Growing a Creative Organization

Building teams, processes, and products that shaped a generation of educational software

My ten years at Knowledge Adventure marked the beginning of my journey as a creative leader.

I joined as an animator and, over the course of a decade, grew into Lead Artist, Creative Director and Department Head, eventually leading a team of 28 artists responsible for the visual development of some of the most recognizable educational software brands of the era, including JumpStart, Math Blaster, Reading Blaster, and Barbie.

During my tenure as creative director, I helped deliver 22 published titles, established production standards that improved both quality and efficiency, and discovered that my greatest professional fulfillment came not from creating artwork myself, but from building teams capable of creating exceptional work together.

Educational software, or "Edutainment" occupied a unique space between entertainment and learning.

Children expected experiences that were imaginative, engaging, and fun, while parents and educators expected meaningful educational outcomes. Some people refer to this period of educational software as "broccoli and bullets", but from the inside, we constantly strove to build products where the entire experience engaged and enlightened kids.

Math Blaster

Barbie Secret Agent concept art

Math Blaster Concept art and final art

Bob the Cave Man concept art

Reading Blaster

Jurrasic Park Scan Command

Building a Creative Organization

As the department grew, one of my priorities became creating systems that allowed artists to work more effectively together, such as the training I created for our internal proprietary animation tools and taught in LA and two our two satellite companies on the east coast.

I introduced standardized workflows, asset organization, training practices, and creative review processes that improved consistency while reducing production bottlenecks. These operational improvements enabled the team to deliver ambitious projects on relatively limited budgets without compromising quality.

One of the most rewarding aspects of this role was mentoring artists as they advanced in their own careers. Artists from my time at Knowledge Adventure have gone on to lead teams at Naughty Dog, become senior artists on Disney digital teams and direct television shows for Disney.