Cantu Designs, Los Angeles, CA, Graphic Design, Web Design, UI Artist, Steve Cantu

Hello, my name is Steve Cantu and I am a professional Graphic/Web Designer and UI Artist seasoned in the Advertising and Video Game industry.

My professional design career began in Southern California at Posterscope USA where I specialized in creating Out Of Home media such as enormous wall murals, ad-mobiles and 3-D embellished billboards. As I was expanding my wings and letting my creative side shine, my work was being seen from California to New York and even trickling into Canada.

When the winds of change blew my direction, I spent some much-loved time in the video game industry working as a user interface artist and QA Tester on numerous AAA titles released on the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Still being a video game aficionado, I brought that same creativity, dedication, and enthusiasm back to advertising at my current position with AR & Company where I am the lead, in-house, graphic designer, artist, and web developer for the creative department.

FULL THROTTLE This is an embellished billboard I helped conceptualize with Coca Cola and Mother NY. My involvement in the project consisted of deciding on using large 3D fabricated pipes with fog machines inside, the final art layout, and the production management from beginning to end of the life of the campaign.

Software Utilized: Photoshop, Illustrator & Quark
Created: 2004
OUTBACK This is a full bus wrap I did for Outback Steakhouse. I had full creative control and worked with the vendor to ensure the graphics would be visible. Two of these were created, both located in Canada.

Software Utilized: Photoshop Illustrator
Created: 2006
DUNKIN DONUTS I designed this 20 x 60 ft billboard based off of assets provided by Hill Holliday when I was tasked to redesign their current news media creative into outdoor media. This NYC board's location is beautifully placed at eye level of the target audience. I was also responsible for the print production.

Software Utilized: Quark, Illustrator and Photoshop
Created: 2005
TWIN CITIES Here are a couple of newsprint ads I designed for Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, CA. I rebranded the hospital's design for adveretising and contribute to the message of their campaigns. The ad on the left is for a shoulder injury seminar while the right one is an advertisement directing the target audience to download the new mobile app that features a live ER Wait timer for the hospital.

Software Utilized: Photoshop and Illustrator
Created: 2011
LOGOS The Arro Autogas logo is a new company brand I helped develop with Delta Liquid Energy for their new propane autogas division. The Medical Arts Center logo is a brand new state of the art medical facility in Templeton, CA. The El Camino Properties logo is one I created for a real estate brokerage in Paso Robles, CA. It utilizes a El Camino Real bell seen along the old Mission trails of California.

Software Utilized: Illustrator
Created: 2002 and 2011
FLASH WEBSITE This is cantudesigns.net ver 2.0. It was completely built in flash and actionscript. It incorporated a built in music player, loading bar and navigational dropdown menu. Since flash dropped mobile support and the fact that it is a resource hog to user's computers, I decided to shift cantudesigns into the CSS and html5 realm, hence what you see now. To see what version 2.0 evolved from, check out ver 1.0.

Software Utilized: Illustrator, Photoshop and Flash
Created: 2009
BOND SHELL UI This is an image of the Press Start screen of the Quantum of Solace Video Game. My contributions to the UI (User Interface) included creating various assets for the main menu, credits screen, pause menu and legal screen.

Game: 007: Quantum of Solace
Studio: Treyarch
Year: 2008
BOND INGAME UI This is an image of the in game UI of the Quantum of Solace Video Game. My contributions to the in game UI included creating a compass indicator, weapon reticles, over 300 weapon state icons, maps, health bars and various other HUD (Heads Up Display) elements. Check out a gameplay video here

Game: 007: Quantum of Solace
Studio: Treyarch
Year: 2008
BOND ICONS Shown is a small sample of the achievement icons of the Quantum of Solace Video Game. I created countless iterations of the XBOX and PS3 Achievement Icons during the life of the project. Each were hand drawn and went through Activision's legal and Danjaq's (James Bond license holder) approval processes. Over 70 are used in the game.

Game: 007: Quantum of Solace
Studio: Treyarch
Year: 2008
DARKSIDERS Shown is a mockup HUD I created for Relic Entertainment as an art test to join the Darksiders development team. I created an ingame HUD and pause menu using the creative direction of the "look and feel" of the popular Blizzard Entertainment "Diablo" franchise.

Game: Darksiders
Studio: Relic Entertainment
Year: 2008
INCREDIBLES Shown are a handful of mockup life bar HUDs I created for Heavy Iron Studios as an art test to join their development team. I created health bar HUDs for Mr. Incredible and Frozone in different states as well as a Mission End Screen and Pause Menu.

Game: The Incredibles
Studio: Heavy Iron Studios
Year: 2008
CAR GAME Created a mockup UI for a bird'd eye view car game. Includes HUD elements, mission success and mission failure screen. See it in action here

Game: Car Game Sample
Studio: Idol Minds
Year: 2010
ILLUSTRATIONS Although my traditional pencil skills would never grace the pages of a Marvel Comic Book, I have a solid foundation to render whatever is presented before me as well as visually communicate ideas. The drawing on the left is a rendering I created of the goddess Venus as depicted in the painting "The Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli. The character on the right is an example of my rendering a character in the "DC Animated Universe" style.

Year: 2010 and 2011

OCT 2010-PRSNT [LEAD GRAPHIC & WEB DESIGNER]
AR & CO PR & MARKETING_Paso Robles, CA [arandcompany.com]

APR 2009-NOV 2009 [QA DESIGN TESTER]
Pandemic Studios_Brentwood, CA [pandemicstudios.com]

JAN 2008-NOV 2008 [JR. UI ARTIST & PRODUCTION TESTER]
Treyarch_Santa Monica, CA [treyarch.com]

FEB 2007-DEC 2007 [QA TESTER]
Electronic Arts LA_Playa Vista, CA [ea.com]

JAN 2004-OCT 2006 [GRAPHIC DESIGNER/PRODUCTION MANAGER]
Posterscope USA_City of Industry, CA [posterscopeusa.com]

SEPT 2003-DEC 2003 [GRAPHIC DESIGNER]
Voler Team Apparel_Grover Beach, CA [voler.com]

EDUCATION:
2000-2002
CSU Fresno_Fresno, CA
B.A. Graphic Design
1997-1999
Cuesta College_San Luis Obispo, CA
AA degree

SOFTWARE:
Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign, Flash, Fireworks, HTML/CSS, Actionscript, Scaleform, 3dsmax, MS Office, PC/Mac os, Dev Track, Perforce

AWARDS:
Blizzard WOW CD Cover Contest: Finalist
Gizmodo Steampunk Photoshop Contest: First Place

The Saboteur
Pandemic Studios
Quality Assurance Tester

Released Dec 8, 2009

007: Quantum of Solace
Treyarch
User Interface Artist

Released Nov 4, 2008

Medal of Honor: Airborne
EA Los Angeles
Quality Assurance Tester

Released Sep 4, 2007

Command & Conquer 3
EA Los Angeles
Quality Assurance Tester

Released Mar 28, 2007

email: steve@cantudesigns.net
phone: 805.712.0524

I am available in the following California markets:

Los Angeles County
Orange County
San Luis Obispo County