Melissa Malzkuhn

Storyteller, Digital Strategist & Creative Director

Melissa Malzkuhn is a storyteller, digital strategist, and creative director with a fascination for languages, word play, and immersive experiences. As Director of Motion Light Lab at Gallaudet University, Melissa Malzkuhn leads creative development and research, and she is a founder of Ink & Salt, a creative productions company. Melissa Malzkuhn is a storyteller, digital strategist, and creative director with a fascination for languages, word play, and immersive experiences. As Director of Motion Light Lab at Gallaudet University, Melissa Malzkuhn leads creative development and research.

  • The Boy Who Ate Words

    “The Boy Who Ate Words” is an interactive narrative based game. The protagonist lives in a world where he is constantly given commands – what to do and what not to do everyday and everywhere. One day, frustrated, he ATE a word! Unbeknownst to the boy, every time he eats a word, the corresponding object disappears – as words construct our understanding of the world. Wandering alone, boy is upset and now hiccupping letters… it’s up to players to help him restore his world by matching the letters!

    Project Website

  • Malzkuhn ASL App

    The ASL App

    “The ASL App” is an iOS app (formatted for iPhone, iPad and iPod) that teaches you conversational ASL on the go, designed for the new signer packed with over 400 sign videos.

    Project Website

  • Malzkuhn Obama

    City Signs

    Commissioned by the Washington Post Express, I created illustrations and GIFs of local ASL signs for Washington DC. This is part of an ongoing series of illustrating your cities, which originated in Alicia DeSantis and Jennifer Daniel’s Visual Writing class.

    Washington Post Article

  • Mise En Komix

    This is a loose adaption (and inspiration) from Klassik Komix by Steven Millhauser. Millhauser set out to provoke the question of “art for art’s sake” in his text. Drawing from that premises, I wanted to do a story for story’s sake, or more apt, a dream within a dream. Through this stop motion animation, I wanted to combine something absurd with real and reverse roles. This is an experiment with sign language – how far can I go without destroying our comprehension (and context) of the whole story?

    Project Video

  • Malzkuhn TinksWink

    Tink's Wink

    This is a stop motion animation about a little moon spirit named Tink, who gets in trouble at the dream factory.

    Project Video