Juha Impivaara

JUHA IMPIVAARA - Career Overview

E-Mail: juha.impivaara@gmail.com

Mobile: +358-50-303 5949

Residence: Helsinki, Finland

Languages: Finnish - native, English - fluent, French - fluent, Swedish - basics

Intro

Senior creative with focus in interactive entertainment, especially games. Over 18 years of professional experience with numerous published titles, avid game development hobbyist since the mid-90's.

I aspire to continue my work in the interactive entertainment industry, with focus on design and leadership. Having a profound interest in the field, ranging from design and conceptualisation to visuals and overall creative direction, I enjoy creating and building new things, experiences, and good gameplay.

In short, I love making games, from concept to creation.

Relevant Skills

Design / Art / Games

Generalist skillset: Working at times as the sole designer and artist in projects has required a wide set of skills, ranging from concept art and fast sketching to game and user interface design, marketing, animation and final in-game asset creation.
Strong technical understanding: Worked in a wide variety of environments, from custom in-house engines to Unreal, IRC to Slack, CVS to Git. I can speak and understand the technical language involved in developing games, and am able to come up with meaningful solutions and proposals.
Software fluency: Varying needs in the styles, platforms, and technical aspects in my work history have nurtured a strong competence in many leading creative packages, including Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and ProMotion. I enjoy learning new software and tools and the possibilities they provide.
Profound interest in games, both on- and off-work, and both playing and creating, has led to a natural understanding of game mechanics: I'm able to figure out what probably works and what doesn't.
Bonus! Special skills in restricted resolutions, color counts and pixel art in general.

Teamwork / Training / Management

Track record in succesfully leading the development on a number of published titles. Directing creative vision and managing tasks and artists, while communicating with programmers, producers and the rest of the team, at times under great pressure and tight schedules.
Experience working in a number of positions in a team: artist, designer, ui/ux, team lead, art director, and producer.
Experience and ability to work autonomously with very little guidance, as well as with strict processes and management. Personal preference in agile methods.
Succesfully trained newcomer artists and designers to the secrets of gamedev pipelines and tools, helping traditional oil painters become game artists.

Relevant Workplaces

1939 Games Ltd.

2022-2023.

Senior UI/UX Designer. 1939 Games is a startup from Iceland, producing a competitive online card game called Kards. The game has been live on Steam for a while, and I joined to help bring it on mobile platforms, revamping the UI/UX design from desktop to small screen, while also helping out with tech art duties, managing (and mangling) assets for mobile use.

Kokonuk Design

2018-Ongoing.

Kokonuk Design is a one man freelancing consultancy. Kokonuk creates, and helps people create, designs, UI/UX, and visuals for various purposes ranging from gaming and apps to web design and logos, and graphics design from posters to b2b communications.

Biddl Ltd.

2014-2018.

Head of Art and Design. Joined the startup as a freelance artist to help out with in-app assets and marketing. Took over visual duties full-time and produced artwork, visual guidelines, and handled visual content outsourcing.

Na3m/Yalla Games Ltd.

2013-2014.

Art Director / Creative Consultant. Started as a creative consultant, ended up helping to build up the studio from scratch as the creative team lead: hired people, designed games and visuals, managed the art team and led game projects.

Aie Interactive OU

2012-2013, 2015->

An exhilarating stint in Tallinn, going full indie game developer with a small team of Rovio alumni. Plenty of game, visual and concept design, and a whole lot of brainstorming. Good times! The company is now called Aie Interactive O and serves as a freelance and subcontracting outlet for art and design, credits including eg. "A.R.M" for Kraftix Games.

Offscreen Technologies Ltd.

2008-2012.

Designer. Joined to help bring an API product to fruition, with responsibility for visuals and design. The company branched into a games and applications studio, where I produced graphics and designed concepts for over 50 mobile apps with hundreds of millions of downloads to date. Very autonomous units and agile development.

Rovio Mobile Ltd.

2005-2008.

Lead Artist / Artist. Worked in Artist and Lead Artist positions on over 10 published mobile game titles, both in-house and subcontracting with Nokia, EA and Namco/Bandai. Contributed also in game design, and trained newcomer artists to the secrets of gamedev pipelines and tools.

Assorted Projects

Also check the games list.

Kards UI/UX revamp - Senior UI/UX Designer

Redesign of the user interface from desktop to mobile.
Implementing UI designs in Unreal Engine.
Managing PC assets for mobile use.

Biddl visual dev - Head of Art and Design

Worked as head of visual design and marketing art.
Created in-app visuals, and marketing assets including print, social media and video.
Managed content outsourcing.

Run Camel Run! - Lead Designer, Lead Artist, Project Lead

All visual duties, from concept to final assets.
Lead game designer.
Marketing material including video, posters, social media assets.
Led the project from concept to being featured on the AppStore in the MENA region, garnering top downloads and great reviews.

"Offscr 100 App Sprint" - Art, Design, Concepts

We created around 100 mobile applications in three months with a team of two other artists and three programmers.
Responsible for a wealth of concepts, designs and graphics on a very tight schedule.

Idols / X-Factor - Artist, Trainer/Tutor

Succesfully tutored and trained newcomer artists in the course of the project, while monitoring the overall graphical style, designing the user interface and creating various in-game assets.

Burnout Mobile - Lead Artist

Worked as Lead on a team of four artists working on the project, tasked in creating assets for both 2D and 3D versions of the game simultaneously.
Designed the UI and graphical feel for the game based on assets provided by EA's Burnout team and controlled the overall art style, providing mockups and references to other art team members.
Created in-game assets for the 2D version, including vehicles, UI, and special particle effects.

Dragon & Jade - Lead Artist

Worked as Lead on a two-man art team.
Overall art direction on the project, with responsibility for the look and feel of the game.
Created in-game assets for environment art, UI graphics, and effects.

Education

EVTEK Institute of Art & Design

3D Visualisation, 2003-2005.

Three years of studies in 3D visualisation and graphic design, with comprehensive traditional arts courses.
Tutored international exchange students.

Lycée franco-finlandais d'Helsinki

From comprehensive school to matriculation examination, 1988-2001.

Upper secondary school leaving diploma ("A-levels")
Special diploma on french language granted by Ambassade de France
Special diploma on english language granted by the school

Other interests

Apart from video games and popular culture, I'm generally interested in history and science, particularly astronomy, anthropology, psychology and political history. My preferred sport would be snowboarding, in which I indulge way too rarely nowadays. I take care of an old Celica, tend to enjoy science fiction and fantasy literature, mostly non-vocal music from electronic to classical, a good sauna and an ice dip, and the glimmer of street lights on wet asphalt.