Megan Schlegel

PRIDE with IGT. Copyright (c) IGT. All rights reserved.

Amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic, in-person Pride celebrations were canceled. In the spirit of connection, PRIDE leaders dreamed up this virtual celebration.

Our 60 minute broadcast represents the contributions of PRIDE members across the U.S. and around the world. We reached an audience of 1500 employees worldwide.

At IGT, we have a lot to celebrate in 2020. This year, we led successful education campaigns and introduced standards for LGBTQ workplace equity, gender identity and pronoun self-declaration. Our Pride Month email signature campaign was globally embraced. We secured our bonds by creating this truly inspirational Virtual Pride presentation. We wore Purple in honor of Spirit Day and Queer Youth. And victoriously, IGT extended medical coverage for gender-confirming surgery!

Director: Megan Schlegel

U.S. Pride History Script and Slides: Megan Schlegel

Producers: Michelle Wallace and Tanja Poley

Video & Motion Graphics: Oscar Gouveia

Thank you, Amanda Baker, for your creative inspiration!

PRIDE with IGT. Copyright (c) IGT. All rights reserved.

PRIDE with IGT is a global employee business resource group working in coordination with IGT's Office of Diversity & Inclusion and our Executive Sponsor, CEO N. America.

Our Mission is to provide a safe forum and resource network for LGBTQ employees and allies focused on education, equity & inclusion, community outreach, and intersectionality.

As Global Co-Chairperson for PRIDE with IGT, I led global elections and the formation of a leadership team, secured corporate sponsorship for 7 global Pride celebrations, and worked with our Graphic Services team to create our brand identity and parade gear.

Our next steps include producing a global membership video that incorporates photos and videos from our Pride celebrations in Rome, Mexico City, Lakeland FL, Providence RI, Austin TX, Las Vegas and Reno NV.

This project represents a collaboration between:

PRIDE Co-Chairperson: Megan Schlegel

Diversity & Inclusion Sr. Program Manager: Stephanie Huckel

Graphic Services Team: Barney Abramson & Chris Payne

Photography: David Marshall

Hidden Agendas, The Lionheart Mystery.  Copyright (c) 2015 Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

As Art Director for Pocket Gem's new hidden object game, I led development of our app icon and iTunes landing page content.

Our players asked for murder and mystery set in the Victorian Era and Pocket Gems has delivered!

In a crowded and competitive field, first impressions are impactful!  Our goal for our app icon is to inspire players to "click" and ultimately install our game.  Check out a summary of the icon development to the left.

This project represents a collaboration between:

Art Director: Megan Schlegel

Marketing Artist:  Dilynn Dumlao

Senior Marketing Artist: Danny Voight

Marketing Services: Petrol

Art Services: GameShastra

Hidden Agendas, The Lionheart Mystery.  Copyright (c) 2015 Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

As Art Director for Pocket Gem's new hidden object game, I led the team through the development of our title screen.  Our goals included: capturing our main characters in the act of investigation, portraying Victorian London, and establishing the mood - murder and mystery!

We started with a handful of rough thumbnails and selected one sketch to further define.  We explored strong silhouettes and poses in a photo shoot.  We refined the composition, using the spotlight to direct attention toward the title and the weapon.  We explored color and value, refined character poses and expressions, and the background environment.  We explored several logo treatments prioritizing readability on small devices.  Finally, we animated the screen - creating a parallax effect in which the foreground, mid, and background layers pan at different speeds - providing a dramatic loading experience for players!

This project represents a collaboration between:

Art Director: Megan Schlegel

Concept Artist: Kevin O'Neill

Senior Artist: Justin Lu

Art Services (3D Environment and digital painting):  Dhruva Interactive

Hidden Agendas, The Lionheart Mystery.  Copyright (c) 2015 Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

As Art Director for Pocket Gem's new hidden object game, I led the development of the isometric world and its inhabitants.  Our goals: 1.  Establish a clear path and progression for our players to explore.  2. Create an efficient and elegant tiling system to help maximize game performance.  3.  Portray the setting and time period - Victorian Era London.  4.  Create a beautiful Victorian era desk suitable for our main character - an audacious world-travelin’ photojournalist.

We started with a “master concept” of the desktop.  I dissected the concept into a tiling system to fit the game engine.  We shared the tile specs and templates with our Production Art crew.  They constructed 3D desk elements - decorations like candles, an ink well, and magnifying glass to enhance the theme and era.  We completed the wooden desktop and green workspace using an efficient tiling system.      

This project represents a collaboration between:

Art Director: Megan Schlegel

Concept Artist: Kevin O’Neill

Technical Artist: Tony Trudeau

Developer: Arthur Ham

Senior Artist: Justin Lu

Art Services:  GameShastra

Hidden Agendas, The Lionheart Mystery.  Copyright (c) 2015 Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

As Art Director for Pocket Gem's new hidden object game, I led the development of our character portraits.  Artists worked hand-in-hand with our writer to establish each character.  We defined the characters’ personalities, motivations, worst situations in writing.  Then shared these descriptions with Concept Artists.

Since characters provide a face for our game and allow our audience to connect with the story, I believe character artwork is a high-stakes arena.  Our ability to create highly appealing, compelling characters is a key to the game’s success.  Instead of assigning this enormous responsibility to one Artist, I distributed the work among three trusted concept houses.  Each studio began generating ideas.  I was able to select and circulate the strongest ideas amongst our in-house team members and return feedback to the Artists working remotely.  In short order, our main characters emerged and we used the models to set style for the supporting cast.

Our goals included:  Create compelling characters that portray the Victorian era and Mystery theme while appealing to our modern, primarily mature female audience.  I believe that contemporary players would have difficulty relating to a female lead character in strictly Victorian wardrobe so our characters represent a fusion - turn of the century costumes with a modern twist.  Check out the evolution of our lead female and male characters below.

This project represents a collaboration between:

Art Director: Megan Schlegel

Writer: Stephen Ku

Concept Artist: Kevin O'Neill

Senior Artist: Justin Lu

Art Services:  Volta, GameShastra, Dhruva Interactive

Secret Passages, Epoch Grove.  Copyright (c) 2015 Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

As Art Director for Epoch Grove, I led concepting and production of the isometric world and inhabitants.  We began by forming inspiration boards to capture the mood, color, and architectural style of the Grove.  We moved through several rounds of concepting and arrived at our “master concept” featuring “floating gardens nourished by the time stream itself”.  The next phase involved translating our master concept into a system of tiling art assets.  We provided these tile templates to our Production Art team who began creating final game art.   

Our goals for the feature included:  A) Achieve architectural elegance, B) blend nature and architecture and include luminescent details, C) Open and airy designs that allow nature to enter, D) Landmarks are not constructed by human hands but imagined!

This isometric world represents a collaboration between:

Art Director: Megan Schlegel

Technical Artist: Tony Trudeau

Game Designer: Jeff Temple

Concept Art: Volta

Other Artists involved in the development whose work in not represented here include Concept Artist. Tiffanie Hwang and UI Artist, Somer Leon.

Night at the Museum, Hidden Treasures.  Copyright (c) 2014. Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

As Art Director for Night at the Museum, Hidden Treasures, I led a team of in-house Artists and external Production teams to launch a game in coordination with the film debut.  We succeeded within an extremely tight development timeline - proceeding from concept to game launch in 3 months. 

Raising the stakes, every Art asset had to be approved by IPO Fox Studios and the celebrity talent.  I led the development of 8 portraits plus expressions for characters played by Ben Stiller, Robin Williams,  Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Mizou Peck, Rebel Wilson, Rami Maleck, and Patrick Gallagher.

I also led the development of all branding and identity graphics including our title screen, iOS video, app icon, iTunes landing page screens, ads, and poster.

This project represents a collaboration between:

Art Director: Megan Schlegel

Senior Arist:  Justin Lu

Junior Concept Artist:  Tim Tang

Production Coordinator: Tony Trudeau

Art Services:  GameShastra

Night at the Museum, Hidden Treasures.  Copyright (c) 2014. Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

As Art Director for Night at the Museum, Hidden Treasures, I led a team of in-house Artists and external Production teams to launch a game in coordination with the film debut.  We succeeded within an extremely tight development timeline - proceeding from concept to game launch in 3 months. 

Game components included: 

Isometric Museum:  I established the scale model of the museum and established the user flow aka museum floorplan.

Over 35 hidden objects scenes representing museum exhibits: Collaborated with Concept Artist, Senior Artist and Art Producer to raise Art quality and achieve production goals.

Features and minigames:  Collaborated with Concept Artist, Senior Artist and UI Artist to produce features that combine highly illustrated backgrounds with awesome characters and easy to use interfaces.

This project represents a collaboration between:

Art Director: Megan Schlegel

Senior Arist:  Justin Lu

Junior Concept Artist:  Tim Tang

Senior UI Artist: Susan Cho

Art Services:  GameShastra

Runway Life.  Copyright (c) 2014. Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

To read about how we developed the mission statement and vision for this product, please read my blog entry "Developing Mission and Vision".

Scroll down to see early explorations into style, personality, and palette.  Then check out the resulting UI, isometric landmarks, and title screen that emerged.

This project represents a collaboration between:

Art Lead: Megan Schlegel

UI Design: Nicky Guan

Senior Production Coordinator: Iris Malang

Marketing Artist: Dilynn Dumlao

Art Services:  Concept Art House and Secret6

Secret Passages, Hidden Objects.  Copyright (c) 2013 Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Roles:  Lead Artist, Content Designer and Manager of all off-site Art Production Resources

Art Services: GameShastra

Senior Artist and UI: Justin Lu

Secret Passages, Hidden Objects.  Copyright (c) 2012 Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Roles:  Lead Artist, Content Designer, and Coordinator of Off-site Art Production

Art Services:  Sarbakan

Tap Pet Shop.  Copyright (c) 2011 Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Role:  Lead Artist, UI, Animal Concepts and Off-site Production Coordinator

Art Services: Sarbakan, WeRPlay

Tap Zoo.  Copyright (c) 2011 Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Roles:  Lead Artist, Feature UI, Iso Animal Concepts, and Coordinator for off-site Art production

Human character concepts:  Alison Acton, Dooomcat Studios

Copyright (c) 2000 - 2011 IGT, Inc. All rights reserved.

Role: Lead Artist, Character Design, Graphic Design and UI, After Effects Animation and VFX.

I enjoy capturing experiences shared with friends and telling stories with pictures filled with enumerable details, engaging characters and enchanted environments.