Ryan Lesser Explained

Ryan Lesser
Education:	Rhode Island School of Design
Occupation:	Art director, creative director

Ryan Lesser is an American video game and board game designer, musician and graphic artist living in Providence, Rhode Island. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, he is best known for his design and art direction on influential video games Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Rock Band^[1] and .^{[2] [3]}

Lesser is an art director at video game developer CD Projekt Red in their American studio The Molasses Flood, faculty at Rhode Island School of Design^[4] and Founder of Wild Power Games.^[5] From 1999–2018, Lesser served as creative lead and art director at Harmonix.^[6] He was a member of the heavy metal band Megasus. In the early- to mid-1990s, Lesser worked^[7] with Shepard Fairey on the street art phenomena "Andre the Giant has a Posse"^[8] and "Obey,"^[9] and edited Helen Stickler's video documentary André the Giant Has a Posse and co-created Attention Deficit Disorder^[10] with Shepard Fairey.^[11]

In 2014, Lesser led a successful Kickstarter campaign^[12] for the Harmonix video game Amplitude to ship on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3.

Games

Name	Year	Credited with	Publisher
Harmonix
Guitar Hero		Art director, art lead, designer	Red Octane
Guitar Hero II		Art director, designer	Red Octane
Rock Band		Art director, art lead, designer	Electronic Arts
Rock Band 2		Art director, designer	MTV Games
The Beatles: Rock Band		Art director	MTV Games
Amplitude		Creative lead	Harmonix
Rock Band 4		Creative lead	Harmonix

Patents

Lesser is listed as an inventor on the following patents:

Date of patent	Patent number	Title
04/23/09	8690670	Systems and methods for simulating a rock band experience^[13]
03/19/09	20090075711	Systems and methods for providing a vocal experience for a player of a rhythm action game^[14]
08/06/02	6429863	Method and apparatus for displaying musical data in a three dimensional environment^[15]
01/01/13	D673582	Display screen or portion thereof with boombox icon^[16]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Ryan Lesser (Person) . 2023-12-16 . Giant Bomb . en.
2. News: Radosh . Daniel . 2009-08-11 . While My Guitar Gently Beeps . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-12-16 . 0362-4331.
3. Web site: A Day In The Life: Creating The Beatles: Rock Band . 2023-12-16 . www.gdcvault.com.
4. Web site: Ryan Lesser | RISD.
5. Web site: Ryan Lesser | Board Game Designer | BoardGameGeek.
6. https://web.archive.org/web/20071112040644/http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2007/10/26/harmonix-on-guitar-hero-iii-bittersweet-like-seeing-kids-off-to-college/ MTV Multiplayer » Harmonix on ‘Guitar Hero III’ — Bittersweet, Like Seeing Kids Off to College
7. Web site: Fairey Faces the Giant RISD . 2023-12-16 . www.risd.edu . en.
8. Web site: Shepard Fairey.
9. Web site: The Art Evolution of Shepard Fairey. Complex Networks.
10. Web site: Attention Deficit Disorder - The Giant: The Definitive Obey Giant Site . 2023-12-16 . www.thegiant.org.
11. http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/index.php/Attention_Deficit_Disorder Attention Deficit Disorder
12. Web site: Tach . Dave . 2014-05-05 . Amplitude may get a crowdfunded sequel from Harmonix called Amplitude . 2023-12-16 . Polygon . en-US.
13. Web site: Systems and methods for simulating a rock band experience .
14. Web site: Systems and methods for providing a vocal experience for a player of a rhythm action game.
15. Web site: Method and apparatus for displaying musical data in a three dimensional environment.
16. http://patents.com/us-d673582.html