Redmond Aksel Simonsen (June 18, 1942 – March 9, 2005)[1] was an American graphic artist and game designer best known for his work at the board wargame company Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in the 1970s and early 1980s.

His father was a high ironworker who died in a fall from a building; his mother then worked as a domestic and raised her three children August, Lois, and Redmond.

He served two tours in the United States Air Force, and was accepted for enrollment at Cooper Union, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1964.

Simonsen also wrote fictional backgrounds for various SPI games, notably for StarForce and Battlefleet Mars, often with humorous elements hidden in the text.

[2]In 1969 however, Simonsen's ability to implement such graphic engineering was limited by SPI's starting capital, which was only "a hundred dollars"[11] borrowed from writer Al Nofi.

While competitor Avalon Hill was owned by the printers Monarch Press, and thus was able to use professional production equipment,[12] SPI was essentially producing game "kits".

Rules were printed on "bedsheets," large sheets of paper folded down to normal letter size, saving the cost of cutting, collating, and binding.

[12]Increased revenue and experience led to progressive improvements in production quality, and Simonsen continuously refined the standards for game components.

Thus, he was responsible for managing playtests, editing and writing rules and play aids, preparing sketches and other graphical elements, and ensuring that the 'house style' was preserved across several games.

"[15] Marketing lapses as well as financial mismanagement led to declining real income for SPI,[12][14] culminating in Dunnigan's ouster as company manager (replaced by original S&T founder Chris Wagner).

[2] Simonsen then moved to Richardson, Texas where, with Jerry Robinson, he co-founded Microbotics, manufacturers of peripherals for the Amiga platform of home computers.

[5][9] Three years after his death, Flying Buffalo featured Simonsen as the King of Clubs in the 2008 iteration of their Famous Game Designer Trading Cards.