Hello, my name is Tony, and I’m an Experience Designer with a passion for designing and creating. I enjoy creating interactive experiences and developing and learning about user experiences. At heart, I am a developer first and a designer second.
I love playing video games, but not for the reason many may think. There was something magical about the first time I discovered games, the first time I played my first MMORPG, and the first time I built my first website. The way levels are designed and put together with story-driven content always fascinated me and fueled my passion for game design, even at a young age, on top of web development.
During my middle school and high school years, I’d spent much of my free time on online forums learning as much as possible about creating websites and designing levels and mods for existing games. I’ve joined many online communities, helped run game servers, and even fixed and managed a few websites. I even designed and built a couple of websites for a community center for many years, which gave me the exposure and experience I needed to set out and start doing everything independently.
I went to Columbia College Chicago, where I got my Bachelor of Arts in Game Design and a Minor in Web Development in 2015. During this time, I discovered my passion for freelancing and started my first company TVLE Design LLC (which has now been rebranded to IDE Interactive, Inc.), which I’ve used to manage my work and clientele.
Immediately after graduating from college, I pursued a higher degree and attended DePaul University, where I graduated in 2018 and got my Master of Art in Experience Design.
I am always in a state of improving and learning new things. I wouldn’t say I define myself by the work I’ve done, but rather, I want to express myself by what I want to do. I want to give others opportunities to learn new things and learn the things they need to do what they love.
A big part of why I started this blog is to spread the resources I’ve gathered around and continually share what I’ve learned.