I’m a creative leader with 20+ years of experience at the intersection of fine art, design, and technology. I translate complex information into intuitive, human-centered experiences, guiding teams from ideation through execution. I thrive where art, empathy, and engineering are woven together to build meaningful solutions and elegant interfaces. Most recently at Oracle, I led illustration and design system efforts, building a centralized library of 900+ assets, aligning brand across products, and driving cross-disciplinary collaboration. I also explore AI-enabled tools like Midjourney and ChatGPT to fuel concept ideation and scalable visual branding.

David Topper

PRO

I’m a creative leader with 20+ years of experience at the intersection of fine art, design, and technology. I translate complex information into intuitive, human-centered experiences, guiding teams from ideation through execution. I thrive where art, empathy, and engineering are woven together to build meaningful solutions and elegant interfaces. Most recently at Oracle, I led illustration and design system efforts, building a centralized library of 900+ assets, aligning brand across products, and driving cross-disciplinary collaboration. I also explore AI-enabled tools like Midjourney and ChatGPT to fuel concept ideation and scalable visual branding.

Available to hire

I’m a creative leader with 20+ years of experience at the intersection of fine art, design, and technology. I translate complex information into intuitive, human-centered experiences, guiding teams from ideation through execution. I thrive where art, empathy, and engineering are woven together to build meaningful solutions and elegant interfaces.

Most recently at Oracle, I led illustration and design system efforts, building a centralized library of 900+ assets, aligning brand across products, and driving cross-disciplinary collaboration. I also explore AI-enabled tools like Midjourney and ChatGPT to fuel concept ideation and scalable visual branding.

See more

Language

English
Fluent

Work Experience

Creative Lead / Illustrator at Oracle
June 1, 2022 - September 2, 2025
Principal User Experience Designer at Oracle
June 1, 2016 - June 1, 2022
Principal Visual Designer at Oracle
January 14, 2015 - May 31, 2016
Co-owner & Creative Lead at Warm Bread Creative Communications
June 29, 2009 - December 31, 2015
Co-owned a digital communications and marketing studio; created brand strategy, corporate identities, and style guides for multiple clients; developed custom illustrations and information graphics and managed external vendors and freelance teams.
Creative Director / Design Director at Critical Media, Inc.
February 1, 2005 - November 1, 2009
Art Director / Senior Designer at AIG, Inc. (Corporate eBusiness)
January 1, 2005 - October 1, 2007
Art Director, Consultant at FatWire Software, Inc. (Acquired by Oracle, 2011)
September 30, 2002 - June 30, 2011
Web Designer at Grey Interactive
November 1, 1996 - December 1, 1997
Graphic Designer at ABC, Capital Cities
July 1, 1996 - October 1, 1996
Graphic Designer at Icon Nicholson
January 1, 1996 - July 1, 1996
Digital Colorist at DC Comics
May 31, 1990 - June 30, 1992
Principal Visual Designer at Oracle Corporation
January 1, 2015 - June 1, 2016
Led visual design for Oracle's design systems, including developing UI components, contributing to the Redwood Design System, and delivering detailed specifications to engineers. Built a cohesive visual language across products; presented strategies and prototypes to senior leadership; mentored junior designers; contributed to cross-functional collaboration within the Alta Design System.
Principal UX Designer at Oracle Corporation
June 1, 2016 - June 1, 2022
Led user experience design for Oracle Content Management experiences; integrated typography, visuals and interactions; collaborated on the Alta and Redwood Design Systems; mentored designers; contributed to design strategy and product prototypes.
Creative Lead / Illustrator at Oracle Corporation
January 1, 2015 - January 1, 2025
Joined the Design System team to lead Oracle’s illustration efforts; built and maintained a centralized illustration library of 900+ assets; managed new illustration requests; integrated illustrations into the Redwood Design System; improved brand alignment and resource awareness; led POCs and special projects.
Lead Visual Designer at Oracle Corporation
June 1, 2022 - September 1, 2025
Hybrid Lead Visual Design for Experience Builder (OCM); enhanced user experience by integrating typography, visuals and interactions; positioned OCM as an early adopter of Redwood Design System; conceptualized application framework and delivered UI components and specifications; mentored designers.
Co-owner / Creative Lead at Warm Bread Creative Communications
July 1, 2009 - January 31, 2016
Co-owned digital communications and marketing studio; developed brand strategy, corporate identities, and style guides; created custom illustration and information graphics; managed external vendors and freelance teams; led the development of online and offline marketing materials.
Art Director / Senior Designer at AIG, Inc.
January 1, 2005 - October 1, 2007
Corporate eBusiness art direction and design; created product UI concepts, marketing materials, and brand assets; collaborated with engineering and marketing teams to improve usability and visual effectiveness.
Creative Director at FatWire Software, Inc.
October 1, 2002 - July 1, 2011
Directed product identities and user interfaces; prototyped UI concepts and marketing collateral; led branding efforts; oversaw design for global campaigns; worked with engineering and marketing to align product visuals.

Education

MPS, Creative Art Therapy at Pratt Institute
September 1, 2002 - January 1, 2004
BFA, Communication Design & Advertising at Pratt Institute
September 1, 1990 - January 1, 1995
MPS, Creative Art Therapy at Pratt Institute
January 11, 2030 - January 1, 2004
BFA, Communication Design at Pratt Institute
January 11, 2030 - January 1, 1995

Qualifications

Agile and Scrum Certified
January 11, 2030 - December 29, 2025

Industry Experience

Media & Entertainment, Software & Internet, Professional Services, Education, Retail, Other
    paper Half-glass full

    PROJECT DETAILS
    This piece explores the notion of “half full” versus “half empty,” reflecting the human desire to actively shape or redefine one’s outlook. By chipping away at the rim of a half-filled glass, the figure transforms the metaphor into an act of deliberate creation — sculpting perception itself to make the glass appear full.

    paper 6 - 7

    PROJECT DETAILS
    Amidst the current chaos and uncertainty, the “6 - 7” viral trend brings a touch of levity. Its nonsensical charm never fails to bring a smile to my face whenever I witness someone engaging in it’s playfulness.

    paper Tightening our belts

    PROJECT DETAILS
    This piece shines a light on the perpetual challenge of managing money. Regardless of our efforts to gain control over the volatility and unpredictability of expenses, it proves challenging to put enough away to cover our needs without feeling like we can’t help spending faster than we can save.

    paper Oracle, Individual UI & Marketing Illustrations

    MY ROLE
    These individual illustrations make up a small sample of works I created over a period of about two years. They vary in subject matter, depending on the requesting group’s needs and their application.

    paper 60 Paintings

    PROJECT DETAILS
    This project began as a challenge for me to create 60 paintings in 60 days. They are all created digitally.

    paper In Rainbows, Radiohead - Book of Paintings

    PROJECT DETAILS
    This album got us through the pandemic. In the car, when we woke up, when we cooked and during meals. It was the last thing we’d listen to before going to bed. From the very beginning of ‘15 Step’ through the end of ‘Videotape’. We were obsessive, but it made sense somehow, bringing a sense of calm and clarity to a very traumatic time. Not a lot has changed…

    It really is a perfect album.

    I made the book for my wife, who ultimately fell in love with this album as much as I did. All of the pieces were created digitally, originally conceived as one painting for each song and then two per song merged together to form pairs; sometimes coming together seamlessly as one thought while others conflicted in visual and emotional tone. The challenge was bringing the separate works together as singularly unique images that conveyed the emotional resonance of the music. After about a thousand listens,
    I no longer actually listened, but internalized each transition from sound to sound, song
    to song – each click, every pop, like waves rushing though me entirely.

    I bound the 10 final paintings into a hard covered book with the lyrics for each song alternating with double page spreads. It had become a fully immersive sensory experience – from the very first listen and even today.

    paper Oracle, ERP Expenses

    MY ROLE
    I was tasked with creating a series of new illustrations to enhance the expense submission process. The goal was to elevate the often repetitive and mundane task of submitting expenses with a more visually appealing interface as part of a new automated touch-less expense management experience.

    I created eighteen (18) new illustrations to be featured within the Oracle Expense application. I defined a unique application-specific color palette in alignment with
    the global Redwood Design System color palette. All illustrations were created to accommodate a desktop and mobile experience. Illustrations depict each expense type:

    Accommodations
    Entertainment
    Meals
    Transportation - Airfare, Bus, Train, Ferry
    Transportation - Car rental, Taxi, Rideshare (Lyft), Rideshare (Uber)
    Transportation - Parking, Mileage, Refueling/Charging
    Credit Card - Oracle, Non-Oracle
    Miscellaneous

    TIMELINE
    I met with the product lead, project manager, content developer and UX designer on a weekly recurring basis for a 3 month period as well as presented conceptual iterations to senior management.

    paper Oracle, Banking Loans Servicing

    MY ROLE
    I was tasked with creating an ongoing series of new illustrations to feature the various types of banking and loan options available to prospective customers. These illustrations are the primary visuals of the Oracle Banking Loans product demos.

    I oversaw the creation of over fifty (50) new illustrations used within the applications, representing the hierarchy of features throughout the user experience flows. A distinct pillar-centric palette as a subset of the global Redwood color palette, showcased the primary nature of this product area. I also created a library of recurring textures, patterns, and objects to unify and specifically represent this collection.

    TIMELINE
    I worked with the project manager through multiple creative rounds over the course of a year. The project began with a small initial series of four (4) main loan types - home, personal, auto and education loans. The friendly and welcoming nature of the first set were well received by the customers, resulting in the product team expanding the request into multiple subsequent rounds that encompassed the whole application.

    paper Family Lifecycle

    MY ROLE
    I initially created these illustrations as part of a larger exploration around how we could represent people as part of the Redwood Design System’s evolution specifically from
    the perspective of Illustration.

    The HCM team requested a new series of illustrations that could depict the Family Lifecycle focusing of parent/child relationships over time.

    The goal: to use the visual traits that comprise the core identity of the Redwood Design System – the signature color palette, abstract patterns and textures, and hand-drawn imperfect lines – to create a more integrated use of these elements as part of the human form within it’s environment. I proposed a more holistic approach to the overall illustrations. Eliminating the idea that the figure existed in the foreground as a separate layer on top of the background was central to my concept. Ideally, the two components would exist as one seamless image, ultimately helping to tell a more complete story,
    while remaining loyal to the tenets of the design system.

    paper Oracle, Integration

    MY ROLE
    I was tasked with conceptualizing and creating a series of new illustrations representing unique product features as part of the pubic-facing Oracle Integration informational pages.

    I created twenty (20) new illustrations as part of a series to be featured across the Oracle company website, product prototypes and PPT presentations.

    paper Oracle Healthcare, Hospital Orchestration Demo

    Hospital Orchestration Demo (select screens)
    Environment, character design & illustration

    MY ROLE
    I was tasked with creating the overall visual tone and execution style for a series of healthcare demos showcasing new product designs and user experience. This demo will
    be featured at upcoming healthcare conferences as well as Oracle AI World.

    Illustration was the primary visual method to depict hospital environments including patient rooms, nursing stations, conference rooms, and medical offices among others. I was responsible for interpreting the UX flows to create all environments and establish a system to help differentiate between them for quick recognition. I lead character development from an illustration perspective - representing easily identifiable, relatable and distinct roles to best tell the story of medical practitioners and patients.

    As a new, temporary contributor to the project already in progress, I collaborated with the core Healthcare team, consisting of project managers, content creators, developers and UX designers. I was brought in as a consultant from the Design System team to guide the creative direction for all visual aspects of the demonstrations. This Hospital Orchestration demo was intended to be the feature presentation to conference audiences.

    TIMELINE
    This segment of the project required a very quick turnaround for concept development through execution. We had seven (7) working business days to conceptualize, define visual guidelines and execute all creative content for the initial round of presentations. The project was completed within the proposed timeline and was extremely well received - ultimately getting elevated to the CEO.