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Let me back up. For my day job, I'm a package designer. I have been for nearly a decade. I work as senior designer for an incredible design agency. We do work for some of the biggest brands in the world. Chances are, if I walked into your house and snooped around for a minute I could find a package that we've designed. In addition to doing cool work, the work environment is better than any agency I've worked for in the past, and the people are great. It's a well-paying gig and I'm extremely thankful to have it.

On top of all that, there's one extra-incredible aspect of my company that is unlike anywhere else I know. They have an entrepreneurial spirit that drives them to create new things, not just make our clients' products look pretty. They own a beer brand, launched a blog about cooking with tempeh, invented a tempeh oven, even created a men's soap. They encourage their employees to dream big, and they want them to chase those dreams.

My dream is board games.

Sure, part of me wishes my dream was something a bit more glamorous and lucrative but, if I'm being honest with myself, board games are the exact point where of all my passions and interests meet. I even made this venn diagram. And included it in my presentation:

In the past year I managed to get the tiniest bit of my foot in the door of the board game industry and the response has been amazing. I've been approached with dozens upon dozens of projects and opportunities, two full-time job offers, and made more connections and friends than I would have thought possible in such a short amount of time.

There have been so many opportunities that have come my way and I've attempted to take on as many as I can, but there just isn't enough time. There have been many nights were I have woken up, gone to work for 8-10 hours, gone home to work on games for 8-10 more, then dreamt of working on games for the few hours I actually slept.

Knowing this wasn't going to be sustainable, and realizing my wonderful girlfriend would toss me to the curb if I spent every free moment working on (and barely playing) board games, I decided I needed to work towards a change.

Now we're back to the beginning of this post. I put together a presentation encapsulating all of the above, conveying my growing passion for this industry, and asking my bosses for the opportunity to pursue it.

Guess what? They were into it. They were energized by my passion for an industry they were barely even aware of. Where another agency would respond, "Sorry, we own you, 40 hours a week, deal with it" my company responded, "We want employees like you, how can we help? What can we do?" I was/am flabbergasted, excited, nervous, overjoyed, thankful, hopeful - STOKED.

The TL;DR version: In the very near future, I will no longer be a full-time package designer. I'll be cutting back my hours daily, and working on board games instead. 

In addition to all this, it will allow me to move forward with something I'm excited to announce, but can't quite yet. Instead, here's a pixely teaser thing:

Kingdom Land Game Design / Graphic Design / Illustration Published by Crash Games (2014)

Project: Auloma (Unannounced) Graphic Design / Illustration Published by XXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXX (2015)

Project: Magick (Unannounced) Graphic Design / Illustration Published by XXXXXXXXX XXXXX (2014)

Project: Darkcards (Unannounced) Game Design / Graphic Design / Illustration Published by XXXXXXXXX XXXXX (20??)

Project: Small Crime (Unannounced) Graphic Design / Illustration Published by XXXXX XXX XXXXX (20??)

Project: SQRCRDS (codesigned by J. Alex Kevern) Game Design / Graphic Design / Illustration Unsigned

Coin Age: Legends Game Design / Graphic Design / Illustration Unsigned

Corn Age Game Design / Graphic Design / Illustration Unsigned