While I've lurked at BGDF off and on since 2008, this month's contest finally broke me down and I had to sign up. Now that I'm actually registered I'll have to be more active and actually post stuff too.
My name's Matthew Rodgers and an early interest in games (especially roleplaying games in those days) influenced my choice of career and current work. I was always interested in making my own games and doing the work needed to create something equivalent to what I was seeing out in the marketplace. In the 80s that meant rudimentary DTP software and a dot matrix printer trying to pass itself off. That work lead to me pursuing a degree in graphic design. But it was the 90s, and I (and some friends) subverted the program into 3D computer graphics (we requisitioned Strata 3D for the graphics lab solely based on Myst). After spending some time down various rabbit holes, I realized that printing and production of a physical object you could hold and use what really motivated me.
For the last 15 years, I've been working in the digital printing/POD world. Of course, the technology has changed quite a bit over that time. I feel like I'm able to produce in my printshop work that compares favorably to traditional production means, but I only need to produce work as needed. More expensive per unit for sure, but direct-to-customer sales through websites like Amazon and Kickstarter mean that cost can be transparent to the end consumer. So now I'm working hard to finalize a lot of designs that have been in development limbo the last few years and get them to market!
