About

This page is about the author and website. For employers: see Resume.

My name is David Fenneran. I am an amateur artist, writer, game designer, and general-use creative. I currently work as a CAD operator for a restaurant equipment supply company, but I spend my free time playing and creating video games, drawing (digitally), writing stories for books or for tabletop games, and drafting up new prototypes for physical board games.

I truly love creating just for the sake of creating, but I do hope to one day see something I have created be shared and appreciated by people around the world. Whether that is by publishing a book or board game, or simply sharing my art online, I love to see others enjoy my work.

About the Author

David is currently pursuing various creative passions in the central Ohio area. He loves living in cities and hopes to one day move to New York City or abroad.

History

Early Life

David grew up in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia with two older sisters and one younger brother. He and his brother together found a love of storytelling and game-creation, spending much of their time drawing and writing up rules for games they would then play. These games were often derivative, such as a candyland-style race game (a three-way project with their sister), a version of rock-paper-scissors with nineteen options, and a tile-flipping card game.

Growing up in the mountains also fostered a love for nature and its denizens. David and his family were often found hiking through the woods, caring for local flora and fauna, and participating in local conservation efforts. Even though he now lives in the city, David still finds a love for nature and green living, and works with his community to encourage local gardening and food production, alternative modes of transport, and reduction of waste.

College

David spent two years attending a local community college before moving to Cedarville, Ohio to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Design at Cedarville University. There he met many people who would go on to become close friends, including several fellow artists and one Broadcast major who David would live with for nearly four years after graduation.

Studying at the university taught him many important design principles - not only hard principles such as linework and proportions, but also softer principles such as human-centered and sustainability-minded design. Inspired by his two nieces, David’s capstone project Gulliver Blocks focused on creating a modular playset for children, encouraging kids to play outside more.

Young Professional

After graduation, David remained in central Ohio where he now works for The Wasserstrom Company to design and lay out industrial kitchen spaces to maximize the safety and comfort of those who work there.

Current Interests

When not pursuing his “consumption hobbies” such as playing games, watching movies, and reading books (he finally started reading The Lord of the Rings and is enjoying it immensely), he can be found pursuing various “creation hobbies.” Currently, this is mostly spent writing rules and stories for the Dungeons and Dragons game he plays with his sister and three friends, working on a drawing-based card game called Illust:Rate, and designing his first website: this one that you are now reading!

About the Website

Name

The name "polytopeparty" comes from a love of polytopes (wikipedia link), as you might have guessed. Polytopes are geometric objects with flat sides that can be constructed into any number of shapes. A polytope in 2 dimensions is a "polyhedra" such as a triangle or a square. A polytope in 3 dimensions is a "polyhedra" such as a cube or a pyramid. I have always found myself fascinated by the unique relationships between shapes and the math that represents them.

The polytopeparty logo is made out of polytopes as well! These shapes belong to the set of pentominos (wikipedia link) which in turn belong to the larger set of polyominos.

The letters inlaid into the pentomino tiles are a vague gesture at chemistry, as though they were periodic elements, but unfortunately there was no way to get the "ly" or the "pe" sequence from the periodic table. So I guess I just have to live with the aesthetic concept instead.

Content

The content of this website is split into two main categories, which you can see on the sidebar: Original Content and The Universal Orrery.

The first category - Original Content - is filled with all my original writing, drawing, game design, and other artistic pursuits. It is a very broad category with only a handful of pages in any given sub-category. Any time I pick up a new hobby, I will try it out for a little bit, create a few pieces, and then move on. With few exceptions, nothing in this category really realates to each other - instead existing as a collection of disparate pieces as a repository for projects in the past.

The second category - The Universal Orrery - is a single large-scale writing and worldbuilding project that I have spent many years on (and hopefully, many more to come). In contrast to the first category, this one is interconnected, where nearly every piece will relate in some way to at least one other, if not more. Because this category can be discussed as a single unit, more information regarding the project as a whole can be found on the Universal Orrery's about page.

External Links

As I work to consolidate all my artistic endevours into a single location, I am going to run across old portfolios and media repositories that hold my old work. Until such a time that I can move them all here (or if I choose that they are better off being hosted seperately), those websites will be found here.

The websites don't like it when I embed them, apparently. I am nonetheless leaving them as-is just in case they change their mind.