Shirley Liu (She/her)
2D artist | UX designer | Fashion designer
A queer Chinese American artist, designer & story teller exploring a variety of mediums.
(Yes, I am looking for a job and my commissions are open!)
Download our game ; )
RPG/Strategy - Free
Fight your way through haunted houses to make a quick buck in this turn-based strategy game! Rid each house of the ghosts haunting the furniture, sell the property, and fight through the neighbourhood!
📍Experience Road Map📍
A more interesting format of showcasing my experience, if you will. This section includes work experiences, milestones, and other remarkable events in my life in order of most to least recent. For my plain resume, click this link.
Game Designer, Artist, and Composer /Freelance, Remote May 2022 - Now
● Participate in game jams on itch.io with my team Rainy Night Games or solo. Past game jams can be found here: https://itch.io/profile/ikesawa-kie
● Create weekly contents on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter
● Create commission artworks upon request via TikTok and Ko-fi
Volunteer 2D General Artist and QA Tester /Quiddity Games, Remote Jan 2022 - Now
● Create and revise concept art and polishes assets for characters, background, and level assets
● Participate in weekly meetings to discuss revisions and set action items with leads
● Test prototypes and provide feedback as well as suggestions
Translator /Swarthmore College, Remote September 2022 - Now
● Translate novels and articles upon my professors' request from Japanese to English
Fashion Designer /Sakura Collection Award, PA May 2022 - July 2022
● Created concept illustrations, patterns, and constructed coutures for the design competition using traditional Japanese fabrics called "Enshu Men Tsumugi"
● Fitted the models and adjusted the coutures the night before the show since I had to travel from Boston to Philly. My professors cat, CJ, although usually very sweet, peed on my bed that night as well.
● Arrange model's hair and make up for the runway show and gave a speech on my designs
● I was the only non-fashion major finalist of the competition!
----------------🌟🎓Graduation!🎓🌟----------------
Swarthmore College, May 2022
B.A. in Biology and Japanese
Fashion Designer / Bouquet Runway Show, PA January 2022-May 2022
● Created concept illustrations and constructed coutures (my first and second design ever!) for the first student-lead runway show at Swarthmore College centering models' experience
● Arranged fitting and makeup for the show
● Stayed in WRC, one of my school's facilities that has sewing machines free to use, for a whole night before the show, jumping back and forth between my thesis and the fashion projects.
Thesis Project Manager / Swarthmore College, PA September 2021-May 2022
● Proposed various thesis topics and assessed the viability of each, and still went with what I was the most passionate about (which miraculously worked out despite having a mentor who does not specialize in this field) - narrative trick and its role in the evolution of Japanese detective fiction
● Managed my own thesis' schedule, reading list, and contact list while checking in with my professor on as regular basis to re-adjust our direction
● Sent emails and communication requests to professionals in the field for their knowledge
● Grind
● One of my contacts (a professor whose Ph.D dissertation helped me out a huge ton) attended my thesis presentation despite having talked to me two times only. I'm just very proud and grateful of this fact. That's all.
UX Design Intern /Digital Cube Co. Ltd, Remote December 2021 - January 2022
● Designed and revised the event browsing experience for a professional website renovation project
● Created and revised a low-fidelity prototype in Figma in under 8 hours
CIL Design Intern /Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA September 2021 - May 2022
● Brainstorm, prototype, and implement various projects to identify and address student needs
● Coordinate with 20 campus partners to arrange stakeholder meetings that allow student-faculty communication and exchange of perspectives
● Conduct weekly student interviews to obtain feedback and seek ways for improvement
● Attend weekly meetings to report project progress and re-assess priority
● This opportunity provided us the opportunity to become Stanford University UIF fellows and to attend their yearly conference!
2D Artist and Animator / MassDigi, Worcester, MA May 2021 - August 2021
● Created visual concepts and assets for the main character, background, and VFX for the mobile game House Haunters, which could be downloaded from App Store and Google Play
● Crafted 7 movement animations for the main character in Adobe Animate
● Designed, revised, and visualized the user experience of the game in Adobe XD
● Assisted the creation of an Art Bible for the game that guides future developers
● I was one of the two people not majoring in Comp Sci, Art, or Game Development in this program!
Playtest Manager / MassDigi, Worcester, MA May 2021 - August 2021
● Designed and refined a procedure that oversees playtester recruitment and communication, scheduling, and feedback documentation, utilized by 7 game development teams
● Collected both quantitative and qualitative data by observing playtesters via remote screen-sharing and asking unbiased questions to follow-up
● Documented and organized playtesters’ feedback using Google Sheets and Miro
● Led post-playtest discussions to determine the next steps of development
Lead Researcher / Swarthmore College, PA June 2020 - May 2022
● Proposed and designed the outline of a research in the field of environmental communication
● Cataloged and coded 372 news reports from online databases of the U.S. and Japan
● Conducted various statistical tests in R Studio to analyze the reports
● Generalized graphs in R Studio and Google Sheets to present the data
● Our paper has been published in December 2022!
Chinese and Japanese Language Tutor / Swarthmore, PA September 2018 - May 2022
● Observed target student's language performance from multiple perspectives and customize curriculums for future practices
● Recorded target student's progress and Collect student feedback to determine the effectiveness of the current strategy
● Communicated with professors on a weekly basis and tailor tutor sessions towards course objectives as well as student's own expectation
● Arranged College tours in target languages as well as online chat rooms during and after the pandemic to improve (and restore) new students experience. Kudos to all Class of 2024 students; y'all had a very tough time.
● Served as a live interpreter for guest lecturers upon request
● I also provided voice recording services for my professors and students to make course materials more accessible. Some of my college's Chinese department's upper level courses have and will continue use my recordings as official course materials.
----------------🌟🎓Graduation!🎓🌟----------------
Belmont High School, June 2018
Paralegal Intern / MT LAW LLC, Lexington, MA June 2016 - August 2018
● Drafted, translated, and edited critical documents such as personal statement and recommendation letters for immigration clients both in English and in Chinese
● Accessed online databases to examine and evaluate documents provided by clients and other secondary sources for evidence establishment
● Coordinated with multiple departments regarding responsive documents and document retention
● Recorded and organized client information for future business opportunities