Featured Projects

Illustration and Concept Work

Graphic Design Work

Branding documents and Presentations (click to open)

The Legend of the mothman

  • Roles: Storyboard artist, illustrator, concept artist

  • Duration: January 2024 - May 2024

"Take the journey. Feel the mystery. See the legend… If you dare."Awarded Honorable Mentions in Placemaking, Industry Ready, and Guest Narrative in the 2024 Student Showcase contest on ThemedAttraction.com."The Legend of the Mothman" is an indoor dark coaster concept I worked on as a group project in a class in my Themed Attraction Design concentration at Purdue in Indianapolis. Along with the two other students on my design team, I was responsible for storytelling, storyboarding, and concept design.The storyboards were a collaborative effort with 2 other students, and concept work shown here was my work.View the full breakdown on ThemedAttraction.com

Le Carnavale Mystique

  • Roles: Illustrator, concept artist, character artist, graphic designer

  • Duration: August 2023 - December 2023

Awarded an Honorable Mention for Storytelling in the 2024 Student Showcase contest on ThemedAttraction.com.'Le Carnavale Mystique is an original concept based on a brand new IP for a supernatural and thrilling themed land based on a classic early twentieth century carnival with a dark twist that will excite guests as they learn to find the beauty in the bizarre, confront their own mortality, and just maybe find a way to conquer evil and restore light to the darkness.'This was a project I worked on along with two other students in a class for my Themed Attraction Design concentration. We collaborated on story writing and I contributed with some illustrations and concepts.View the full breakdown on ThemedAttraction.com

The flaming talon tavern

My Independent Senior Capstone Project

  • Roles: Story writer, concept artist, environmental artist, character artist, prop artist

  • Duration: August 2025 - December 2025

“This Alaveris Kingdom theme park inhabited by dragons invites visitors to explore all that it has to offer. However when the use of unregulated magic is banned, cracks in Alaveris' perfect exterior begin to form and it sparks a rebellion. One particular leader of the rebellion has since decided to establish a tavern where magic users can come together as a community in secret. Today, her son has taken over the family business where he carries on her legacy. Here, guests can enjoy a showcase of natural magic, free from the royal restrictions.”The "Flaming Talon Tavern" is a fantasy themed restaurant and fun special effects show that expands upon a side story within in a theme park.

Concepts

My main objective I set out to achieve was to have a detailed conceptual illustration of the interior by the end. And thus, I developed every prop and character that could be seen in the space and carefully craft their backstories in order to enhance the story of the environment.

Character Development

Drake Burnsbriar - Main Character

Your charismatic dragon dinner-host! Drake is a high-tech audio animatronic with a fairly wide-range of motion above his torso.

Ivory Ravenwood - Secondary Character

The founder of the tavern, a revolutionary leader, and Drake’s mother. Her portrait sits at the front of the tavern's stage.

Props

Concepts for props within the dining room.

Graphic Design

Outside of the final illustration, I felt it was important to establish a portion of the branding and operations of the restaurant to fully conceptualize the restaurant.

Final Result

Overall, this project was a success for me. I received 100% on this project, high praises, and my professor will be using it as an example for future classes.Personally, I found it very fulfilling to be able to complete a project with significant depth on my own. Managing my time in order to create many drawings in a short about of time alongside other classes was my biggest challenge, but it was enlightening and I am pleased with how my full themed restaurant concept came together.

The Kingdom of Alaveris

A Short-Term Independent Project that Made Me Fall In Love with Concept Art

  • Roles: Story writer, concept artist, environmental artist, character artist, prop artist

  • Duration: May 2024 - August 2024

“As concerns rise about the potential threat she and her magical abilities may pose to their species, Thalia is on a quest to find her true purpose amongst a world of chaos, and to learn if the gods have anything to do with it.”The Kingdom of Alaveris is a high fantasy story about a young adult girl named Thalia Danakae and her quest to find her purpose within a society and world that seems to be against her.This is a project for a summer course where we has to conceptualize elements of a world we created. In this, I experimented with story writing, and character, prop, creature, and environment concept design.

Process

One of my greatest challenges with this project was choosing what concept to go with. When you're not very limited on the topic you can choose, having too much freedom can make a project difficult to start. However, after considering that this was a personal project, I decided to reflect on what some of my favorite things were. With this, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to use the opportunity to work on a story that had been at the back of my mind for quite some time; one that involves fantasy, kingdom turmoil, and dragons.I had been into reading a lot of webcomics at the time, so I decided to set up the concept somewhat so it could be catered towards that. but I also left it general enough that it could be adapted into a different medium depending on what company would want to invest into it.

Concepts

Character Development

Exterior/Interior Environments

Prop

The aspect that I felt was necessary to add to Thalia's weapon is the idea of transformation. Because a huge part of her character is her lack of transformative abilities, being able to control her weapon and make it change forms to match her needs complemented her character and allows her to face her enemies.

Creature

Final Result

As class came to an end, I compiled all of my work and summarized lore into one concise document, giving viewers a full look at the project and its context.In addition to being highly spoken of by my professor, I found this project very personally fulfilling. Getting the opportunity to work on multiple pieces for one project and seeing it all put together was very satisfying for me. It shows my range of artistic styles I can draw in, along with my personal project management skills and my high productivity. This project spawned another one that I am currently finishing up; a theme park restaurant concept that highlights the internal war over magic within the kingdom in an entertaining way.

Memory Garden

How I Helped Create an Engaging Visual Novel Prototype in Just 3 Months

  • Roles: Art director, graphic designer, concept artist, background artist, character artist

  • Duration: January 2025 - May 2025

  • Other members: Daniel Ginter (Story and Lead), David Flores (UX/UX), Marcelo Estrada (Gameplay)

The Player, a skilled witch, arrives to their new home in a magical town–filled with all sorts of interesting plant life and a colorful cast of townsfolk. However the longer they stay, the more they discover that everything is not all it seems. Something troubles the town, causing unrest and leading to the loss of the townsfolks' memories.The Memory Garden is a visual novel videogame prototype that combines storytelling, great visuals, and interactive minigames. Myself and 3 other classmates brought the 20 minute long demo to life in just over 3 months for our capstone project.

Process

Visual Development

As the group's illustrator, I took it upon myself to create most of the visuals necessary to form a stylistic baseline in order to aid the rest of my group. Additionally, I made concepts for the illustrations I would be working on at a later time, and I was able to receive feedback and guidance from my fellow members and other classmates.After we had decided on a project after the third or so week of class, we knew it was going to be a lot of work to make a functioning prototype on such a short deadline. Art in particular takes a lot of time, so I knew I needed to be very particular with how I completed my work and the timing of my deadlines. By creating a detailed plan for myself straight at the start, I was able to mark out what tasks needed to be done, what smaller objectives I would need to complete in order to achieve them, and the start and end of the time that I would have to work on them. This was exceptionally useful when new tasks needed to be added on the fly, and it allowed me to complete everything before the final deadline.

Graphic Design

Illustration Concepts

Final Illustrations

With all the sketches and concepts approved of, I was able to move on to the game-ready artwork.

Characters

Additional Expression Sprites

Backgrounds

Final Result

On May 2nd, 2025, my group and I presented our project at Purdue in Indianapolis' Capstone day. My group worked together remotely, but we had the chance to present our game one last time and almost all in person for the first time! Our event highlighted the semester's capstone projects from students studying Computer Graphics Technology, Computer & Information Technology, Cybersecurity, and Interior Architecture. Faculty, staff, and industry guests were invited to explore the displayed presentations.After hearing our pitch, one of the most common questions asked to us during the event was:"When is the full game coming out?"Unfortunately, my team had to part ways after completing the prototype. However, we all agreed that we would have loved to work on it further as we are very proud of what we accomplished. Also, all of our feedback was extremely positive. Our project, which was overseen by the majority of Purdue Indianapolis' CGT professors, received 100% on our final grade.The experience I gained from this was invaluable and I am really grateful I had the opportunity to dip my toes into game development.

Memory Garden

  • Roles: Art director, graphic designer, concept artist, background artist, character artist

  • Duration: January 2025 - May 2025

The Player, a skilled witch, arrives to their new home in a magical town–filled with all sorts of interesting plant life and a colorful cast of townsfolk. However the longer they stay, the more they discover that everything is not all it seems. Something troubles the town, causing unrest and leading to the loss of the townsfolks' memories.The Memory Garden is a visual novel videogame prototype that combines storytelling, great visuals, and interactive minigames. Myself and 3 other classmates brought the ~20 minute demo to life in just over 3 months.

Visual Development

Characters

Backgrounds

The Flaming Talon Tavern

A themed restaurant concept

Memory garden

A visual novel prototype

The Kingdom of Alaveris

An independent concept pitch

The Legend of the mothman

An award winning themed dark coaster pitch

Le Carnavale Mystique

An award winning haunted carnival themed land concept

About Me

Cassie Hefner

She/they

Minneola, FL
Professional email: [email protected]

I love to bring fantastical and fun ideas to life, whether it be designing for themed entertainment, videogame, merchandise, or anything else that I can express my creativity through! While digital illustration and concept design are where my passion primarily lies, I am always in search of new mediums and concepts to learn about and how I can improve. I have about 8 years of experience in creating art and drawing digitally. Currently, I've been successful in selling my work online on apparel and products through Redbubble and Teepublic, and a new online store that I am preparing to launch.Besides art, some of the other things I love are dragons, animals, playing video games, going to national parks, and visiting theme parks!

Skills

• 8+ years in digital art and illustration experience. Art is my main passion and will likely continue to be for a long time. I’ve won several awards with the skills that I have gained, including at the school, district, state, and now nationwide level.• 4+ years in experience of Adobe Creative Suite applications. Within my education, I’ve been taught how to use industry standard tools and applications.• Strong organizational and detail-oriented skills. I’ve become use to multitasking and organizing my work so everything is completed prior to deadlines.• Strong ability to adapt. Between art mediums and college life, I've become accustomed to having a great amount of flexibility in order to meet my goals. I've tried many different mediums of art and have found a lot of enjoyment in learning about them and improving my skills. I am always looking for ways to challenge myself in order to become a stronger leader and more well-rounded professional in these early stages of my career.Other skills:
• Expertise in visual digital and traditional art such as illustration, concept design, drawing, sketching, and painting.
• Intermediate experience in: motion and video design, 3D modeling, rendering, and animation in Maya, graphic design, typography, and branding.
• Experience in the following programs: Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere Pro), Autodesk Maya, and Microsoft Suite.
• Proficiency in Clip Studio Paint Ex.

Watermarks on some images are under the pseudo-name I use online. All of these works are created and owned by me, unless otherwise specified as collaborative work. All of my artwork is done without the use of AI generation.