Peninsula Design Group

We have been making a major media impact on the Bay Area and the wider world for over three decades. We are a small group of professionals who span the spectrum of arts, from traditional graphic design and image making to cutting-edge games and multimedia and work to shape the next-generation of entertainment, environmentalism, and education.

Michael Becker spearheads our software-based creative efforts. He is a designer, writer, producer, creative director, art director, and production designer of multiple products, with extensive accomplishments in cutting-edge design innovation for electronic entertainment and serious software for over 30 years. Expert in preproduction, design visualization, production management and franchise building, Michael has done creative work on every major console and computer system for almost every major company and multiple government clients, inventing new storytelling techniques, graphic looks, multimedia styles, motion-capture, compositing and digitizing production pipelines.

In fifteen years with Electronic Arts as their first creative director he created multiple franchises, world-class designs, and advanced production processes. Michael not only has created special effects of all types for decades but also the design of hundreds of experiences as the one who developed initial game-based best practices for the industry in the combination of script writing, previsualization, rapid prototyping, audio, and performance-based animation design, all of which he actively practices.

Diane Stevens manages PDG, spearheads graphic development, and is the creative force behind PDG’s extensive bodies of traditional and innovative imagery. Diane holds a Bachelor of Arts from Notre Dame de Namur University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing from San Francisco State University. She has been practicing art since the age of 9 and has studied at UCLU under Richard Diebenkorn and Joyce Treiman where she excelled at figure drawing, and at SF State where she worked with Robert Bechtel.

Diane is driving Peninsula Design Group’s expansion into environmental artwork while she teaches young and elderly students and produces stunning artwork in the California Colorist tradition and often edits major art display books for major artists. Many of her canvasses measure 5 by 9 feet or larger, and range to as small as three inches square. Her work spans the spectrum from illustration to portraiture to watercolor, oil, and mixed media. Please visit www.dianestevenspaintings.com to see multiple examples of her work, all for sale except those in private and museum collections.

Special Effects Art: We have driven extensive franchise development, concept and design piplines, and game-based software designs over the last thirty years. We believe that special effects are is more than the making of isolated sequential images, instead being the creation of complete immersive experiences and worlds, a philosophy that has continued to evolve and expand as the power of computers has grown. Our creative focus has always been on the creation of industry firsts, advances in innovation, and the inspiring of new industries and companies in multimedia, gaming, and education.



Commercial and Fine Art: We have been generating artwork using both traditional and electronic media tools for decades. We work in a wide variety of styles of mediums, and we also offer for sale most of our original commercial works in oil, watercolor, and mixed media. These fine art pieces focus on the natural landscape, and abstraction of these forms and their associated emotional impacts. This work has been a source of enduring interest for us, as nature's complicated patterns in its myriad forms and functions are a constant reminder of the interconnections of all life. In addition to this respect for the art traditions of the California Colorist School, we also assist in co-founding art galleries, developing public and nonprofit programs, conducting traveling art shows, and supporting multiple environmental initiatives with groups around the nation.

We Also Offer Teams of Creative Professionals: These teams are another powerful resources that we have available for your large projects, since we have worked with hundreds of experts in media production, and we embrace the film studio model as a preproduction and production philosophy that permits the growing of specialized creative teams when the need arises. Having created the first game animation and motion capture teams, and overseen teams of over fifty artists, and production of several hundred other specialists, we are well versed in creative, design, and overall team management. We have also spearheaded product localization processes in multiple languages and understand the dynamics of managing creative realization of new franchises.

What We Can Do For You: In the fields of graphic design and special effect art we offer a full spectrum of capabilities. Our site provides more information on all of the fields of expertise listed on the left. Please contact us, and let us help you realize your vision.