PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
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FREE RANGE GAMES | UI ARTIST
October 2024 - June 2025
Established UI art direction and graphic design treatments for Cottonwood, an unannounced AAA action-adventure title. Developed and maintained style guides for both internal and external partners, as well as interfacing between multiple departments.
TRAEGA ENTERTAINMENT | SENIOR UI ARTIST, GRAPHIC DESIGNER
March 2021 - April 2024
Established UI art direction for multiple PC titles. Maintained consistent design languages across multiple games for all in-game UI and marketing collateral. In addition to providing art direction for in-game UI, hundreds of icons, mood boards, illustrations and logos were created.
PSYONIX | SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER, WEB DESIGNER
November 2015 - July 2020
Contributed to multiple creative endeavors including webpages, video content, promotional and key art, while working within an in-house Creative Services department. I was fortunate enough to lend my skill set and to lead several initiatives with major partners including WWE, MLB, NBA, Hot Wheels, J!NX, Twitch and others.
ILLFONIC | UI ARTIST
November 2013 - August 2015
Contributed graphic design and UI artwork for several projects including: Star Citizen, Friday the 13th, Armored Warfare and Revival. Designed multiple webpages and assisted with branding for Illfonic as well as Revival.
PETROGLYPH GAMES | UI ARTIST
June 2012 - April 2013
Responsible for providing marketing art and illustrations for several PC titles. I also contributed iconography, logo/ typeface treatments, and UI concepts.
THE ART INSTITUTE OF LAS VEGAS | BACHELOR'S DEGREE
October 2006 - June 2010
COMPANIES & BRANDS WORKED WITH
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RECOMMENDATIONS
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" I worked with Michael on an undisclosed AAA action-adventure project. He was quick to seek out an established art style for our UI, and was big on establishing a consistent process and pipeline for our work. His art was top-notch, and he constantly sought out better understanding and clarity of concept in our game design. Michael would be a strong asset to any team that needs high quality, stylistically confident UI work."
- Quinn Le, Senior UX/UI Designer @ Free Range Games
"As a UI Designer I had the pleasure of working alongside Scala to create the UI for our project. Scala was able to take design documents and output high quality assets, from conceptual wireframes to final art, iterating throughout based on feedback and additional requests. He was able to merge the design with the art while working alongside a UI engineer to implement the vision. He is a talented artist who proved he is able to deliver outstanding art in several different styles. He has a vast knowledge of UI and UX concepts that help balance the needs of the project with the presentation to the player. He gave great insight while designs were being written and meaningful feedback on how to improve things once they were in. I found him easy to talk to and spitball ideas throughout development. His work is extremely valued and I think anyone else who gets to work alongside him would agree."
- Micah Anderson, UI Designer @ Traega Entertainment
"I had the privilege of working with Michael for almost 4 years. He is a true professional and always brought fresh ideas outside of the gaming world to the logos, landing pages, social media graphics and presentation decks he created with the brand team for Rocket League. I definitely recommend Michael for any graphic, web, or art design role. He’s great to work with and he truly knows how to help build a brand’s visual identity."
- Kyle Lemmon, Senior Brand Manager @ Level Infinite
" It was a pleasure working with Michael. He had a strong grasp of RocketLeagues updates and his determination and passion was always apparent. He regularly sought out any required information before jumping into an unknown situation and was able to provide solid designs."
- Jason Rowells, Art Director @ Psyonix
" Michael Scala started as a production assistant and joined our UI team for art support, quickly proving his incredible work ethic, willingness to do whatever's needed, and drive for making the best UI Art possible. And that's why we promoted him to UI Artist in our newly formed UI Core Team, where he consistently proves his talents and mettle on even tougher projects and tighter timelines. Additionally, he's a gamer and approaches his assignments always with gamers and gameplay in mind, and he always strives to expand his talents and understanding of UI Art and Design as a discipline. To top it off, Scala's the nicest guy ever and a lot of fun to work with. Aces all around."
- Xander Davis, Founder & CEO @ nuPlayer