Bob MacNeil - ABOUT

I was born in Newark, New Jersey, and have spent the past 32 years working as an illustrator, painter, graphic designer, and director.

My professional career started in the print and package design industries in 1991-1992, where I honed my skills as a production artist, graphic designer, and illustrator. One of my long-standing achievements from this time was contributing work to the design and illustration of Popsicle, a product of Good Humor/ Breyers. It's incredibly fulfilling to see my work still on shelves almost 20 years later, including the iconic Spider-Man ice pop, which has been referenced in a variety of pop culture contexts.

In 2002, I transitioned into gaming and animation, working on an array of projects as a background and concept artist. Some of the shows I worked on as a background painter include the popular animation series The Venture Brothers for Cartoon Network and Saturday Night Lives' The Ambiguously Gay Duo with J.J. Sedelmaier for Saturday TV Funhouse. I also contributed to the pitch art for Bioshock which was developed by 2K Boston/ Irrational Games. Bioshock went on to receive multiple industry awards and was even named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 greatest video games of all time.

In 2008, I made the move to land-based casinos, where I contributed lead art and art direction to over 50 slot machine titles distributed by IGT. Some of these titles, like Cats, Secrets of the Forest, and Golden Goddess became hugely successful and even set new standards in the video slot industry.

In 2012, I found myself drawn to the start-up culture of the San Francisco Bay Area, where I worked for the free-to-play casual gaming market on Facebook and mobile device platforms.

As a creative director for Playstudios, my works can be found throughout the myVEGAS catalog of online and mobile games. In 2018, I made yet another move, this time to Austin, TX, where I continued serving as creative director for Playstudios. In this new role, I oversaw the creative direction for a project partnership with NBC Universal, managing and leading a team of artists to produce game content for various film and television properties based on the NBC Universal catalog.

After leaving Playstudios in 2019, I began working for Marvel Studios on consumer-related imagery for their feature film and television properties. At the same time began working as a creative director for a Bollywood-based casual game titled Bollywood Boss.

In late 2021, I left Bollywood Boss and began my role as a creative director on an unannounced Web 3 platform game working alongside a team of game industry veterans.

To date, I continue to work with Marvel and a variety of other companies as a freelancer to ensure my wide variety of skills remain fresh and up to the challenge of any project that comes my way.

On a personal level, I'm proud to have had works from my portfolio added to the permanent database of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO - a division of the United Nations) as a case study focusing on artist copyright logistics.

Throughout my career, I've gained a wealth of experience that makes me a strong artist and manager. Whether I'm leading a team or working solo, I always bring a high level of expertise and creativity to every project.