Chris Johnson

Sparta, New Jersey > West Lafayette, Indiana

I am a high-energy, positive guy that wants to have fun and make cool things. A lot of people ask me where “Vuhdo” comes from. It’s not in my name… it’s not even spelled normally.

I got started in graphic design while playing competitive Call of Duty, covering events as a high schooler, working for energy supplements and exposure. As esports starting gaining popularity in 2013 and 2014, I had some really cool opportunities to work with industry leading organizations like: Esports Nation, Curse Gaming, FaZe Clan and OpTic Gaming to create live event coverage graphics, xbox avatar picture packs, social media content and partnership pitch decks. That might help explain the name “Vuhdo” - it comes from my Xbox Gamertag and twitter handle, where I would go by “VuhdoGFX”. It might seem corny, but I can tell you people remember “Vuhdo” much more than they’ll remember the name “Chris”; and it’s a pretty good ice breaker.

I put a lot of thought into the decision between studying graphic design permanently or branching out into another field in college to broaden my skills. Computer Science was the perfect major to help me pursue my passions of creative technology, and Purdue University was the perfect school. I grew up in a Purdue family, and although we are from New Jersey, we’d make the 11 hour drive every year to catch a football game and tailgate with my Dad’s college friends. I had absolutely no idea how much of an impact it would continue to have on me outside of just an educational institution.

Leading up to college, I had a fantastic opportunity to work with a team within the Department of Defense at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey to help create a Virtual Reality Training Simulator for the military. I learned a lot about how to work within a team, report progress on tasks and define goals for your week. I got experience working with AutoDesk Maya, Redmine, C# and a taste of many different aspects of game development. I spent time using the Unity game-engine to create my own mini games and learn the basics of game development. My first professional project to kick off my working journey was creating a Task Delegation Application to automate the process of assigning tasks using Redmine and a REST API.

Following my Sophomore year, a friend sent me an email for an opening as a Student Designer with the Purdue Football team. I had no clue Sports Design was a career path, let alone having a position open at my dream school and favorite team. Over the next 6 years, I’d grow from a young kid sitting in the back closet of a recruiting office - to the guy traveling with the football team to now having a heavy hand in almost all of the creative content coming through the athletics department.

With each position, year over year, I’ve grown in responsibility and experience. From starting as a student learning the basics of “Variable Data” in photoshop, to building my own scripts using Adobe Scripting APIs and Javascript that will automate the process of creating and saving entirely personalized files, from content to filename, with the push of a button, and now working with vendors and coaches to bring their visions to life, I’ve gained a lot of experience and perspective. I‘ve had the opportunity to focus solely on building a set of scripts to automate the in-game image editing process using AppleScript, Lua, Lightroom and Photoshelter; setting up SFTP servers and watch folders to automatically pull and process RAW files sent straight from the camera and uploading to Photoshelter for use on social media - completely hands-free. Those types of projects are my idea of passion projects and what I find most interesting about Creative Technology. Finding ways to increase throughput and efficiency to help make everyone else’s jobs easier.

In the past 3 years, I’ve been expected to travel with the football team, cover the season as a team photographer and handle every recruiting photoshoot - all within a couple of weeks of using a camera for the first time. I discovered a passion for the personality of the game expressed by the players and recruits and has been a driving factor in why I love my job so much. I’ve learned so much from the players and some of the friendships I’ve made, and it has made me a better design and person. I’ve learned that in trusting your coworkers and supporting their goals, great content and friendships will follow.

I value friendship, family and honesty (and dogs) above everything. I’m easy to get along with and I’m not afraid to be the first person to get on the dance floor and break the ice. I love cooking and eating, especially tacos. I have strong opinions about pizza, pasta, bagels and pretty much any food in general. And if you really want to see me in my best mood, say CHUGGACHUGGA.