Gatz Choi Email & Phone Number

United States

— Led art direction for pitches, concept proposals, multi-team projects, and high stakeholder meetings. Designed for 190+ licenses. Developed products, trends, and design strategies for Hot Topic and Box Lunch. Pitched to clients and licensors with a focus on collaboration, enhancing customer experience, product innovation, elevating brands, and increasing market share. Coordinated with internal teams and external vendors domestically and internationally.— Specialized in anime product development for Crunchyroll, Funimation, VIZ Media, Aniplex, and more. Designed for 100+ animes such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Naruto, Hunter X Hunter, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Dragon Ball, Fullmetal Alchemist, Tokyo Ghoul, Haikyuu!!, Mob Psycho 100, Cowboy Bebop, Bleach, Tokyo Revengers, Chainsaw Man, Love Live!, Inuyasha, Promare, and Mamoru Hosoda films. Collaborated with Ufotable, Bones, MAPPA, Toho, Groundworks, Ghibli, Toei Animation, Studio Trigger, and many studios to protect brand integrity and product quality.— Coordinated between multiple departments to fulfill licensor requests, and deliver products by shipping deadlines. Managed creative timelines for teams while considering concept approvals, sampling, quality checks, manufacturing, product delivery, and store landing windows.— Conducted research including data analytics, store surveys, and social media studies to understand rapidly changing market. Synthesized data into insights to build trends and design strategies for product development. Watched and read 150+ licenses to deeply understand every series, and pitch concepts that align with fans’ needs / wants.— Shared extensive recommendation lists of licenses to acquire. Licenses strategically selected based on increasing fan demands, upcoming key dates (series release, anniversaries, etc.), and new market opportunities.— Trained employees in design techniques, Adobe software, data entry process, and project workflow management.

— Designed contract print and cut & sew products for mass-, mid-, and specialty retail clients such as Hot Topic, Box Lunch, Torrid, Amazon, Forever 21, Zumiez, Urban Outfitters, Spencer’s, PacSun, Target, Walmart, JCPenny, Ross, and more. Built seasonal lines and products with a focus on bringing anime licenses into new retail spaces.— Created licensed products for Sanrio, San-X, Warner Brothers, Universal, Paramount, Viacom, Netflix, DreamWorks, Disney, MIRAMAX, FOX, HBO, The Smithsonian, Nintendo, SEGA, Ubisoft, etc. Designed for film, television, music, comics, video games, and collectibles across various genres. Worked on licenses such as DC, Genshin Impact, AC/DC, Apex Legends, Halo, Squishmallows, Kirby, Sonic the Hedgehog, Five Nights at Freddy’s, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Friday the 13th, Ghostface, and Quentin Tarantino films.— Researched extensively, developed strategies, and built trends to pitch for Neon Genesis Evangelion capsule. Designed exclusive Evangelion 3.33 collection for Atsuko’s NY Comic-Con exhibition. Trends further directed general Atusko development, and rolled out into other departments’ projects.— Worked in the Zumiez design team to create original art custom-tailored to several different brands (Vitriol, Empyre, Dravus, Monet, A-Lab, etc.) Collaborated with teammates to strategize and streamline the design process, which led to surpassing originally set goals of increasing buyer selects.— Executed print on-demand DTG production. Created digital assets for e-commerce platforms. Developed packaging neck labels, hang tags, and more while maintaining licensor requirements.— Developed informational anime materials based on deep understanding of every license's brand guidelines, design rules, and submission process. Taught how to design within multiple parameters such as character hierarchies, color associations, following story arcs, and more requirements.

Greater Los Angeles Area

· Conceptualization and execution of visual design and illustration. · Created data infographics and visual journey maps.· Developed private artist brand identities including brand visual language, logo development, web design and image curation.

Locations: Oakland and Los Angeles (CA, USA), Nairobi and Kisumu (Kenya), Lucknow (India), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).· Conceptualized and developed visual brands, created character avatars and illustrated for adolescent reproductive health projects.· Maintained internal brand. Supported various teams with visual design. Created presentation decks and shareback reports for global conferences, human-centered design workshops, and partnership meetings.· Aided in prototyping of mobile app, website, and other rough concepts.· Conducted design research, human-centered design workshop facilitation, partner capacity building and remote multi-country ideation sessions.· Based on the synthesized insights, developed rough prototypes for field prototype testing.· Supported the development of quantitative IVR mobile survey.· Developed hiring criteria for different design roles, evaluated potential hiring candidates, and ran interviews.· Trained research associate and in-country team members in human-centered design methods.· Maintained relationships with project partners and funders.

Pasadena, Ca

Instructor: Bob KatoCourse: Sketching for IllustrationInstructing students on traditional media techniques for observational studies. Taught students basic graphic design with emphasis on typography, layout and visual hierarchy.

Pasadena, Ca

Instructor: Errol GersonCourse: Entrepreneurial SpiritSupported evaluation of business case studies and essays. Helped students with Blue Ocean Strategy thinking, business research, and branding tactics.

_SAN FRANCISCO, CAAssigned to work in Team YRH (Youth Reproductive Health; currently known as Team Health XO) with focus on developing brand, assets, and strategies to implement The Divine Divas and Future Fab projects._ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIASupported facilitation of human-centered design workshops led by IDEO.org and funded by the Hewlett-Packard Foundation to various organizations specializing in sexual reproductive health. Assisted in rough and rapid prototyping. Co-led a team to teach human-centered design research methods.

Pasadena, Ca

Instructor: Dana DuncanCourse: Digital IllustrationInstructed students on various digital software and techniques. Helped teach integration of analog and digital methods, conceptualization for personal brands, and strategies for future career identities.

Pasadena, Ca

Instructor: Bob KatoCourse: Sketching for IllustrationInstructing students on traditional media techniques for observational studies. Taught students basic graphic design with emphasis on typography, layout and visual hierarchy.

Pasadena, Ca

Instructor: Peter HanCourse: Dynamic SketchingTaught viscom and sketching techniques to student in-class and in various out-of-school field trips. Supported students in narrative storytelling and visual development research.

Bachelor Of Fine Art In Graphic Design

Continuing Education (Ceu), Business, Management, Marketing, And Related Support Services

Digital Marketing & Brand Management Certificate -- Search Engine Marketing Optimization -- Social, Local, Mobile E-Mail Marketing.

Studied For Bachelor Of Fine Art In Illustration

Studied editorial illustration, multimedia image making, screenwriting, and visual development for animation. Focused Coursework: January.