My name is Zia, and I am an artist working in video game development and graphic design. In both my personal practice and my client work, I aspire to create beautiful, accessible designs which tell intriguing, effective stories.
I came to the MA Graphic Arts course with an interdisciplinary background in performance art, theatrical lighting design, sociology, and illustration. This background provided me with a strong base of creative problem-solving skills, and it gave me a unique angle from which to hone my design and game development skills.
Whatever medium I use, I am passionate about finding ways to communicate my queer experience, to connect present-day issues to the lessons of history, and to create beauty and hope in these apocalyptic times. My latest work is an interactive fiction game entitled Princess in the Tower Block, which combines these through a modern queer story interwoven with a Jewish folktale.
zialightning@gmail.com https://www.behance.net/zialightning →
Interactive fiction video game. The player goes through daily life in the apocalypse while a folktale is woven into their dreams. How will it impact them when the dreams bleed into reality? Play at https://zialightning.itch.io/.
Animated short about a journey through space.
Self-portrait through information design. I re-imagined the constellations that the stars formed on the night I was born. We can create the stories we see in the stars.
Concept art for my game, Princess in the Tower Block.
Experimental typography piece about my experiences as a trans person. The design folds into a fortune teller.
