Gene Mackles

Gene Mackles is an American artist and composer who worked for Public Television and now develops board games.

Early life and education

Mackles studied piano and music theory at the Juilliard School, and in 1968 he graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Fine Arts.[1]

Career

Television

Mackles worked for WGBH Boston as a graphic designer.[2] Between 1970 and 1993 he worked for the station and composed theme music, developed game show pilots, created animated bumpers, and designed program branding and logos.

As senior designer at WGBH, Mackles was responsible for the station's on-air image including logos, program intros, animated segments, and marketing material. Notable credits include the station's logo[3] and the universal symbol used to designate the closed captioning system as developed by The Caption Center at WGBH.[4] Gene also worked on programs such as NOVA, Evening at Pops, and Zoom.[5][6] In 1993, he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Graphics and Title Design for his work as designer and animation director for “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" [7] Mackles was an original developer of their "Ready to Learn" service.[6]

Mackles later designed and produced work for stations and clients including NBC Sports, HGTV, The Food Network, The History Channel and The Cleveland Orchestra.[5]

Mackles also paints oil paintings.[5][8][6]

Game design

Mackles' game design company, PDG Games, has produced a dozen games since 2012.[9]

As a game designer, Mackles has self-produced a steady stream of work that includes Iota, a tile sorting game that won the Mensa Select Award in 2012.[10][11] Soon after, his game was picked up for production by Gamewright.[12] Gamewright now distributes another of Gene's games, Splurt!.

Mackles tried to purchase a "Progress" poster on eBay because he liked the image and felt it would become important one day.[13]

References

  1. ^ "About Gene Mackles". Gene Mackles. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
  2. ^ Drate, Spencer (2006). Motion by Design. London: Laurence King Publishing. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-85669-471-1. Retrieved 2024-03-03 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ Robinson, Matt (2023-11-07). "Award-winning graphic designer now a game creator". Fifty Plus Advocate. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  4. ^ "Captioning and Video Description for the Web" (PDF). WGBH. Media Access Group. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c "Oil paintings at First Parish Church in Weston". 2008-11-06. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  6. ^ a b c Feely, Paul (2012-03-20). "Three finalists named for RMHS principal". Daily Times Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  7. ^ "Gene Mackles - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
  8. ^ McGagh, Ken (2009-10-07). "Photos: Painters drawn to South Natick dam". The MetroWest Daily News. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  9. ^ "Gene Mackles". Board Game Geek. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
  10. ^ Viccaro, Tom (2013-04-10). "Newton's Gene Mackles creates Iota, a little game that wins big". Wicked Local. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  11. ^ Kylstra, Carolyn (September–October 2015). "Voices in the Wilderness. Anna Stork '08 • Melissa Cook '82 • Andrenne & Angilique Coleman '13 • Gene Mackles '68 • Alison Crocker '06 • Jason Dadakis '99". Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  12. ^ Gough, John (January 2015). "Learning mathematics through games" (PDF). The Australian Mathematics Teacher. Vol. 71, no. 4. Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers. p. 10. ISSN 0045-0685. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-03-03 – via Education Resources Information Center. The article is also available here.
  13. ^ Gries, Laurie E. (2015). Still Life with Rhetoric. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87421-977-7. Retrieved 2024-03-03 – via Google Books.