Don Schnitzius stands in a lab wearing a coat, holding a tool beside control panels and electronic equipment.

Work

Work that ships, runs, and holds up over time.

Long-term builds. Live and actively maintained.

The Civics Game

Game Platform

A classroom platform that turns local government into a playable system.

Each class becomes a small city. Students form parties, run for office, vote, and make decisions together.

The core game path — Citizen to Candidate to Council Member and Mayor — maps to real civic roles. The platform runs on WordPress with LearnDash, BuddyBoss, GamiPress, and MemberPress to support roles, progress, and group activity.

Dashboards, badges, polls, and petitions support live play, with lessons and tools built for actual classroom use.

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Marketing Site

A companion marketing site that explains the game’s mechanics to a general audience.

I designed the structure, wrote the copy, and created supporting charts and graphics, including a character model guide to ensure GenAI produced a consistent, kid-friendly illustration set.

Bento-style grid showing The Civics Game project assets including web pages, video screen, art and color chart.

Belleville Public Library

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Public Site

A comprehensive redesign focused on performance and WCAG accessibility standards.

This is the library’s second full overhaul since 2022, built to handle more frequent updates for events, alerts, and services.

I revised the layouts, edited the content for clarity, and customized the WordPress admin tools so staff can manage the site without technical overhead.

Brand & Print Assets

A brand refresh to accompany the site update, centered on a high-resolution, less abstracted reconstruction of the library’s lion logo.

The new identity was applied to membership cards and digital headers. I also authored the technical documentation for the website redesign to ensure staff can maintain the system independently.

Bento-style grid showing Bellevile Public Library project assets including library card design and web site documentation.

Alto Timer

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Marketing Site

The marketing site for the newest release in a suite of legacy time-tracking and invoicing apps.

Following the sunset of the original software, the site was structured to migrate the users toward the newest version. Updates clarify the upgrade path, while archived tutorials provide ongoing support for legacy users.

Marketing & App UI

UI development and brand asset production for the Alto family of apps.

Work involved building and styling Xcode layouts for the legacy app and designing UI mockups for the new cross-platform version. Beyond the interface, work included promotional social media content, tutorials, and technical documentation.

Bento-style grid showing Alto project assets including mobile app screens and social media images.

The Shortcut Game

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Marketing Site

A quiz game where the players write the questions.

The original promotional site struggled to communicate the game’s appeal, so we overhauled it with new copy and a custom WordPress system for easier client updates.

The site includes a shop, a game board customizer, and downloadable PDF templates for users to create and print their own quiz cards.

MOTOBLOT

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Festival Website

Supporting the largest vintage motorcycle and scooter rally in the U.S., held each summer in Chicago.

By 2019, the festival’s online presence had outgrown its original setup. We rebuilt the site into a single WordPress system, adapting the festival’s bold print identity into modular web layouts.

My work now focuses on backend updates and SEO, so the team can manage band lineups, vendor lists, and event schedules.

Additional Work

I work across a wide range of fields, including print, posters, custom fonts, and even an NFT or two. I’ve posted some of the more interesting ones over on Behance.

I’ll usually say yes if there is a chance to learn something new, tackle a weird problem, or collaborate with someone who is better than me at what they do. To wit:

Bento-style grid showing additional work including magazine layouts, posters and NFT art.

Have a problem that needs solving? Reach out and let’s talk.