Erik Evensen

Erik A. Evensen /EH-ven-sen/ is a graphic designer, illustrator, graphic novelist, and educator whose creative work often reinterprets topics from history, mythology, and folklore. As a creative director, he specializes in visual identity, story-driven media, and illustration-forward design work. His work has been featured in Graphic Design USA, The New York Times' Wirecutter, Nerdist.com, and The Washington Post. Erik is Professor of Design at the University of Wisconsin–Stout, where he is Director of the MFA in Design and the Founding Director of the BFA in Illustration. He teaches studio courses in illustration, design drawing and visualization, concept art, graphic design & typography, and a variety of graduate seminars. At UW-Stout, he has been recognized with the College of Arts & Human Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award, and as a Faculty Ally.

His comics work has been called "innovative and groundbreaking" by Graphic Novel Reporter. His debut graphic novel, Gods of Asgard, has long been the definitive comics adaptation of the Norse Myths, and received a Xeric Award for artistic, scholarly, and literary merit. Over the years, it has been featured and sold at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum and History Center, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and adopted as a textbook at several colleges and universities. His second graphic novel, The Beast of Wolfe's Bay, has been featured in several academic textbooks on Beowulf. His creative work with myth and folklore frequently yields citations, appearances, and speaking engagements about history, culture, and comparative literature. Additional comics industry credits include Ghostbusters and Back to the Future, both licensed properties from IDW Publishing.

Erik's game industry credits include art direction for the tabletop games Distilled and Marrying Mr. Darcy, and digital asset & UI design for The American Revolution Series from ImmersionED. His MFA thesis on design research methods for tabletop games is widely cited in the research on educational game design, and is a featured case study in Convivial Toolbox: Generative Research for the Front End of Design, by Elizabeth Sanders and Pieter Jan Stappers. He has presented at and reviewed for academic conferences sponsored by AIGA, IDSA, MODE, the Design and Emotion Society, IASDR, KEER, the Congress of Medieval Studies, M+DEV: Midwest Game Developers Conference, and the Global Polytechnic Summit.

Erik holds an MFA in Design from Ohio State University, graduating Phi Kappa Phi. He received a BA in Studio Art from the University of New Hampshire, and a post-baccalaureate certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Prior to entering academia, he worked as a graphic designer and illustrator in New England. He is married to conductor/composer Erika Svanoe.

NOTE: Evensen is pronounced with a short E, just as it is in Norway.

FULL CV/RESUME