Daily Inspiration: Meet Brigitta Blair

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brigitta Blair.

Brigitta, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I went to college in Washington D.C. with the childhood dream of getting into the video game industry. I wanted to make games like Final Fantasy X and Journey that were unlike anything I had played at the time: they were games that deeply touched me. As a result, I started taking social impact gaming classes. Unlike my classmates, I never had an official internship at a big company, but I had three wonderful jobs in college that eventually led to bigger opportunities later down the road.

After graduating, I looked for jobs in the video game industry but at the time, most triple-a companies required you to go into the office which was oftentimes on the West Coast or in NYC. Because I had to remain local due to some health issues I had, I wasn’t able to relocate. Instead, I focused on the video game indie scene for a while and pivoted to websites and apps where more of the local career opportunities were.

I learned about my first full-time UX designer/developer job because a former coworker from one of the jobs I had in college recommended it to me. After being there for a while, I hopped into being a project manager, working freelance, then becoming a lead UX/product designer. It wasn’t until the pandemic hit that a lot of triple-a video game studios started opening their doors to remote workers, which allowed me to finally break into the industry. Because I wasn’t going out during the pandemic, it also gave me a lot of free time for hobbies, which I filled with reading, writing, and illustrating. During this time, I realized that I wanted to do more than make good products: I wanted to make accessible products and stories that made a difference. This reignited a passion for creating stories which led me to create the graphic novel I wish I had as a kid, Cramming.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Most of the bumps on the road were at the start of my journey. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, I freelanced for a bit before getting a full-time job offer…but I quickly realized that just because I had a job offer didn’t mean I could start it immediately. The start date ended up getting pushed back several months. Despite this, I had a really good feeling about the company and was okay with waiting however, this meant that I was cutting into my savings from college jobs.

While waiting for this opportunity, I decided to get a temp job at an escape room to pay the bills. Even with this job, I wasn’t making enough to afford rent and had to couch surf for a few months. It was challenging to be creative during this time because of the long hours at the escape room (sometimes I worked from the morning until 2am the next day) and worrying where I was going to live. I’m incredibly grateful to the people who gave me a place to stay during those times and for the escape room job, but it wasn’t easy. It made me realize that having the time, energy, and space to be creative is a luxury that I wanted to ensure I set my future self up for.

In the end, the full-time job I was excited about eventually transpired, so I was able to fully commit myself to it and rent a place with a friend. Only then was I finally able to get into a creative space to start making things for myself again.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a UX designer, video game developer, and author-illustrator graphic novelist. In short, you could call me someone that likes making things that function and look nice. I particularly enjoy developing accessible products and writing stories highlighting underrepresented communities. My technology background gives me an extra edge with my graphic novel work because it helps me come up with systems and commands to ethically improve my graphic novel process. On the reverse side, having an illustration and writing background helps me in tech because it allows me the tools to better communicate and empathize with different teams. I love getting the opportunity to merge the two worlds I love so dearly: tech and art.

What’s next?
I really enjoy working in tech–especially on video games and apps–so I plan to continue making accessible products with comprehensive design systems. I’m also working on my debut middle-grade graphic novel about a girl who navigates the challenges of fitting into school, sports, family, and a scoliosis brace. Keep a look out for my graphic novel, Cramming, coming in 2027! Once the book is out, I hope to continue creating stories through graphic novels and video games, which hopefully manifest into an RPG (role-playing game) or MMO (massive multiplayer online) game one day!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://brigittablair.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brigittablair/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigittablair/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrigittaBlair