wray.pro

Sam Wray, cross legged on the floor, in front of an interactive artwork made from zip ties

Creative Technologist, musician, visualist and artist based in London, UK.

Sam holds a degree in Digital Art and Technology from Plymouth University, attaining Second Class Honours (Upper Division) with Certificate of Professional Industrial Experience.

He enjoys creating immersive and thoughtful digital works, irl and url and has a 10+ year passion for creating interactive experiences primarily using web technologies.

Skills

Software
  • JavaScript
  • Vue.js (& Vue ecosytem)
  • Svelte
  • React
  • Recoil
  • TypeScript
  • A-Frame
  • THREE.js
  • WebXR/WebAR (& ZapWorks, 8thwall)
  • ARCore
  • GenAI (LLMs & RAG, Stable Diffusion)
  • Webpack
  • XHTML
  • CSS (& extensions)
  • Websockets
  • WebRTC
  • Canvas2D
  • WebGL
  • OffscreenCanvas
  • Web Workers
  • Electron
  • Playwright
  • Jest
  • Processing
  • Unity
  • TouchDesigner
  • Mongo DB
  • MySQL
  • Heroku
  • PostgreSQL
  • GraphQL
  • Git
  • Auth0
  • GCP
  • AWS
  • Azure Cloud/DevOps
  • GitHub/GHA
Physical Computing
  • Arduino
  • Teensy
  • ESP8266
  • IoT
  • Raspberry Pi
  • RP2040
Additional
  • Music composition
  • Audio visualisation
  • Blender
  • GLTF model optimisation
  • Adobe CC
  • Figma
  • Sketch
  • Event management

Experience

Time-Line

Consultant Software Developer

12 ∕ 2025 - present

Time-line is a collaborative software platform designed to help create, plan, and run live performances. It acts as a central hub where the artistic side (music) connects with the technical side (lights, visuals) to ensure everything happens in perfect sync.

Gendo

Senior Front-end Engineer

06 ∕ 2025 - 12 ∕ 2025

Gendo's platform targets machine learning at ArchVis, using an advanced web platform and tailored AI image generation models to reduce the time and effort required to render a 3D scene.

George P. Johnson

Creative Technology Director

07 ∕ 2023 - 06 ∕ 2025

Working in the Creative Technology department of experience marketing agency GPJ, with clients ranging from global brands to museum visitor centres.

Understanding client needs to transform strategic and creative briefs into meaningful activations whilst advising and supporting creatives with interaction design.

Presenting complex ideas to clients in simple terms, creating prototypes where necessary and translating concepts into roles for production and costing.

Leading client technology tours in the GPJ Lab space, providing student mentorship and staying up to date on the latest technology trends.

Related Work

A giant blue portal-like screen sits within a minimalist white stand at GITEX, a technology expo in Dubai.IBM's stand at COP28

Virtonomy

Lead Software Engineer

04 ∕ 2022 - 07 ∕ 2023

Working on Virtonomy's v-Patients, a collaborative 3D web platform for medical device developers to perform development and testing in a virtual environment, allowing them to accelerate development, reduce risks, expenses, and regulatory burden.

3D visualisation included 4D analysis, point cloud rendering and a full set of UI controls to control every aspect of the scene.

Realtime collaboration was made possible with A-Frame, WebRTC, Websockets and a seamless self-designed Recoil multi-client syncing method which extended Recoil without changing its API.

All of this worked in-browser and in WebXR also.

  • A-Frame, Three.js, TypeScript and React
  • Implemened Recoil, Webpack, JSX and linting to a large existing codebase
  • Leading application re-architecture
  • Playwright e2e testing
  • Student mentorship

publicis•poke

Senior Experience Technologist

10 ∕ 2019 - 04 ∕ 2022

Working in the Brand Experience team, I created works over a range of mediums. AR, web, real-time interactive games, embedded computing, low-latency livestream video, and combined many old skills with newly learned ones.

  • Real-time web apps (THREE.js, A-Frame, Websockets)
  • Unity with ARCore
  • WebAR (8thwall, Zappar, WebXR)
  • Prismic and Vue.js website builds

Related Work

Young girl holding an iPad in front of the Piccadilly Lights screen.Maya Jama in camera viewport of a Samsung Galaxy Fold with 3D material flying around her in ARYellow robot on 8 large screens in an EE storeHand holding a phone with a welcome screen to an application. In the background a display card advertising EE's Unbox Gaming on the Go experience.

TMW Unlimited

Senior Creative Technologist

12 ∕ 2018 - 09 ∕ 2019
  • Ideation and contribution to pitches and briefs
  • Interactive website prototyping and build with WebGL and Canvas
  • Infrastructure and devops with Azure
  • Sitecore and Vue.js integration

Choreocracy

Host & Creative Technologist

11 ∕ 2018 - 11 ∕ 2018

Stepping in for BAFTA award-winning Digital Artist Seb Lee-Delisle, I took over the role of co-host alongside the Record Breaking Dance Artist Tim Casson, for audience-driven interactive dance show Choreocracy. I learned the tech stack, the show routine and how to present over two practise runs - even helping out developing an integration for wirelessly synchronised LED shoes.

I had an excellent time working with the dancers, hosts and crew. I only wish I could've stayed on for more!

Kitty

Creative Technologist

09 ∕ 2017 - 10 ∕ 2018

Production of engaging SPA microsites using Canvas, SVG and CSS for interactive flair

  • Development of a large-scale eCommerce website with full internationalisation
  • Built the tool to create the industry first Voice Search Ranking Report with sister agency ROAST

BetVictor: Bet Calculator

Lead Developer

04 ∕ 2017 - 06 ∕ 2017

Working with BetVictor and Kitty, I built a dedicated betting engine using JavaScript for use within BetVictor's calculator.
The calculator was required to be a PWA. VueJS and a webpack/vue prerender plugin was used to ensure SEO results were kept high.

Related Work

BetVictor's bet calculator shown running on an iPhone

Games for the Many: CorbynRun

Musician

04 ∕ 2017 - 05 ∕ 2017

The viral game that took the General Election 2017 by storm and reached over 2 million people. The music composed for CorbynRun is a cover of "Bandiera Rossa", created using a Nintendo Game Boy, heralded by the BBC as "Incredibly Annoying".

Related Work

A pixelated caricature of Jeremy Corbyn

Dyson: The Smart Rooms

Technical Lead

12 ∕ 2016 - 02 ∕ 2017

Involvement with the game design to make sure the challenges made sense from a software engineering aspect and building anything technical the Smart Rooms required, either for its puzzles or general use.

Related Work

"The Smart Rooms" logo, over line-drawings of a kitchen

Red Bull/Sony Music/WMAS/YGN: Buzz Jam 2016

Creative Coder

09 ∕ 2016 - 09 ∕ 2016

BuzzJam 2016 hackday instrument. MIDI Controller/Lighting Controller/stand-alone sampler.

Highlights

  • Building from abstract brief
  • Using previously unknown technologies to complete the project
  • Raspberry Pi and Arduino based controls
  • All built in three days

Related Work

Lake Komo, a two-piece band, playing on stage with Stardis, a custom built vocal sampler and looper, with in-built stage lighting controls

Red Bull/Sony Music/WMAS/YGN: Buzz Jam 2015

Creative Coder

09 ∕ 2015 - 09 ∕ 2015

BuzzJam 2015 hackday instrument built using Game Boys and Guitar Hero controllers.

Highlights

  • Building from abstract brief
  • Using previously unknown technologies to complete the project
  • Raspberry Pi, Game Boy and Arduino based controllers
  • All built in two days

Related Work

Blade, a double necked keytar, held by Amy from them&us, Sam Wray providing support to hold it up.

Tellonline

Junior Developer

05 ∕ 2014 - 06 ∕ 2015
  • Designing and assisting within a team for the development of websites and digital media
  • Attend meetings with prospective clients
  • Quality control of websites and digital media during development and before handover
  • Handling clients daily, face to face, and via various communication mediums

PJ Studio | Creative Media Ltd

Web Developer

01 ∕ 2012 - 01 ∕ 2014

Part-time consultant and web-developer. Work includes templating websites in HTML and CSS, developing plugins with jQuery, JS work, PHP scripting and working with Wordpress.

Rewired State

Web Developer

10 ∕ 2013 - 10 ∕ 2013

Edited a hack day app with involvement from the Department for International Development.

Blue Flame Media Limited

Web Developer

04 ∕ 2013 - 05 ∕ 2013

Edited websites with a Wordpress CMS, added a booking system built in PHP and jQuery for a local client. Templated a website in HTML and CSS for their partner company Payment Nexus.

Southwest Film and Television Archive

Software and Systems researcher

06 ∕ 2011 - 06 ∕ 2011

Researched the best web player and video codecs for their online library service.

Film and Video Technician Volunteer

05 ∕ 2009 - 08 ∕ 2011

Cataloguing film and video, digitising video recorded on 1" tape, Betamax, VCR, sVHS, Telecine with 16mm film and also editing all the aforementioned formats using various editing processes with new and old equipment.

I thoroughly enjoyed giving my time to SWFTA, I learnt a lot about the older machinery, video production and Plymouth's history from working with the great team they have.

Awards & Achievements

The Drum: Best AR/VR Experience - Silver

11 ∕ 2025

DP World: Supply Chain Run

Creativepool: B2B - Silver

09 ∕ 2025

DP World: Supply Chain Run

Creativepool: Digital - Bronze

09 ∕ 2025

DP World: Globe Explorer

Campaign Tech Award - Best Use of AR/VR

06 ∕ 2025

DP World: Globe Explorer

Webster Award

06 ∕ 2016

Awarded by the Webster family for my final year project, Melodal.

Hack the Visual

06 ∕ 2015

'Splatmap' - First place

The idea for this hack was to build a piece of software that would help people use their to phones capture 3D images and terrain of the streets, roads and landscape around them for use in videogames, architecture, modelling and history.

Read more about Splatmap

Dropbox Hackathon

01 ∕ 2015

Honourable mention

McDonald's Hackathon

11 ∕ 2014

'Big Hack with Fries' - First place

McDonalds held their first hackathon in November 2014 which aimed to bring their millennial target audience into stores and to retain their custom.
The winning idea was inspired by Activision’s Skylanders; using purchasable figurines with built in NFC identification to change the characters you can control in the game. It was intended to make use of the existing McDonald’s Happy Meals structure, in which toys are included with the purchase of the meal. However for our idea to work, McDonalds would have had to upgrade the quality of their toys, include the NFC technology within the plastic of the toys and include NFC readers with large screens as tabletops in-store.

Watch McDonald's video on YouTube

Talks & Publications

LBB - Finding the Balance: Integrating AI Into the Creative Process

04 ∕ 2025

Sam Wray, George P. Johnson UK’s creative technology director on AI as a creative partner, and how his own attitudes towards the tool have shifted as part of the AI Spy series

https://lbbonline.com/news/finding-the-balance-integrating-ai-into-the-creative-process

We’ve been waiting for tech to ‘democratize creativity’ – now, Apple is getting close

08 ∕ 2024

Opinion article on consumer technology democratising creativity in the XR space.

Published on The Drum.

https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2024/08/29/we-ve-been-waiting-tech-democratize-creativity-now-apple-getting-close

The Metaverse: You think you know everything?

11 ∕ 2023

Exploring how innovations in spatial computing are creating new experience opportunities. From the Apple Vision Pro to advancements in web technology, we deep dive into why we believe the metaverse is not dead and its potential for our industry. In this session are George P. Johnson’s Senior Director, Digital Strategy, Kerstin Twatchmann and Creative Technology Director, Sam Wray...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL2AJ-im0mc

ZapWorks: EE Unbox Gaming on the Go

09 ∕ 2021

Tom DeFraine (Senior Customer Success Manager) talks to Andy Dobson (Head of Technology) and Sam Wray (Senior Experience Technologist) from creative agency publicis.poke about their innovative AR campaign for EE, Unbox Gaming On The Go. 

In the webinar, Andy and Sam cover everything from ideation, why AR was the right choice for the project, through to the creative process and the end result. 

https://zap.works/webinars/publicispoke-ee-unbox-gaming-go/

2xAA live - Dorkbot London #98

12 ∕ 2019

A small explanation of my music set-up, accompanied by a live music performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BuERJi9mhw

"Woah! Is that OffscreenCanvas?" - dotJS 2018

11 ∕ 2018

A small explanation and demo of the new OffscreenCanvas API, including the stuff that doesn't work and some potential use-cases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FhGZ50XRz4

https://slides.com/twoxaa/woah-is-that-offscreencanvas/fullscreen

"Woah! Is that OffscreenCanvas?" - Reactivate London

10 ∕ 2018

A small explanation and demo of the new OffscreenCanvas API, including the stuff that doesn't work and some potential use-cases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWvRA9E0DqU

https://slides.com/twoxaa/woah-is-that-offscreencanvas/fullscreen

"{ live : js }" - FrankenJS

02 ∕ 2017

Presenting how NERDDISCO and myself came together to use the browser to perform a full A/V show.

"{ live : js }" - dotJS 2016

12 ∕ 2016

Presenting how NERDDISCO and myself came together to use the browser to perform a full A/V show, to 1000 attendees. Read more: dotJS 2016

2xAA plays his Game Boy - EMF 2014

08 ∕ 2014

A performance and talk about the chiptune music I create on my Game Boy, along with specially written audience controlled visuals to go along with the set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDMrgklcEoQ

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