Megan Barker’s Superpowers:
- Sharing random facts about native plants
- Making lasagna (and hating Mondays)
- Watching episodes of One Piece on Netflix
Before graduating from Moore's Animation & Game Arts program, Megan Barker ’17 thought she would build her career through freelance work.
“I assumed I would be spending every year bouncing between multiple animation gigs and doing similar types of work every time: storyboarding, designing, animating, repeat,” Barker said.
Instead, she landed a full-time position as an illustrator at language-learning app Duolingo in 2018, where she was just one of three artists at the time. Since then, she’s illustrated and provided art direction for hundreds of projects, established company-wide design systems and created the first art intern program at the company. She’s now one of 39 artists on the team—a development she played a large part in.
Currently a senior illustrator at Duolingo, Barker still uses both the “Animation” and “Game Arts” aspects of her degree.
“Knowledge of believable world-building, inclusive character design, comedic storytelling, animation principles, interactive design, and game mechanics come into play all the time,” she said.
Barker’s time at Moore taught her how to innovate in her field and look at things from multiple perspectives. She continues to illustrate and make concept art for animations, product flows, social media, newsletters and marketing campaigns. Still, she finds her most exciting projects are the ones where she gets to think outside the box.
“I’m art directing features in the app and illustrating in a program intended for product designers—we enjoy pushing boundaries here. I also enjoy fueling the charmingly bizarre HootyxDuo fandom by drawing official fan art. My favorite project so far was illustrating 80s anime-inspired characters on a cover wrap for an eight-foot-tall gachapon machine,” she said, referring to the popular Japanese capsule toys sold in vending machines.
Barker’s creativity also spills into personal life. She and her partner turned their yard into a food forest that serves as a native habitat for the local ecosystem. She’s also continued to pursue her personal comic projects.
Though she may seem like an unstoppable force in the art and design world, Barker also believes in taking time to slow down and recharge. Her advice for future Moore students: “Over everything else, prioritize taking care of your physical and mental health and spending time with your loved ones. Stretch and strengthen your drawing hand. Take walks in nature. Keep in touch with people you care about.”
Moore College of Art & Design is the only independent art and design college in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Want to learn more about our Animation & Game Arts major? Contact our Admissions team at enroll@moore.edu or 215.965.4015 to set up a call or a campus visit. We’d love to tell you more!
