Whiz Kid: Redmond High Student Designs Art for Microsoft

Name, age: Jasmine Keith, 16.

School and Neighborhood: A junior at , Jasmine Keith lives in Woodinville.

Accomplishment: Jasmine created artwork (see image at right) that has been selected by to be the mascot for its “Hunt the Wumpus” game design competition.

The artwork Jasmine created will be used on T-shirts, water bottles and other items to help publicize the competition. She’s looking forward to seeing the design in use. “It’ll be a great experience,” she said.

Jasmine admits that seeing the design out in the world will be pretty strange, though. “But cool, too,” she added.

Jasmine took the info she was given about the imaginary “wumpus” creature – that it is an ugly, cave dwelling creature that hunts for its food – and created a unique design. 

“I kind of thought of the most grotesque things I could,” said Jasmine.

The design was also based in part on Jasmine’s research into real cave-dwelling animals.

Jasmine first sketched the design out on paper and colored it in PhotoShop.

“I like to do a lot of stuff like that,” she said.

Key to awesomeness: Jasmine is from an artistic family and has long enjoyed creating artwork. She especially enjoys creating weird, fantastical creatures.

Designs from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Greek mythology are among Jasmine’s favorites. 

Jasmine is currently taking classes at through its Animation Academy program. She plans on enrolling at DigiPen full-time following high school and pursuing a career as an animator, either for films or video games.

“I really love doing this stuff,” said Jasmine.

The "Hunt the Wumpus" competition will challenge teams from Redmond, Inglemoor, Bellevue, Newport and Interlake high schools to design an adventure game based on finding and slaying the imaginary Wumpus. The competition will take place on June 2 at the Microsoft campus.