together for connecting, but still prefer 2D artist use HI: Human Intelligence.
TRENDS IN DESIGN
(Presenter introduces himself humorously: No dogs, no cats, no hamsters, wife, badass kids - though he notes "they're real bad though")
Understanding Trends
Defined as movement of something towards one way or another
Important Design Consideration: Accessibility
Current trends sometimes ignore accessibility needs
Watch out for hard-to-read fonts and color choices
Need to balance trendy with functional
Current Design Trends
Real-Time Rendering
3Flex D emerging as popular style
Virtual backdrop implementation for theater staging
AI and Tool Integration
Unreal Engine leading gaming platform
Adobe Firefly gaining popularity for licensed content
AI-powered design as creative enhancement
Typography & Visual Elements
3D text and typography (via Firefly and Midjourney)
Return of vintage/retro design aesthetics
Blur and distortion effects in trailers and show openings
Dynamic gradients evolving in web design
Geometric abstract narratives in packaging and exterior design
(Presenter asks audience: "Any illustrators out there? Anyone filthy with the pen?"). 😂😂😂😂😂
Industry Demand
Current focus on unique, distinctive design styles
We're in "the time of clip art"
Seeking designers who can create distinctive visual identities
Right now people are looking for people who can hone in on design and make it very unique. It's the time of clip art.
IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING AND VIRTUAL PRODUCTION
Core Concepts
A new way to create and experience stories. Cutting edge tech with creative vision to create dynamic experiences.
Interactive real-time visual effects.
Putting together programs to add to the workforce development program, anyone who wants to be learning these things. Try to show people how to create stories with tools like:
LED wall
Motion tracking suites
Motion tracking camera
Unreal engine
The idea of scanning a panel of your comic and then being able to watch the live-action web series. This was built out and award winning.
(Event running 30 minutes late but they advertised an after party, so that's acceptable)
VR Evolution
How is VR evolving: may be as important as when we created languages and started fires
Current challenges:
VR can be very lonely
Multiplayer is very difficult
Getting easier with better tools
Accessibility improving. It’s more accessible than you think
It doesn’t matter what you do, it can be monetized.
Even simple activities like running can be monetized
Platforms: YouTube, TikTok, social media
Third party payment methods
Content Trends
Short form content is going nowhere and being even more invested into lately.
TV shows being broken into tiny pieces
Full shows appearing on TikTok, cut into small content. This is really trending lately.
Something about this, I love. I like how peopel can be exposed to small trending parts of videos and then check out the whole thing later. I also like that old shows and movies from the past are having this done to them, then shared all over the internet. I think it’s a good use of time and a good way to share content with younger generations. Then they can explore more on their own. It’s almost like turning TV shows into short music… then they can check out the whole album (tv episode) and artist history (tv seasons). ❤️
Hyper realistic animation growing:
Fifty Cent exploring this space and working with a Seattle team potentially to build it out.
Popular in video games
"Love, Death, and Robots" as prime example. VFX supervisor of "Love Death and Robots" is friends with people in this group.
(Venue disruptions continue - office workers passing through because this is in the entrance of the building and they need to walk through to leave for home. Saying goodbye to their friends in the audience. Down the hallway you can hear a lot of noise, too, from the Makers Market - even though its far away.)
Seattle Industry Development
Flex TV upcoming in Seattle
New form of storytelling app is being pushed out deliberately.
Collaborating with local creators
Potential 50 cent project in development
Regional challenges:
Washington state lacks competitive tax incentives so companies and businesses are going to other states
This reminds me of the energy event saying Washington doesn’t have enough power to incentivize companies to come here.
Flex seeking to bring projects despite this
Options for Seattle production collaboration
Industry Examples
VR "Gorilla Tag" success story:
Initially rejected from App Store
Created own distribution
Now a multimillion dollar company
Upcoming developments:
New VR/AR glasses with James Cameron
"Next level" 3D experience promised
Community Engagement
Regular events:
Workshops
Film festivals
AI festivals
Parties
Late night productions
Emphasis on staying connected
(Final note: Event ended 30 minutes late…. and then everyone just was packing up and going home. No talk of an after party. What the heck!? 🥲😅 Haha. Oh well. I just went home and got to work on the blog. This is a super busy week, anyway. More event(s!) tomorrow 😁)
Travel Route -
Without a car, how do you get to these events? Is it easy or tough?
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I had to run an errand before this, so I started at a new location - but it had a bus route that took me right to the literail/subway train hahaha.
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This costs about $3 (but was free since I took the bus earlier). I took the railway for about 30 minutes then exited at Westlake Station.
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The monorail is free to take (I think, right?) when you tie it into other transit. So I swiped my transit card and jumped onto the monorail. It’s always fun to ride on the monorail!
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Been here once before, so I showed up… 30 minutes early! When I arrived it appeared I was the first non-vendor there. It was advertised to start at 5 (I got there at like 4:58), but I ended up walking to the nearby grocery store to get dinner, then came back at 5:30.
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This event advertised an after party, but there was none! So, I just traveled home the same route as I got here. Except I took a taxi home for the last section, costing about $8 including the tip. I just was not up for walking 25 minutes home in those tall boots!
Conference “Overall Rating” Further Elaboration:
VENUE - 3/5
Room for Improvement: While the lobby space was very fantastic looking, the background jazz music and office workers frequently exiting created some serious distractions. It was also a bit cold inside and not enough seats for everyone.
FOOD - 4/5
Allow me to Elaborate: There was no food advertised, so I’m glad they didn’t spend the budget on it (since I assume this funding may be coming from that Art Tax they passed last year for like 10M/year for arts or something. I forget what it was.) I love how they had a chai tea vendor, though they could have had a food vendor too! It was from 5-8 on a Thursday… that’s prime dinner time.
SPEAKER CONTENT - 3.5/5
Room for Improvement: The content was good, but I felt like it was all sorta skewed because things were running late/tech issues. So it felt like speakers didn’t get put in the best positions to succeed and convey information. Seemed possibly a lack of tech rehearsal led to a number of issues (in a room full of audio/visual pros). And, again, the format was a little unclear - since I was never sure if there where/when there was a workshop + when to go to the market, cause I was truly interested in every speech but wanted to see everything…
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES - 2/5
Room for Improvement: Well, there was no room for networking (which was surprising for an event like this). Networking kindainterrupted things. And there weren’t any scheduled breaks. The speakers had to rush their speeches to adapt to technical issues (and we had to leave the building on time so it couldn’t run too late). Then, they advertised an “after party”- that didn’t happen or happened without me.
LIKELINESS TO RETURN - 4.5/5
Room for Improvement: I have been to another event with this group before and it was the complete opposite in a few ways. It was super organized, there were NOT enough speeches IMO 😄, and it was at an amazing venue, with ample networking. Overall, I think these events have a lot of value to offer - just each is a different flavor. I’m glad they’ll keep it up and I would be happy to help make them better - if these blogs don’t already provide enough helpful feedback.
Kelly’s Remaining Questions:
What projects is the city excited to be working on at the moment?
What future events will this “creates” series be offering?
What could common people be doing more of to get experience with these immersive technology industries if they don’t have much knowledge or equipment?
What’s a valuable use of time when introducing yourself to these technologies?
How are these technologies changing daily life for individuals, artists, and companies?
What are some of the biggest struggles in these creative tech industries at the moment?
How could we be building more opportunities to Seattle/the PNW? What do people want to pay for?
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time.
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
