Ryan Lesser

American artist

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)

This article uses bare URLs, which are uninformative and vulnerable to link rot. Please consider converting them to full citations to ensure the article remains verifiable and maintains a consistent citation style. Several templates and tools are available to assist in formatting, such as reFill (documentation) and Citation bot (documentation). (August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

This article may contain excessive or inappropriate references to self-published sources. Please help improve it by removing references to unreliable sources where they are used inappropriately. (May 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

(Learn how and when to remove this message)

Ryan Lesser

Education| Rhode Island School of Design
Occupation(s)| 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 The Beatles: Rock Band.[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[edit]

Name  | Year  | Credited with  | Publisher

|
|
|

Harmonix
Guitar Hero | 2005 | Art director, art lead, designer | Red Octane
Guitar Hero II | 2006 | Art director, designer | Red Octane
Rock Band | 2007 | Art director, art lead, designer | Electronic Arts
Rock Band 2 | 2008 | Art director, designer | MTV Games
The Beatles: Rock Band | 2009 | Art director | MTV Games
Amplitude | 2015 | Creative lead | Harmonix
Rock Band 4 | 2016 | Creative lead | Harmonix

## Patents[edit]

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[edit]

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

## External links[edit]

* Official website