Ryan Alexander Lee

At Riot Games, I direct Agent Key Art development with VALORANT's external partners — identity research, vendor briefing, feedback documentation, and visual standards that scale across global production pipelines.

That role rests on fifteen years of franchise key art and published illustration: Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings at Kabam, Final Fantasy XV at Machine Zone in direct collaboration with Square Enix, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Splinter Cell with Ubisoft San Francisco, and more than sixty Magic: The Gathering cards for Wizards of the Coast, including a dedicated Secret Lair Artist Series. I'm also the author of HESSYST, a published dark fantasy graphic novel set in my original world of Palaedia — Volume 2 is in production.

Good art direction starts with research. Before giving a vendor a single note, I want to understand the character across every representation — game model, cinematic, illustration, fan interpretation — so the feedback is specific, grounded, and actually useful.

The work I find most valuable is systemic: style guides, identity frameworks, anatomy standards, feedback documents that give vendors real clarity instead of vague impressions. That kind of infrastructure makes the next project faster and the output better.

I've worked across games, live service, and publishing. The context changes; the approach doesn't — clear briefs, specific feedback, and standards that hold up under production pressure.