Jennifer A. Reuter Illustration

About & Resume


Hi! I'm Jennifer, and I'm that one artist who will seem to make any monster (literal or otherwise) seem strangely endearing.

German and Polish, I moved to Australia as a child and later studied Communication Design at RMIT. With experience in event-facilitation, freelancing and working for various studios, I collaborated and communicated with teams ranging from startups to established studios. Please see my resume below for more details.

While I've stylistically journeyed from the softest shapes, all the way to noir-style stark contrast, where I'm most at home is in grit, texture, elegance and tragedy. "Romantically monstrous" is how I like to describe it, where the harsh meets a hopeful undertone. I'm always looking for romantic horror, urban fantasy and rough science-fiction genre works to contribute to, and otherwise create my own comics, stories and games.

The rest of the time, I get carried away learning shiny things I always thought were cool but was too timid to try. Rollerblading, swing dancing, and it's never too late to scratch that singing lesson and comedy classes itch. Storytelling is like breathing to me, so yes I have to spend my spare time being more creative with tabletop roleplaying games.

Don't get me started on Cad Bane, Bionicle or coding websites, you'll never hear the end of it.



Resume

Developing concept art and marketing illustration to enrich game productions’ stories with energy and grit is my passion, and I’ve been doing it for 6+ years. I create rock-solid quality art through a marketing lens: resonating with a target market to delight and stand out.

Experience

Concept & Asset Artist - Lost Again Games

2021 + 2024
Character, environment and style concept art, along with 2D assets, for a mystery point-and-click game inspired by noir comics and art nouveau.

  • Considered asset style development, testing digital brushes, shading methods and colour schemes to evoke a comic feel while maintaining a sense of atmosphere and efficient production scope. Each illustration, from line art to colours, took around 2:45 hours.
  • Wide spread of subject matter illustrated, including clothes, furniture and interior design based off 1920s art nouveau across the world, resulting in a full isometric map of a residential home and multiple character clothing design iterations before arriving at 5 final designs.
  • Assisting frame-by-frame animator with design notes and adjustments for isometric walking animation of main character, ensuring consistency of proportions.


Concept Artist & Asset Artist - Were You Followed

2022 Nov - 2023 Jul
Character, environment concept art and assets for a dark gothic monster romance story-focused game.

  • Clear process, stepping through sketch iterations of 3 monster character designs to greyscale silhouette development and final character sheets, differentiating from common market love interest interpretations by pushing monstrous features and dramatic silhouettes.
  • Applied reference material research of brutalist architecture to inspire environment and background designs, standing out from the classic genre gothic approach.
  • Collaborated with rig animator on prototype 2D puppet asset, defining required limbs and head rotations for animation flexibility.
  • Accountable timeline management by providing a Gantt chart plan for project, regularly updated to maintain clear communication of work status with studio lead.


Marketing & Asset Artist - Boss Battle

2020 + 2023
Various marketing art for succesfully funded card-based player vs. boss board game: logo design, crowdfunding visuals, asset art and rulebook design.

  • Detailed graphic design methodology, designing a 28-page tabletop game rulebook in InDesign with accessible shapes and contrast elements. Players reported positive feedback on ease of legibility and navigation of the rules.
  • Iconic logo design, pushing a stronger silhouette and literal representation of the game's subject matter to differentiate from classic fantasy market genre fancy fonts. The design was used on packaging design and promotional material, adding to its recognisability while crowdfunding.


Freelancing Illustrator

2017 - Current
Illustrative marketing material for over 40+ client projects across various sized teams.

  • Versatile artistic style with over 60 B2B clients in 5 years, or 40+ completed jobs, from cute musical romance games to vibrant fantasy painted worlds to dark horror. One project received an award!
  • Aptitude for new software, building a visual novel demo using RenPy within 2 months.
  • Respectful discussion of miscommunication on feedback expectations with client, arriving at an understanding and closing the contract with agreement.

Concept & Marketing Artist - Things For Humans

2019 + 2023
Character and environment concept art for cute romantic musical game, used later for Video World, and marketing illustrations and background layouts for the sequel A Halloween's Valentine.

  • Inventive with visual solutions, solving an environment issue where characters were facing away from the player during a key conversation moment by redesigning the hallway and door layout.
  • Facilitated practical designs that fit technical requirements, with environment lighting mockups and 3 character turnaround sheets which the team's 3D artists referenced, producing accurate & usable models.

Mid-weight Background Artist - Studio Moshi

2017 Oct - 2018 Jan
Illustrated backgrounds for an in-house animation production.

  • Productive team-member, collaborating with co-workers in a studio environment, to produce 90 artworks for a 3 month deadline.
  • Followed style guides thoroughly to combine Photoshop and Illustrator tools across background illustrations, from line art to final rendering. The settings varied from dense forests, to sweet milk bars and fantastical architecture.


Volunteer Event Facilitator - Various Events

2016, 2017 & 2018 Facilitated patrons, pre-event organisation, promoted at stall booths and assisted speakers for a variety of events: GCAP, Ysbryd and Fellow Traveller convention booths at PAX Aus and Gnomon Live Entertainment Design.

  • Flexible communication, coordinating shifts and responsibilities in event volunteer crews, ranging from 10 to 60 members, servicing hundreds of patrons.
  • In touch with games industry business practises and promotional efforts after being on the ground at events, listening to developers' experiences and applying them to marketing and design for my clients.
  • A real love for the creative games and animation scene. Clearly, you can't keep me away for long.


Proficient in

  • Drawing software (by preference): Krita, Clip Studio Paint, Photoshop
  • Design software (by preference): Affinity Designer & Publisher, Acrobat Pro, InDesign, Illustrator.
  • Video software: After Effects
  • Project management tools: ClickUp, Toggl
  • Game software: RenPy
  • Team collaboration: Slack, Discord
  • Git & Github

Familiar with

  • Video software: DaVinci Resolve
  • Game software: Unity, Blender

Awards

AGDA: Excellence in Emerging Games

2021
Video World by Things for Humans
Contributed character designs which were later adapted to 3D art.

Education

The 1-Page Marketing Plan Course - Lean Marketing (formerly Successwise)

2023 (self-paced)
Developed a concise marketing plan using the courses' framework, with strategies for analysing and best implementing market research into business processes.


Painting Drama - Chris Oatley Academy

2020
Applied art fundementals to a series of 8 digitally painted illustrations, with thorough thumbnail, study and colour iteration process.


New Enterprise Incentive Scheme - Kangan Institute

2019
Developed a thorough business plan and budget based on market research, which contributed to solid freelancing practices.


Bachelor of Design (Communication Design) - RMIT

2015
Graphic design, typographic and digital design skills developed through print and online projects.

Talks

Returning Monster to MonstARRGHHH: creating stand-out monster concepts - GCAP

2023 Oct
A talk about monster design! Providing a framework to brainstorming and actioning unique conceptual designs on a symbolic level, so they are memorable in the target genre market.


Style that Sings - GCAP (Watch now!)

2022 Oct
A talk about communicating your style through words effectively, using language to disentangle vague psychological states we need to navigate as artists.

Concept art online workshop - Wyndham Tech School

2020 Nov
A workshop about the concept art process, involving high school students with theme suggestion prompts.


"Go Swish" - Charlie Red

2019 Oct
15-minute presentation for a Melbourne digital art collective about line-art improvement.


"Self Insert Here" - Freeplay (Watch now!)

2019 Apr
Hour-long online talk for an independent games festival, about artists using personas.


Publications & Projects


ROCK ME NOW - Zine Illustration

2021
Original illustration contribution for a charity zine (donated to Black Creatives in Sacramento), involving grunge-rock characters drawn by multiple illustrators.

Katabatic - Comic

2021
Online self-published, and free-to-read, 124-page fantasy adventure graphic novella.

Orunge - Game

2019
Collaboration with writer Jessica Moore on a story-board-style branching cute narrative game built in Twine.

Snap - Comic

2018
Online and self-published issue, 9-page action comic.