Morgan Ward is a senior illustrator and animator for the Oceaneering Technologies (OTECH) group headquartered in Maryland. In her position, Morgan finds it most rewarding when she can bring her teammates’ ideas and vision to life through illustrations and animations.
“Every profession has its own specialized terms of art or language which are used to explain complex ideas, but when you have to explain those ideas to a general audience sometimes the message gets garbled. My job is taking engineering concepts and ideas and making illustrations or animations that anyone could understand.”
She added, “Helping my team communicate to the client the great innovations and products Oceaneering can create for them is very rewarding.”
As a child, Morgan was interested in drawing, photography and other creative pursuits as well as science and technology. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustrations with a concentration in Game Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Prior to joining Oceaneering, Morgan interned at a video game company creating assets and at an art company designing interactive museum exhibits.
“Oceaneering is an engaging and collaborative workplace. On my team, everyone has mutual respect for one another. Going into art school, I did not expect to end up working for a subsea engineering company, but here I am four years later enjoying every day.”
Since Morgan does not come from an engineering or technology background, she says this is one of the biggest challenges she has had to navigate while at Oceaneering.
“My biggest hurdle early on was translating my teammates ‘engineering language’ so that I understood the important features and purposes for the client.” She added, “I met this challenge by developing good working relationships with my teammates, and by being unafraid to ask questions.”
Morgan advised the next generation of women in tech to treat everyday at work or school like it’s their first.
“Hang on to that excitement and enthusiasm you had when you first started your job or studies. You can do this through professional growth opportunities, networking, collaboration with teammates, and extracurricular learning opportunities.” She added, “When opportunity knocks, say yes – taking on new challenges is the only way to grow professionally and personally.”
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