Ofrenda Board Game Art - Honoring Culture and the Dead - Interview with Alex Herrerias (Issue #79)
“This game was an excellent opportunity to teach people more about this Mexican tradition, and I had the chance to explore familiar places. I thought about families from Mexico, but I also wanted to represent the various regions.”
In this board game art interview, I’m speaking to Alex Herrerias, a freelance illustrator based in Mexico. ‘Ofrenda’ is their first board game art project, and I was drawn to its colorful art, captivating theme, and great table presence.
‘Ofrenda’ is a card placement game about creating a colorful altar to honor your loved ones. Upon discovering the game, I was really curious to learn more about Alex, and how he approached the game’s themes and depictions.
The word ofrenda will be said a lot in this interview, both describing the game, and the altar to honor the dead, so for clarity, I’ve capitalized the board game reference and put it in quotes: ‘Ofrenda’. Enjoy the interview!
p.s. Big thanks to Tabletopping for sharing their photography to support this interview.
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Thanks for joining us, Alex! Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Well, I’m a freelance illustrator with almost twenty years of experience. I live in Mexico City, so I enjoy visiting the museums (this city has the third most museums in the world) and savoring delicious food from various places around the country. I’m currently working on my new graphic novel, which I hope to publish by the end of this year.
Have you always wanted to be an illustrator?
Well, I remember drawing since I was old enough to hold a pencil. But when I decided to study design, everything became more “serious.” Then, I started working on textbooks, attending book fairs, and uploading my portfolio to Behance and Facebook. I participated in numerous illustration contests and later served on the jury. I joined the Pencil Illustradores agency (in Spain).
Do I ever have a crisis of confidence? Hehe, all the time! Not just professionally, but I have always found time to recover and find calm, with music, movies, and books, talking and walking with friends, or just doing my classes at the faculty. Or even simply just breathing.
What is your process when creating art?
I enjoy the document process, which includes searching for samples, reading the text, and even creating a music list for each project. I’m a graphite lover, and I like to sketch in my actual notebook.
If the project allows me to, I want to incorporate any analog technique because most of the time I’m under a deadline. In my personal work, I used to be experimental. Right now, I’m working on some stamp techniques (etching).
How did you start working on board games?
Initially, Jordan Wheeler from Osprey Games contacted me to inquire about my interest in collaborating on a board game centered around Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), my favorite Mexican tradition. They sent me some samples from my portfolio to show the style they were looking for.
At the time, I was actually working on material about Día de los Muertos for a workshop for the Buenos Aires Book Fair in 2024, so I was entirely in the mood. I was thrilled about this project, my first one in the tabletop industry, by the way.
‘Ofrenda’ is a board game about celebrating loved ones for the Mexican Day of the Dead. Can you tell us more about it?
This game was an excellent opportunity to teach people more about this Mexican tradition, and I had the chance to explore familiar places. I thought about families from Mexico, but I also wanted to represent various regions: the north, the south, the center of the country, and so on. I represented artists, luchadores, sportspeople, and students.
In Mexico, we also paint our faces to look like skulls on that day, so it was a good idea to do it for the game.
Can you explain what an ofrenda is, and how it’s made?
An ofrenda is an offering (template) for our relatives who have passed away. Each ofrenda is different for every region in Mexico. Every family that maintains the tradition could add more or fewer elements, but most have the same.
We add some portraits or just photos, their favourite food, water, or some drinks they liked for their thirst, candles to guide them to our place, traditional bread “pan de muerto”, fruits from the station, salt, papel picado for furnishing, and the most beautiful flowers, marigolds (cempasuchil). We sometimes use sugar skulls, and occasionally paper or handcrafted skulls. Each Family uses their resources, including fruits and traditional breads from their region.
How are ofrendas represented within the board game?
I gathered the necessary elements for the game and searched for samples, then attempted to incorporate my style. In my art, I like to represent traditional elements from my culture. I enjoy drawing skulls, luchadores, and diablitos a lot.
I tried to be as accurate as possible with the deep elements of traditional ofrendas, while adding my special touch to the game.
You mentioned traditional face painting. What are the usual elements that make up these designs, and how do they feature in ‘Ofrenda’?
In Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), we have many celebrations, such as parties, visiting ofrendas, going to the cemetery to make ofrendas, parades, and more. And it’s so common to disguise or paint our faces with elements from handcrafted art, like Puebla´s talavera (Mexican pottery) or anything that our imagination allows to honor death and tradition. This always depends on the artist or the ideas of the people who want to be painted.
I proposed incorporating this idea of face painting into the portraits in the ‘Ofrenda’ board game. The unlit side of the cards displays the same art from the lit side, but with fewer colors or in black and white. I think it works perfectly.
How did you approach showing the various regions of Mexico?
At the beginning of the project, we had to think about the 65 portraits - characters that conform to the elements of the ofrenda. My first step was to divide Mexico into five major regions - families (north, south, center, southwest, and northwest)- and look for the main elements, ethnicities, and original and ancient peoples. I tried to avoid stereotypes (such as big moustaches and charro hats) and incorporate traditional clothing from Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, and beyond.
Then, I sought to balance the representation of women and men characters, their ages, and their complexions. And of course, I added my fictional luchador “el Cangrejo celeste” - The blue crab. There was a lot of work, so I asked some of my talented students to help me find references and gather inspiration.
What are you reading, listening to, or looking at to fuel your work?
I have just finished a novel, Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo, a classic from Mexico. Then, I´ll start with Pan´s Labyrinth, a novelization by Cornelia Funke and Guillermo del Toro based on the movie. I’m listening to a lot of movie soundtracks and Radiohead as my safe place, and I just saw The Phoenician Scheme, the latest movie by Wes Anderson. Some graphic novels are about heroes, while others are about monsters or both, such as Batman, haha.
Ofrenda - Photography by Tabletopping
Finally, where can we see more of your work?
You can see my portfolio on:
Behance: https://www.behance.net/AlexH
Instagram: @alexherreriasilustrador