Art direction
Developing a visual direction and carrying it from early concepts into production.
Art.
Design.
Making.
ART / DESIGN / MAKING
Maciej Górnicki
Art Director & Creative Director
London, United Kingdom
I’m Maciej, an art director and creative director with 15+ years of experience across games, apps and product design.
I connect visual design with hands-on production: 3D, UI/UX, product design and technical art. I’ve led multidisciplinary teams and taken ideas from early concepts to finished digital and physical products.
Collaborations across teams and brands
PalantirRobloxZyngaWargamingNickelodeon
3D & visual craft
Creating characters, environments, materials and lighting for games and other digital experiences.
UI/UX
Designing interfaces, animation and interaction flows with the end experience in mind.
Product design
Developing digital and physical products, from interaction concepts to objects, furniture and spaces.
Technical art
Building shaders, effects and tools that connect art with implementation.
Creative leadership
Hiring, mentoring and guiding multidisciplinary teams, including remote and outsourced production.
Experience
July 2015 – Present
Co-Founder & Creative Director at gb Studio
London, United Kingdom · Hybrid
Co-founded and lead a London studio working across games, 3D and design. GB Design Studio is our kitchen and furniture visualisation arm. Our work includes Animal Park, UI/UX for apps and web, product design and 3D printing, photoreal renders, explorable 3D rooms and production drawings for makers.
August 2019 – Present
Art Director at MindTrust Labs
London, United Kingdom · Remote
Lead UI/UX and visual direction for a distributed product studio across apps, web, Roblox, Babylon.js and games. Help build and mentor the art team, develop visual strategies, and deliver 3D character work and performance optimisation.
August 2018 – August 2019
Senior UI/UX Artist at Wargaming
Helsinki, Finland
Led UI implementation and the internal UI team for a mobile title. Directed outsourced interface work and maintained visual consistency across design and in-engine delivery.
2018
Art Director / Consultant at Endgame
Seattle / Helsinki · Freelance
Advised on art direction and UX for Zombs Royale and unreleased projects. Reviewed interface flows, guided visual-effects improvements and identified mobile performance optimisations.
March 2017 – August 2018
Artist at Zynga
Helsinki, Finland
Created character and UI artwork for FarmVille 3. Developed sculpts, models, textures and custom shaders, supported Unity workflows, and produced offline renders for marketing assets.
October 2016 – February 2017
3D Artist / Level Designer at Reforged Studios
Helsinki, Finland
Created characters, environments, levels and UI for a mobile project. Wrote shaders for a custom engine running on Metal and coordinated outsourced art production.
January 2016 – September 2016
Technical Artist / Art Team Lead at Dazzle Rocks
Helsinki, Finland
Led the art team and supported artists with technical guidance. Worked across graphics programming, visual effects, tools and 3D modelling to maintain visual quality in production.
2015
Co-Founder at Fellow Games
Turku, Finland
September 2014 – June 2015
Project Engineer at Turku University of Applied Sciences
Turku, Finland
Designed and programmed games and interfaces, and worked on graphics quality. Integrated technologies including Oculus Rift, Kinect, Leap Motion and augmented reality.
June 2013 – June 2014
3D Artist, Level Designer & Programmer at Intermarum
Opole, Poland
Created 3D content, levels and prototypes covering gameplay, AI, UI and editor tools. Contributed to graphics programming and managed builds and releases.
August 2012 – June 2013
Co-Founder at Kiwi Flying Mad
Opole, Poland
Co-founded the studio, created artwork from prototype to release, shaped game design and supported programming.
January 2011 – January 2012
3D Generalist / Artist at Digital Imaginary Studios
Opole, Poland
Modelled and textured 3D assets, with a focus on high-poly cars and industrial components.
How I work
My work spans character and environment art, interfaces, shaders and visual effects, alongside digital and physical product design. I’ve contributed to 10+ shipped titles across mobile, PC, VR and AR, including FarmVille 3 at Zynga, Battle Tanks at Wargaming and Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul at MindTrust Labs. I also work on education apps, HoloLens 2 experiences and websites.
Through gb Studio, I bring that same craft to product design, 3D printing and architectural visualisation. GB Design Studio is our kitchen and fitted-furniture visualisation arm, creating photoreal renders, explorable 3D rooms and production drawings. Our work also includes Animal Park and the Clapton CFC lamp.
I move between creative direction and hands-on production: modelling, texturing, lighting, prototyping and implementing UI in Unity. I also build C# tools, develop gameplay logic and work with custom shaders and rendering pipelines.
Leading a team means helping people do their best work. I’ve hired and mentored artists, managed remote teams and coordinated internal and outsourced production. My personal projects keep me experimenting with new ideas across games and design.
Skills
UX Design3D ModelingProduct DesignDigital SculptingEnvironment ModelingHard Surface ModelingLightingLow-poly ModelingParticle EffectsTexturingUV MappingVisual EffectsGame DesignGame DevelopmentUI DesignRetopology3D ScanningHigh-poly ModelingLevel DesignWeapon ModelingHLSLShadersPBR TexturingTexture BakingC#UnrealCGStylized ArtGLSLArt DirectionCreative LeadershipArchitectural Visualisation3D Printing
Tools
3ds MaxBlenderModoPhotoshopSubstance 3D PainterSubstance 3D DesignerMarmoset ToolbagUnreal EngineZBrushUnityMarvelous DesignerxNormalV-RayArnoldPhotoscanVisual StudioPopcornFxCustom EngineOctane RenderD5FigmaClaude
Recognition
Meet MAT · Honourable mention
Allegorithmic texturing contest, 2017
Happiness · Honourable mention
Unity DirectX 11 competition, 2013
Languages
Polish · native / English · professional working proficiency