CU Adventures is an escape room company in Champaign-Urbana Illinois. I worked there with a team of other artists. Our Technical Director, Imani, did an initial drafting of the room wit all of its permanent architecture and then handed the CAD file to me so that I could add all the designed elements.

This was a highly collaborative atmosphere in which three to four people at a time were designing different elements of the escape room. It was my role to coalesce these different elements and ideas into one 3D CAD file. Working from Procreate renderings, other drafting’s, and napkin sketches, I ensured that all the designed elements could be accomplished together. I also continuously presented this 3D model to the companies owners using Vectorworks’ various walkthrough tools. This weekly presentation served to give them an interactive tour of the design as it developed and it helped ensure that we were on the same page both artistically and practically. Further, our discussions during these weekly meetings allowed them to give us feedback so that the design team could make corrections and we could all press forward together.

In addition to the above duties, I spent some time using the 3D model to create build drawings for the wood shop, as well as attend to my side project featured below.

Artistic Directors Chris & Anne Lukeman

Set Design by Kat Blakeslee, Emma Esther, Sammy Boyarsky, and Gillian Frame

Lighting Design by Gillian Frame

Initial Drafting’s by Imani McDaniel

3D Model by Conner J. Jones