Beverly Garland

Current

• Management Consultant at Self-Employed
• Owner and Consultant at PortfolioMentor: Your Guide to Game Art Jobs

Past

• Art Production Manager at NCSoft
• Web Intern for nationalgeographic.com at National Geographic Society
• Director of Art Studio at EA Origin Systems

• Art Production Manager at EA Origin Systems
• Art Director/ Cofounder at Titanic Entertainment
• Lead Artist/Art Director at EA Origin Systems
• 3D Modeler and Animator at EA Origin Systems

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Education

• The University of Texas at Austin
• The University of Texas at Austin
• St. Edward's University

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Recommended

13 people have recommended Beverly

Connections

281 connections

Industry

Computer Games

Beverly Garland’s Summary

It was with great enthusiasm that I began my career in games in 1992 as a 3D character animator and art director, but an injury 7 years later put me on a trajectory away from production and toward a new adventure in pure management. My next two positions were as an art production manager and the director of a multi-project art studio. When that dev studio was shut down, I returned to school to earn a master's degree in geography. I returned to the games industry to work as an art production manager on an MMORPG once more while completing my thesis. After helping the team transition to Agile development, I was Scrum Master for one multi-disciplinary team developing player vs. player features, for one working on character class balance, and for another working on framework and tools programming. When the team grew smaller, I enjoyed taking on more roles, including online community marketing, managing and writing for the product website, and player community relations.

Core values for my career:
1. To help myself and others think and operate in new and better ways so that we can accomplish great things while retaining a high quality of life
2. To incorporate fun, variety, inspiration and creativity in everything I do
3. To encourage cooperation ("power with") over command-and-control ("power over") as a better way of growing and creating as a team

Beverly Garland’s Specialties:

Group facilitation, Agile development, Certified Scrum Master, Career coaching, Graphic design, Art direction, Writing and editing, Research, Web development, Photoshop, and Production management

Technical skills: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, Adobe Photoshop CS, MoveableType Pro, Wordpress, Adobe Premiere, Adobe AfterEffects, HTML, Microsoft Outlook Professional, and Microsoft Power Point.

Beverly Garland’s Experience

• Management Consultant

  Self-Employed

  (Computer Games industry)

  April 2009 — Present (4 months)

  Helping selected game companies train their teams in new approaches to development.

• Owner and Consultant

  PortfolioMentor: Your Guide to Game Art Jobs

  (Computer Games industry)

  December 2008 — Present (8 months)

  Advising entry-level and veteran artists in crafting or updating their portfolios for landing jobs in the games industry. Writing articles and website feedback documents, and providing one-on-one art direction. 100% of clients have made upward career moves within 1 to 3 months of consultation.

• Art Production Manager

  NCSoft

  (Public Company; Computer Games industry)

  August 2005 — November 2008 (3 years 4 months)

  Tabula Rasa (2007) NCsoft
  
  For first 2 years, scheduled production of art content on an MMORPG, which included outsourcing management.Later assisted in transitioning the entire 45-person project into a Scrum production process
  
  Served as Scrum Master on two out of five development scrums in an Agile enterprise team. Organized and facilitated monthly planning meetings and retrospectives, ran daily team stand-up reports, and removed blocks for teams.
  
  Secondarily assisted the Art Production Director with personnel management, including career development coaching and performance evaluations for his reports
  
  Also took on tasks of upgrading and publishing content to the project's website, developing a channel for our IP on YouTube.com and researching other online promotional tactics.

• Web Intern for nationalgeographic.com

  National Geographic Society

  (Non-Profit; 1001-5000 employees; Publishing industry)

  January 2004 — April 2004 (4 months)

  Selected as one of eleven geography students from a nationwide pool of candidates
  
  Assisted up to five different producers organizing, fact checking and entering data for website content at http://www.nationalgeographic.com, mostly assisting with photo image selection and purchasing.
  
  Updated monthly content for "Travel Guide" and “Adventure Guide" pages; Produced annual update of “Earth Day Guide” page at www.nationalgeographic.com/earthday

• Director of Art Studio

  EA Origin Systems

  (Public Company; ERTS; Computer Games industry)

  April 1999 — March 2000 (1 year)

  Headed a centralized department of fifteen artists that served multiple producers, and made decisions regarding the allocation of artists and art directors.
  
  Redefined job skill criteria for each position in my department, thereby creating a cleaner direction for advancement and professional development of my group.
  
  Compiled a database of the studio's skills to indicate hiring needs, identify discrepancies between salary and performance, and target areas for employee growth.
  
  Selected and hired contract artists and animation houses when necessary to meet project ship dates, namely for “Ultima Online 2,” an unpublished MMORPG.

• Art Production Manager

  EA Origin Systems

  (Public Company; ERTS; Computer Games industry)

  January 1998 — March 1999 (1 year 3 months)

  Ultima IX: Ascension (1999) Electronic Arts
  
  Stepped in to reorganize a demoralized eight-person art team on a real-time 3D title already several years into production. Improved morale and enabled team to start meeting milestones by providing a detailed task schedule and transparent goals.
  
  Selected, hired and managed additional contract artists to meet project deadlines. Also managed contract with an external animation house for producing in-game cinematic sequences.

• Art Director/ Cofounder

  Titanic Entertainment

  (Computer Games industry)

  October 1995 — January 1998 (2 years 4 months)

  NetStorm: Islands at War (1997) Activision
  
  Co-founded an 8-person game development studio with three programmers. Hired and managed two full-time artists and one contract artist
  
  Acted as lead artist and art director for this early MMO strategy game
  
  Presented the talk, "An Approach to Art Direction," at IGDA's first annual Austin Game Developers Conference

• Lead Artist/Art Director

  EA Origin Systems

  (Public Company; ERTS; Computer Games industry)

  January 1993 — October 1995 (2 years 10 months)

  Crusader No Remorse (1995) Electronic Arts
  
  Designed look and feel for a 2D action shooter, and art-directed an 8-man production team.
  
  Modeled and animated main character. Story-boarded and animated in-game and intro cinematics. Created user interface art.
  
  Developed employee performance evaluations that were adopted and used by the dev studio for the next five years.

• 3D Modeler and Animator

  EA Origin Systems

  (Public Company; ERTS; Computer Games industry)

  December 1991 — 1993 (2 years)

  Ultima VIII: Pagan (1994) Modeled and animated a dozen NPCs, and created environment assets
  
  Wing Commander: Privateer (1993) Created environment assets and in-game animated sequences
  
  Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi - Special Operations 2 (1992) Created environment assets
  
  Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi - Special Operations 1 (1991) Created environment assets

Beverly Garland’s Education

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Masters , Geography and the Environment, minoring in Public Affairs , 2002 — 2008

  Thesis statement: This thesis explores how the presence of the feral cat challenges key boundaries in the nature-culture divide and in the social construction of idealized landscapes, from environmental, urban and animal welfare perspectives.
  
  Key courses:
  · Nature and culture—the philosophical history of the relationship between humans and the environment
  · Useful and nuisance plants and animals—issues regarding domestic species and pests in human civilization
  · Political Ecology—the historical, political and social aspects of environmental issues
  · Nonprofit Governance and Strategic Planning

  Activities and Societies:

  Student member of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) in 2003-2008
  Officer and listproctor for UT Graduate Association of Geography Students (GAGS) in 2004-2005

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Bachelor of Science , Interior Design , 1985 — 1987

  Residential and commercial design, handicapped accessibility, lighting and electrical systems, color theory, and drafting

• St. Edward's University

  incomplete , Fine Art , 1983 — 1985

  Acrylic painting, life drawing, principles and elements of design

Additional Information

Beverly Garland’s Interests:

International travel, Study and conservation of species in the cat family (Felidae), “Trap-neuter-return” (TNR) management of feral cats, The Work of Byron Katie, Alternative health practices, and Internet-based business

Beverly Garland’s Groups:

International Game Developers Association (IGDA), Scrum Alliance, Women In Games International (WIGI)

•    Women in Games International
•    International Game Developers Association
•    Ex-ORIGIN
•    Scrum Practitioners
•    Game Developers
•    David Perry's Game Industry Map Group.
•    Digital Artist Outsourcing Group (InArtists)
•    EA Alumni Group
•    VideoGame Professionals
•    National Geographic Society (NGS) ♣1500+ members ♣
•    Mary-Margaret Network
•    Inside EA: (Electronic Arts) People, Games & Opportunities
•    IGDA Women in Games Special Interest Group
•    Games Jobs - The original Iinkedin jobs group for the Games Industry
•    Level Up! Opportunities for games people.
•    GameMentorOnline

Beverly Garland’s Honors:

2006 Next Generation Magazine's 100 Most Influential Women in Computer Games

2004 National Geographic Society Internship, Washington, D.C.

2003 Departmental Fellowship (Teaching Assistantship), University of Texas

2003 Robert E. Veselka Endowed Fellowship for Graduate Research Travel

2002 Recruitment Fellowship (Teaching Assistantship), University of Texas

1995 Origin Systems employee of the month

1983 Academic Scholarship, Saint Edward’s University

Beverly Garland’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch