Aaron Sowd is an award-winning art director specializing in the art of visual storytelling. His modern aesthetic brings a streamlined approach to feature films, animation, video games, advertising and online media. Aaron has 20 years experience providing the essential storytelling components and unified creative vision key to the success of any project.
Aaron’s film clients include Will Smith and Overbrook Entertainment, Disney, Dreamworks, Fox, Sony, The Weinstein Co., Universal and Warner Bros. Aaron has worked on such films as After Earth, Annie, Bad Boys, Hancock, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Freddy vs. Jason, Hanna, Human Nature, Transformers, Virus and Steven Soderbergh and James Cameron’s Solaris. Commercial clients include Apple, Coca Cola, Lexus, McDonalds, Netflix, The NFL Network, Nike, Ogilvy, Deutsch, TBWAChiatDay, Wieden + Kennedy and Toyota.
In video games, Aaron has provided concept designs and storyboards for ID Software’s Rage, God of War, Dark Void, NBA Ballers, Blitz, and the Harry Potter video game for Warner Bros. online.
Aaron worked on both Transformers: The Ride and The Simpsons Ride for Universal Studios Hollywood, E.T. The Extraterrestrial ride for Universal Studios Singapore, and Hollywood Dream ride for Universal Studios Japan.
Aaron was the award-winning art director of Stan Lee Media, designing and supervising the look of many of Stan Lee’s Flash- animated “webisodes,” including The 7th Portal, The Accuser, The Backstreet Project and The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse. In animation, Aaron also worked on style guides for Titan A.E. and Anastasia for Fox Animation.
Aaron has taught Storyboarding for Filmmakers at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA and has been a featured guest speaker at both SIGGRAPH and Comic Con International.
Aaron’s comic-book credits include DC Comic’s 9-11 Benefit Book, Batman, Harley Quinn, X-Men, JLA, Spawn/Witchblade, and The Flash. Aaron’s work has appeared in the New York Times, People, Time, the Hollywood Reporter, Playboy and PlayStation magazines.
Stephan Martiniere is an internationally acclaimed science fiction and fantasy artist. In the past 25 years, he has become known for his talent, versatility and imagination in every entertainment field, including feature films, animation, video games, theme parks, editorial, commercial and book covers.
Stephan’s film clients include ILM, Disney, Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Dreamworks. He has worked on movies such as Total Recall (2012), Star Wars: Episodes 2-3, Tron: Legacy, Star Trek, Knowing, I, Robot, The Fifth Element, Virus, Red Planet, The Astronaut’s Wife, Sphere, Titan A.E, The Time Machine and the upcoming Avengers 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, and 300: Rise of an Empire. Stephan was the art director for the visually acclaimed ID Software game Rage, released in 2011, and the visual art director responsible for the games URU: Ages Beyond Myst, URU: The Path of the Shell, and Myst 5. He also worked several years at Midway Games as visual art director for the game Stranglehold, and later, as creative visual director of the concept department for several other Midway games, including Blacksite: Area 51, Blitz, Ballers, Mortal Kombat vs. DC, Wheelman, and more.
Over the past ten years, Stephan has produced more than a hundred book covers and numerous comic-book covers and editorial illustrations for such clients as National Geographic, Tor Books, Pyr, Penguin, Random House, Dark Horse and Radical. He is currently a visual consultant and freelance concept illustrator on various films, games and theme parks and frequently teaches workshops and presents lectures worldwide. He is an advisory board member of the CGSociety.
Stephan has received the Exposé Grand Master Award, thirteen Exposé Excellence Awards, five Exposé Master Awards, two Chelsey Awards for Best Book Cover, two silver and one gold Spectrum Award for Book Covers and editorial, the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, the Ennie Award for Best Cover Art, and the Bookgasm Award for Best Cover Artist. In 2009, he was voted one of the 50 Most Inspirational Artists by Imagine FX Magazine.
Victor Lopez is an award-winning art director of interactive experiences, video content for film, theater, and video games. With expertise as a hands-on scenic designer, muralist and illustrator he transitioned to working on AAA games for some of the biggest game companies in the industry.Victor co-founded Symmetric Games, an indie team of game veterans. He was able to use his years of experience from the game industry to create a Sci-Fi survival game as well as design the marketing strategyto promote the project. He also works with some of the biggest interactive shows in Las Vegas. Working across diverse disciplines, what ties his work together is an understanding how design, story and technology combine as one. Hiswide range of expertiseallows him the ability to lead teams of ambitious and proactive cross discipline creatives. He is an advisory board member of the art department and UNLV and frequently holds workshops.Clients include Lucas Film, Nike, Adidas, Numbir9 Films, MGM, The Mandalay Bay, WB, Oats Studios, Leviathan, Redline, Arbor and Google. Victor’s work has been featured in film & design festivals around the world. He’s spoken at international events, including Siggraph, GDC and E3. Some career highlights include “Best New Game” at PAX South for Outpost Zero and creating The Path to Luma. An IOS game geared toward kids that spread the message of clean energy. NRG Energy Company helped raise over a million dollars to install solar panels to parks and schools.