Origins

Where he came from…

Jeff Vargas is a digital artist and designer with a background in illustration and traditional arts. His passion for art at an early age won him various awards and honors paving the way for his education, and ultimately his career. In the summer of 1991 he attended Rhode Island School of Design’s Pre-College Program prior to his senior year in high school. He was enrolled in the Advanced Placement Program for his artistic abilities and soon after moved on to win First Place in the Stamford Art association Competition. He was awarded a scholarship to the Columbus College of Art and Design, OH, by alumni Jerry McDaniel, Advertising Dean at F.I.T. in New York City.

While at CCAD, he studied various design fields with an added interest in furthering his illustration abilities under the instruction of professionals such as Carl Banks, penciler for Green Lantern, DC Comics. After receiving a Bachelors in Advertising Design & Visual Communications, he went on to pursue a career in computer graphics.

While freelancing for Big Ripple Multimedia Inc in New York City, he became exposed to a new world of possibilities in the realm of computer graphics, where interaction and animation lent itself to new ways of communicating. In 1998, he moved from print production to After Effects animatics for TV Commercials under the guidance of Gary Porter, Art Director at Combe Inc, learning the intricacies of motion graphics. He went on to attend Pratt Institute in Manhattan, where he focused on 3D modeling, rendering, and animation in AutoDesk’s 3D Studio Max, under the instruction of Discreet Character Animator Kim Lee, author of “Inside 3D studio Max 4” – New Riders.

In 2000, he was asked to create artwork for a World Wrestling Federation XFL trailer which lead to various works including the illustration of a poster for Armageddon 2000, a WWF Pay Per View Event. As a freelance designer, he worked on a wide variety of projects that span from packaging and print, to illustration and 3D.

In spring of 2002, he formed Dive Urgency Multimedia, LLC, creating DiveUrgency.com and relocating to Los Angeles, CA. This put him and his company in the very mecca of motion graphics and animation.

In fall of 2002, he teamed up with lead agency Big Ripple to create RealityCheckNY.com, an anti tobacco industry web site. In fall of 2004, he sponsored the design of an LG Cycling Pro Kit for Liquid Fitness racing team. Also in fall of 2004, he teamed up with ITWebWorx LLC and built LA-CarsForKids.org for Louisiana Cars for Kids, Southern Style Inc. The list of proceeds from the “Mega Car Show” that took place in February 2005 included St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and Easter Seals Society to name a few.

In 2004, Jeff works as a Multimedia Designer for Amgen, Inc., the largest biotech firm in California.

Over the next few years, Jeff does work for various corporations, including; Virgin Mobile USA, LLC, New Line Productions, Inc & Walden Media, LLC, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc & Ted Wolf, Lions Gate Entertainment, Corp., Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Inc., NBC – Universal, NBC Agency, and Microsoft Corporation.

In 2005, while working for Spark Networks, plc, Jeff re-designs JDate.com, a Jewish matchmaking website, and the site goes on to win a Webby Award that year. Also in 2005, while working at Blink Digital, Jeff uses After Effects and Final Cut Pro to create animations for use with various BluRay interfaces for clients that include Porchlight Ent., NBC-Universal, Discovery Kids, Volkswagon, and Showtime.

In 2006, while working at McElroy, Inc. for client Nestlé, Inc., Jeff creates components and animations for “Nesquik World”, an online multi-player Video Game Website for Nesquik. Also in 2006, while working at DZN Group, he designs and developes HootMovie.com for New Line Cinema’s “Hoot”.

With a firm concentration on web work, he maintains and expands his client base over the years. At the same time he manages to work for various motion picture studios, special effects houses, and advertising firms throughout the Los Angeles area. He has worked on 1,000’s of projects for 100’s of clients across the U.S.

In 2009, the effects of Apple philosophy finally crush down on much of what he has been focused on for years, and just like that Flash is no longer perceived as the future, but as a relic. It would be another year before he would truly accept this and move onward. A brief look at Mobile Development forces Jeff to take a step back and look at technology from a higher level. Jeff dives deeper into code and information architecture, turning to WordPress as a go to CMS platform, initiating Motion Chamber Studios as an “in-house” post production solution with proprietary components.

In 2010 Jeff creates a branch of Dive Urgency aimed at his own personal concepts, and begins incubation on a set of new components that shift his interests into dynamic back end architecture, responsive design, HTML5, and slowly envisions a new eco-system for his ideas that can fit into the maze that mobile and tablet based platforms have moved into the landscape.

In 2011, Jeff creates a robust, dynamic, video based, overlay and interaction heavy set of e-Learning Modules for a suite of AIA accredited Architecture and Engineering Courses while at ZweigWhite, LLC. The entire module is skin-able, is developed from scratch, and offers Surveys, Final Exams, Return User Sessions, and communicates with a PHP/MySQL driven back end with the change of each all-media inclusive, reactionary architecture. This solidifies his transition to controlling the full environment, and sparks a slew of innovative ideas.

In 2012 Jeff builds a 3D Nissan Car Dealership for Nissan of Newnan, GA using 3DS Max 2012. Later that year he builds a full blown eCommerce experience using WordPress, Maya Shop, WooCommerce, GeoTrust Extended Validation, FirstData, and Authorize.net. The online store houses thousands of sale items, robust galleries, shipping and handling, the highest level of SSL security available, is PCI Compliant, and serves as a “CMS graduation” marker for PHP/MySQL driven back-end database architecture models.

His next venture would be a complete brand and website overhaul for Mackey Marketing Group, Inc., a Formula 1 racer marketing and promotions agency. The website includes full screen photos, responsive design, and an intuitive CMS solution that allows the client to manage their own content and post their own new articles and galleries.

December 2012 Jeff begins working at AutoTrader.com as a Visual Designer – User Experience / Product Development. It’s here that his exposure to Mobile/Tablet design begins to instill new UI/UX concepts. With a dedicated focus on UX, he begins to imbue creative, strategic ideas with forward thinking innovation, and validates his thinking about where things are going. It’s in this environment that he is able to expand his understandings of many complex concepts that were previously elusive.

In December 2014, Jeff begins working on a UI/UX overhaul for Semantic Labs, LLC, and Widespider, LLC on their array of properties, software, and products. This cross-platform redesign spans proprietary back end products, server-side delivery systems for advertising and content, external and internal interfaces, and solves for dynamic content, single-sign-on experience, personalization, tracking systems, and real-time analytics.

In February 2015, Jeff is contracted as “Chief UI/UX Architect” for Semantic Labs, and spends the next 3 months breathing life and definition into various concepts. First defining the base layers of the cross-platforms, and then moving into each respective space. Beginning with each logo, and then moving into branding, he loosely defines the UX for each property. Starting with whiteboards, wire frames, and prototypes, he defines the each unique UI, and incorporates the UX branding across all sections with high fidelity comps. Many of the properties are robust, challenging, insightful, innovative, with never before seen components, interaction, tools, analytics, personalization, and social networking aspects. This work is proprietary, and still being created, so we’ll just need to wait until this “game changer” is ready to be released to the world.

In May 2015, Jeff designs and develops a new cross-platform, responsive website for Semantic Labs using a Bootstrap and WordPress solution. This website is currently in it’s final stages and will showcase the full breadth of redesign across all respective properties.

Also in May 2015, Jeff takes on Priv8teer.com redesign and branding overhaul for racing fans and privateers. This work includes a responsive informational website, eCommerce shop using WordPress and WooCommerce, as well as a completely newer, darker look for both logo and skull graphics. More to come…

Concurrently, Jeff Vargas is Chief UI/UX Architect on a new multi-platform collaborative experience for Dive Urgency and Motion Chamber, where the focus will be on proprietary concepts, storytelling, cinematography, 3D animation, post production, and special effects for his first title; “Residual Cell”.