Chris Quilliams: Art in Board Games #19
“I had the opportunity to work on the Pandemic Legacy board game with my Z-Man team. Everybody knew it was going to be special, which really added to the excitement. So, because of that, there was a bit of extra pressure..”
Welcome to Issue 19 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art.
This week we have Chris Quilliams, an artist who has worked on games such as Pandemic, Pandemic Legacy, Carcassonne, Merchants and Marauders, Flick ‘Em Up! and Azul with companies such as Z-Man Games and Plan B Games. Azul is one of the most played games in my collection, so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to chat with Chris about his work. Enjoy!
For more great insights into board game art, head to the interview archive.
Hello Chris, thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Sure no problem, starting at the beginning, I was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. My family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba when I was about 3 years old and that’s the city that I really grew up in. Ever since I can remember I’ve always loved drawing, from what I’ve been told starting at about a year and a half. My grandmother and father were both very big influences and both of them were artists, so I had constant inspiration around me. Through school I was always the class artist and after high school I went through the fine arts program at the University of Manitoba wanting to become a comic book artist. In the last couple of years of University I focused heavily on sequential art, especially in my thesis year.
One of my biggest influences was a friend I met at a local comic book convention, Doug Wheatley. In the early days before we were employed as artists we would hang out and just try to develop and hone our skills. It’s funny how in those days we would look to the future at our possible careers and of course now I look back at those days with such fond memories... now that we both have our careers. Haha!
My first big break I guess came from Beckett, a trading card company, I did some stints illustrating sports comics with Mickey Mantle and Cal Ripken Jr. but it wasn’t full time work. That would come later when I started illustrating for Games Workshop working on their Black Library line. Doug has since gone on to become a well know artist working many years on the Star Wars comics among many other things.
Recently I’ve held an office job for Z-Man games as a staff illustrator, so I’ve been living in Quebec (where the company is located) for the last five years. I’m married to my lovely wife Annie, we have two dogs and now I work in Rigaud Quebec at Plan B games, a fairly new company to the game industry. We have some amazing games coming in the production line developed by our incredibly experienced, talented staff.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I’ve always wanted to be some kind of artist, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t driven in that direction, it was just a given. I think anyone in my family would say there was never any doubt. Ever since I can remember I obsessively wanted to draw. There was even talk of holding me back a grade in my kindergarten class because I didn’t care about anything besides drawing and painting. I didn’t want to learn anything else. Of course there are times when I don’t feel like drawing but it’s rare.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
I first got involved in the game industry through Zev Schlasinger. At the time he was the owner of Z-Man Games in the U.S. I had illustrated many Conan RPG covers for Mongoose Publishing over a few years and I guess they had made a deal with Zev to use that art for the Conan card game he was creating. After he produced this game he contacted me to work on some of his other productions. I started with another card game called Shadowfist and this game was the reason that Zev started his company. After that it didn’t take long to develop a client base in the tabletop industry, especially after I worked on Merchants & Marauders which won the Board Game Geek art award in 2011. I found this gave a real lift to my career and it became much easier to have a steady workflow.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
Well, at the beginning of my career I was illustrating comics for a short while as I mentioned before. I’d get a script, create thumbnails planning the frames per page for composition and storytelling, and then render tight pencil drawings from the thumbnails. Other people would ink and color the work though, and I found the art would evolve into something that I didn’t recognize anymore. When I started on the Daemonifuge storylines for Games Workshop I was able illustrate the work to full completion, having the confidence to ink the pages as well as use ink washes for tone. I’ve never been a great inker but I found this completely satisfying. This process is quite different than what I go through now though.
When I began game illustration I started with rpg covers and interior art, and this creative process is much more similar to what I do now. I was paid a lot more for the covers and as such I could spend more time developing a refined image. I would not only do several thumbnails, but also color guides and sometimes even character designs, as well as research and gather references. I really believe in the process. For the interiors I would just go straight to the drawing, get approval and then start inking. The goal was to keep the time limit down because I was paid a lot less for these. Then, when I switched to game illustration I would create multiple thumbnails and color guides, again a very similar process to my rpg work. All this pre-visualization work could easily be edited without affecting the final draft.
I developed a nice working relationship with Sophie Gravel the then owner of Filosofia. They had just purchased Z-man games from Zev and she had really liked my Merchants & Marauders illustrations, eventually offering me a full time position to work for her company. I accepted and within two months moved to Quebec, Canada to work in the Z-Man games office and I had to adapt once again. Here I was working closely with a team of people (keep in mind I worked in isolation for 13 years) and had much more interaction, which I really wasn’t used to. This included playing the games, but also a lot more constant changes to the artwork. This meant the art evolved quite differently. Another thing I had to get used to was a 7 or 8 hour work day as opposed to 12-14 hrs a day.I now prefer working with a team rather than being in seclusion as I find the process much more exciting compared to when I was on my own. It also means that my work has become much more of a team effort throughout the process. At first it was difficult, but now I find I really rely on the feedback and creative influence from others and produce a lot more work in a shorter period of time.
You were involved in the creation of Pandemic Legacy season 1 and 2, so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
After working on the relaunch of the very successful Pandemic franchise I had the opportunity to work on Pandemic Legacy with my Z-Man team. I knew about the Legacy system at the time but had never played Risk Legacy, so I really knew nothing about the game mechanics. Everybody knew the game was going to be special, which really added to the excitement. So because of that there was a bit of extra pressure, although I think it was the healthy kind of pressure. Luckily, I had a good team and 100% trust in my art director Philippe Guerin. His understanding of the visualization needed for games is incredible.
The hardest task was coming up with a concept for the box cover, which was the largest undertaking of the art process. We already knew there were going to be two different boxes for the game and that they would need to be fairly large to house all the components. On top of this was the pressure of a tight deadline, I had come up with a few ideas but they didn’t really showcase the thematic concept. Finally, Phil talked to me about a clock concept (this is where it helps working with a team) and this changed the entire direction of the artwork. The boxes would now be connected as a single image. This got me really excited because it meant I’d get to work on an epic cinematic image.
The next phase was to incorporate the games storytelling and thematic nature into the concept and I decided to focus on the drama of certain situations. After this a style had to be found as well. We go from style to style with every project and this is probably the most difficult part of my job but also the most fun because there’s always so much exploration and learning.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on the Pandemic Legacy games?
Pandemic has a very cinematic universe. In fact, I can imagine Pandemic Legacy as a film series because in my eyes that’s really what the games are. This is a game about heroes and heroics, trying to work together and save humanity. There’s a bit of a dark undertone to the game too but that wasn’t quite right for the illustrations. The game had to focus more on the characters than the viruses. These are just regular people, doing real world jobs, but on a global scale. The viral threat and the tension caused by it is something I had to be able to incorporate within the compositions.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
I’ve been listening to Schoolism podcasts a lot for both inspiration and knowledge. Schoolism is a really great website that offers cheap art courses for a monthly fee taught by world class professionals. It’s an amazing source for art education.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
I work in a lot of styles, so I have to understand style and that comes from understanding art fundamentals. When I worked freelance I had pretty much no time to practice so now that my day job affords me more time in the evenings I’ve been trying to work on different learning exercises, both digitally and traditionally. The nice thing about this is I can work on creative ideas of my own, as well as study what I consider the great artists and illustrators. When I’m not dealing with certain fundamentals at work I can practice for an hour in the evening. It’s amazing how fast you can get rusty.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
Yes! There is a great new game we’re producing at Plan B Games by Michael Kiesling called Azul. It’s being released at Essen this year. The theme comes from the Azulejo tiles of Portugal. It’s really an abstract game but with this theme it’s been given a special feel. It’s not typically the type of illustration or cover work that I do and for this project I was able to design the titles on the box as well, which I’m not always apart of. I’m usually just so focused on the illustration alone. As a team we were really happy the way the design and art came together.
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
You can find me at: https://chrisquilliams.deviantart.com/
If you go to Boardgamegeek you can see my page as well with all the games I’ve worked on.
Thanks so much for the interview Ross.
(All images supplied by and belong to Chris Quilliams. 2017.)
Gloom of Kilforth - Tristan Hall: Art in Board Games #18
I wanted to play a beautiful classical RPG adventure game that recaptured the feeling of playing Dungeons and Dragons in one evening, which meant epic adventures, meeting strange people, going on quests, exploring ancient places, enlisting allies and overcoming enemies and obstacles and finding great treasures, and no game I’ve played before..
Welcome to Issue 18 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art.
This week we have Tristan Hall a designer who has developed games such as Gloom of Kilforth and is producing the forthcoming 1066, Tears to Many Mothers under his company Hall or Nothing Productions Ltd.
For more great insights into board game art, head to the interview archive.
Hello Tristan thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am a freelance creative producer - I shoot, edit, and produce videos by day, and I design board games by night. I also run a board gaming podcast called Board Chitless where we interview lots of other game designers too.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be an author, and specifically to write stories. I wrote a book when I was 24 - it did not do well. So now I tell stories through board games instead. I’m obsessed with stories, and I always have been especially fantastical stories. I think a key moment in my life was watching Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings when I was 5 - I think it maybe had an even bigger impact on me than Star Wars. So as a kid I wanted to write stories, but when I was old enough to realise you could make those stories into movies I wanted to do that too. Which is how I ended up in the murky world of corporate video production!
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
I played board games and RPGs all the time growing up - my best Christmas ever was when I received HeroQuest and my tiny mind was blown by all the components and promise of adventure. I must have designed a hundred quests for that game. I took a hiatus from gaming in my late teens when I went out doing what young lads do but then rediscovered the hobby in my twenties once I was settled down with my now wife. Which I think is a similar trajectory to a lot of other gamers I’ve spoken to. I got into boardgamegeek in a big way (ninjadorg on BGG), looking for a game that recaptured my roleplaying days of yore, but I couldn’t find one so I started developing one instead. I was also contributing adventures and quests to the D&D games and the Lord of the Rings card games which earned tens of thousands of downloads - I had such positive feedback about them that when I talked about developing my own game people began asking where they could get it. After coercing play-testers worldwide to give it a go and getting great feedback I sent it to a game publishing company and they said they’d publish it. Two years later they’d done nothing with it and we parted ways. My play-testers then told me about Kickstarter, so I posted it up on there to see what would happen, after an incredible struggle we funded, and then I had to go ahead and make the game properly!
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
At first I would give lengthy and detailed descriptions of every individual image to the artists, including the pose, expression, clothing and description of every character, creature or landscape in the game, whilst also providing reference images and example art. As you work through hundreds of images together, this process becomes more and more streamlined until you develop a sort of shorthand of communication. I learned to hand over a huge amount of trust and responsibility for the outcome of the images to the artist. Nowadays, 90% of the time I make little or no changes to submitted art work.
You were involved in the creation of Gloom of Kilforth so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
Well, no one had really heard of it. We had no marketing, so it came from nowhere. People didn’t know who I was, and we had this high target of £48,000 so people weren’t really sure if we could deliver. But the word of mouth was incredible and the momentum just kept going. I think it helped that I’d contributed a lot of fanmade material as I mentioned above, and people who had enjoyed those threw in their support for our campaign.
Funny thing about Kickstarter is that people are less likely to support a project if it hasn’t already funded - even though no money exchanges hands if it doesn’t reach its goal. So you see a lot of projects with artificially low funding goals so that they can quickly get over that ‘100% funded’ hump, which is okay as long as you over-fund enough to cover your costs I suppose. We didn’t have that though, so it was a 27-day slog up to that 100% mark, but once we hit it, we suddenly shot up to 150% funded in the final 48 hours when people realised it was actually going to go into production and they could start getting stretch goals unlocked. It was a real underdog story and I think the backers really connected with that, so it went a bit crazy at the end as people started doubling or tripling their pledges just to get us over the next stretch goal!
I think there was some genuine disappointment when our second campaign for 1066, Tears to Many Mothers funded so quickly...
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on Gloom of Kilforth?
I wanted to play a beautiful classical RPG adventure game that recaptured the feeling of playing Dungeons and Dragons in one evening, which meant epic adventures, meeting strange people, going on quests, exploring ancient places, enlisting allies and overcoming enemies and obstacles and finding great treasures, and no game I’ve played before or since Gloom of Kilforth does that with simplistic mechanics and gorgeous art. Fantasy adventure games are all about combat and leveling up, and whilst we have elements of that, the key focus of the game is to have a great narrative adventure experience. It is interesting to witness the sea change in the industry now though, as companies like Fantasy Flight are evidently starting to release fantasy adventure games more focused on the stories rather than the fighting, and I really like what Ryan Laukat has done with Near and Far. I think this is a fantastic direction for gaming.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
I’m reading a lot of history books to keep 1066, TtMM and its sequels boiling over, but also enjoying TV shows like Vikings and The Last Kingdom for a historical adventuring fix. I like to listen to movie and game soundtracks whilst I work - my wife Francesca is the daughter of a concert pianist and an incredible musician and pianist herself. Francesca composes epic musical soundtracks for my games and has created beautiful soundscapes for both Gloom of Kilforth and 1066, Tears to Many Mothers, so I often listen to her play whilst I work. I also love listening to Hans Zimmer and anything by Trent Reznor. The two other TV shows I’m working my way through that are genuinely blowing my mind right now are American Gods and the latest season of Game of Thrones.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
Go for it! It’s a great time for the industry right now, many are calling it the golden age, as people want to escape from screens and spend time with real people and real components around a real table, being sociable, having drinks and snacks and listening to music or whatever. (I also love solo gaming and play tons of games by myself to get away from the world for a little bit, or to test myself mentally, or to just learn the rules for when I introduce the game to my group, depending on the kind of game I’m playing.)
Make sure your game idea is fully fledged - play-test it a hundred times, and get people you don’t know to play it too. Take on all the feedback you can, and don’t be put off by too much negativity, there are games for everyone but some people simply will not like your game for any number of reasons.
Platforms like Kickstarter can be incredibly supportive and positive if you keep your backers updated and you are open and honest with them. But a badly handled campaign with a quiet creator and/or an unfinished game can quickly descend into toxicity. Stay on top of your project and ask for help when and where you need it.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
We have a small expansion for Gloom of Kilforth Kickstarting soon to coincide with the reprint of the game. 1066, TtMM is well under development and will be shipped out early next year. We are also producing the sci-fi horror masterpiece Lifeform by Mark Chaplin, which will be Kickstarting early next year. And we have a whole bunch of other projects we’d love to produce if we can continue to keep pace with the amazing support we’ve been getting from our backers.
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
Follow us on all the social channels!
www.hallornothingproductions.co.uk
facebook.com/gloomofkilforth
twitter.com/ninjadorg
instagram.com/ninjadorg
youtube.com/tristanhallrocks
(All images supplied by Tristan Hall)
Mr Cuddington: Art in Board Games #17
When we started working on Brass, we did not have much realistic art in our portfolio. We were lucky enough to have Gavan Brown trusting us for this big project. However, we could feel people were somewhat unsure that we could pull it off. Brass was already loved by many and we wanted to stay true..
Welcome to Issue 17 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art.
Sometimes, a board game gets a new edition that turns heads. When the new edition of Brass hit Kickstarter, it was clear that it was something special. This week, we have David and Lina, also known as Mr. Cuddington, artists who have worked on games such as Santorini, Charterstone, The Grimm Forest, and Brass, and with publishers including Roxley, Stonemaier, and Druid City Games. Enjoy learning more about their work.
For more great insights into board game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.
Hello David and Lina thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi! David and I are a husband-and-wife creative duo living in Quebec, Canada. We work as one under the name Mr.Cuddington and we specialize in making immersive visuals for board games.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
David: I grew up making short stop-motion films with my dad's camera and spent a lot of time writing fantasy novels as a teenager. I was very meticulous and would draw detailed maps for all my fantasy stories. I ended up graduating in 3d animation and worked in the video game and film industry before later branching out to freelancing as an illustrator with Lina.
Lina: I always loved art but I wasn't sure how I would make a living out of it. Another thing that was fascinating to me was science and biology so for a while I was aiming at being a coroner. I ended up changing my mind during my last semester before going to college and giving art a try.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
We wanted to work on a creative project together for quite some time, and at first we thought it would be a good idea to design and illustrate a board game. We quickly realised that game design was an enormous task for us to undertake and that we were not ready for that just yet. On the other hand, sketching the cards had been so much fun! We wanted to do more of it. So we started building a small portfolio in order to get freelance work with established publishers.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
We generally both work on every piece of art for a game, taking turns until we've pushed it to the best we can. One of us does a sketch, the other does corrections on that sketch. Then we send it to the publisher and get feedback. One of us takes the work from there to an almost finished piece and the other does a final pass of tweaks. We send it for approval, do some corrections if needed, and we are done! Not much has changed about this process since we started, although we've definitely gotten more efficient with time.
You were involved in the creation of Brass, so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
When we started working on Brass, we did not have much realistic art in our portfolio. We were lucky enough to have Gavan Brown trusting us for this big project. However, we could feel people were somewhat unsure that we could pull it off. Brass was already loved by many and we wanted to stay true to the game's essence. We took it as a challenge to widen the scope of our skills and do something that was very different from what we previously did with Roxley (Steampunk Rally and Santorini). We are very glad of the aesthetic we did for Brass, and we realised that those challenges of trying different styles and creating a visual universe for each project was probably the most gratifying thing about our job.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on Brass?
We discussed a lot with Gavan prior to starting any sketches, and we knew he wanted to do something gritty and somewhat dark but still classy. There Will Be Blood and Peaky Blinders were good sources of inspiration. Also we did lots of research about the industrial revolution and how the manufacturers were operating at that time.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
David: I just finished The Extended Phenotype by Richard Dawkins. We spend so much time immersed in fictional worlds in our work that I like to expand my knowledge of the real world when I have some spare time.
Lina: I'm reading Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, listening to the ''La la Land'' soundtrack and we recently dived into Bong Joon-ho's films.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
Play games to know what's out there and make a portfolio that focuses on your strengths. Also don't get too attached to your art, game design can be a very delicate balance and some stuff is likely to be thrown away during the process.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
We currently have Arydia and an expansion for Unfair in the works. They both are lovely projects to work on. Arydia is by Cody Miller (Xia: Legends of a Drift System) and is an open world, campaign-based, cooperative fantasy role-playing board game. For now only the cover art has been unveiled but we can't wait to show more! We do also have a lot planned for the upcoming year and although we can’t talk about it yet we are pretty excited about the future!
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
We just updated our website with lots of projects that we did over the last few years (http://mrcuddington.com/) but you can also follow us on Facebook where we often post our newest pieces! (https://www.facebook.com/mrcuddington/)
(All images supplied and owned by Mr Cuddington).
Onirim & the Oniverse - Élise Plessis: Art in Board Games #16
We’ve imagined another world or reality which is inspired by the one we live in but more dreamlike. Nature has inspired me a lot. There are so many different shapes and colors around us. So much creativity and diversity in the millions of creatures and plants that exist. I wish I could have helped designing them..
Welcome to Issue 15 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art.
As soon as I saw Onirim, I fell in love with its childlike world and crayon art. Élise Plessis is the artist behind this board game and others in the series, now collectively known as the Oniverse. Keep reading to learn more about how she creates her incredible work!
Be sure to check out the interview archive for more great insights into board game art.
Hello Élise. thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hello. Certainly. I am 34 years old and currently live in Iceland in a very remote area. I am French and I studied graphic design in Paris and Brussels in Belgium. I spend my time between freelance illustration, travelling and part-time jobs here or there such as a waitress, house-keeper, shop employee, receptionist or tourist guide. I’ve always enjoyed working in different places so I like to keep a foot in reality, meet people and get ideas for my drawings. Plus I’m lucky to not have any money problems so can choose to work on any illustration project I like. I enjoy reading a lot, wandering around the fjords and playing ping-pong.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a cat but somebody told me it wasn’t an option. So, my next decision was to become an illustrator. Or an explorer. Or a writer who also draws cats and discovers new lands in their free time. I wasn’t totally sure.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
It really came as a surprise! Shadi Torbey involved me. We met in Brussels at the end of my studies and he took my card, then 3 years later he found it again when he was looking for an artist to draw Onirim. He asked me if I would be interested in realizing the prototype. I loved the idea of putting nightmares and dreams in images as I’m fond of poetry and really love to escape from reality. That’s how it all began.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
Every game in the Oniverse has a different theme; The Labyrinth for Onirim, The City for Urbion, The Forest for Sylvion, The Sand Castle for Castellion and The Aquatic World in Nautilion. I first stop and try to think about what this implies specifically. Then I try to imagine how that would look in the Oniverse. In fact, I just begin to dream, take some paper and let the pen run. Some of my ideas are really stupid but some are better. Shadi helps me to sort these out and keep it all coherent.
I’m much more organized now than I was before. Drawing the first game in the series (Onirim) took me a long time because I was very impulsive. I didn’t take the constraints into consideration, like what the dimensions of a card were, or the placement of the pictograms. I really just threw some ideas down on whatever I had to hand at that moment. Bus tickets, tax papers, anything really and I ended up having to redo the same drawings multiple times. I now manage to channel my energy in a more proactive and efficient way.
You were involved in the creation of the Oniverse games so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
It’s involved many hours of work, a lot of paint, wax pencil, felt-tip pens, thousands of email exchanges with Shadi and a good coffee machine. During the process I’lI send Shadi my sketches, drafts and later the colored versions and he lets me know his opinions about them. He’s kind of a diplomat so he would never say to me that my drawings were ugly, just something like “It’s nice... but how about we make the creature smaller, or in a different colour, or with bigger ears and we could switch the head and tail around too”.
One challenge we have during a project is working together to try and figure out which of my images will be the most appropriate for the purpose (or the effect) of each card. Shadi might already have a precise idea about what he wants or he might just let me draw freely. The images themselves might end up giving him new ideas which can lead us to new images, leading to even more ideas and so the cycle can continue.
The Oniverse is a series so we’ve tried to keep links and relations between the games. There is a strong connection through the theme and art style but also through some of the characters and places, which can come back or complete each other. We also make references to previous games or give clues about upcoming ones. Mainly, we are just having fun.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on the Oniverse?
The idea of the Oniverse came from Shadi and it was part of his ambition from the very beginning. We first worked on Onirim and that was the game that opened up the door to the Oniverse, after all, we’d just found the keys and escaped from the nightmares!
It was a surprise for me but it was great to find out that I would have this big playground world to invent in. From there came a lot of creatures, hairy, friendly or mean and their homes, habitats and tempers depending on the game and it’s theme.
We’ve imagined another world or reality which is inspired by the one we live in but more dreamlike. Nature has inspired me a lot. There are so many different shapes and colors around us. So much creativity and diversity in the millions of creatures and plants that exist. I wish I could have helped designing them.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
I read a lot of graphic novels. My favorite artists are Nicolas de Crecy and Dominique Goblet. I am also a huge fan of the work done by the Japanese company Studio Ghibli. Plus I enjoy reading children’s books, watching cartoons and animated films, such as The Song of the Sea.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
From a visual point of view, I would say you should dare to do something surprising or unusual. I find the visual landscape too conservative and uniform in the board game world.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
Nothing certain yet. Only top secret projects.
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
You can find me at the bottom of an Icelandic fjord in a little wooden cabin surrounded by arctic foxes and blueberries. Or you know, just on www.eliseplessis.com.
(All illustrations, sketches and photography supplied by Élise Plessis)
KIWETIN - Gary Paitre and Natalie Dombois: Art in Board Games #15
The Canadian Woods and Nature in general were big inspirations but I also wanted to give the game a little “nordic” feeling, which shows in the characters that have warrior paintings and heads that looks a little like skulls. [..] KIWETIN should be mysterious and friendly without becoming too obviously magical...
Welcome to Issue 15 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. We're lucky enough to have a joint interview with Gary Paitre (Art Director and Designer) and Natalie Dombois (illustrator) who worked together on the beautiful KIWETIN by Flyos Games.
Be sure to check out the interview archive for more great insights into board game art.
Hello Gary and Natalie thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Gary: I’m from Montreal, Canada. I’ve been working for advertising agencies for about a decade and I also had my own agency for a while but now I freelance. My best friend and I decided to create Flyos Games and create the games we wanted to play a year ago.
Natalie: I’m from Hamburg, Germany. I’ve worked in various different fields, e.g. Advertising, Books and Animation. KIWETIN was my first try at Board Game art and I immediately fell in love with this field.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
G: Like many children, I wanted to become an astronaut. But my father told me that I had to be fluent in Russian, so finally I changed my mind and decided to become a bus driver. Yep, kids.
N: I wanted to join Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. When I realized that this wasn’t possible I started to change my mind on a weekly basis. Police officer and Artist were on the same level for a long time. But the Artist direction definitely works better for me.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
G: I played many RPGs, video games and board games when I was a teenager. The idea of making our own games started a couple of years ago with my best friend. I had a lot of stories to tell and we were finally mature enough. So we founded our own game company and benefit the Kickstarter tools.
N: My friends have held a Board Game night every Friday for several years now. The first time I thought that it would be cool to do the Artwork for board games was when I joined them once and saw all the amazing games. But in the end I didn’t until I was contacted by Gary who told me about KIWETIN and I promptly was head over heels.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
G: When I work on a game aesthetic, my priority is to build a credible universe. I also focus a lot on finding the right illustrator for the right story to tell. It’s also very important for me to bring an original design to an industry that is used to Trolls, Dwarves, Orcs and Elves with a classical drawing style.
N: Like Gary I enjoy trying new things and while I appreciate the classic art a lot I’m all in for refreshing directions that haven’t been played with a lot. Usually I try to find the right feeling for a world and try to capture this feeling into the illustrations with little details. Nature and Culture inspires me a lot.
You were involved in the creation of KIWETIN, so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
G: The biggest challenge I had to face building Kiwetin was to keep the creative and visual focus all along the process. When you’re your own boss you are responsible for the choices you make, and it’s quite easy to scatter and lose the creative vision. Plus when you make a game for the first time you have to learn to accept a back and forth of changes and criticism because your game play has to evolve … a lot.
N: Gary and Thomas were really great to work with and I had fun working on the game all day long. They told me what was important to them, but also gave me a lot of free space. It was most challenging to understand the game in the first place when there was only a summary of how the game would work. Afterwards, they created a prototype with blank pieces and that helped a lot.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on KIWETIN?
G: I wanted to cross two universes that were important to me. The first one was the native American. I immigrated to Canada almost 15 years ago and I wanted to explore and pay tribute to this culture. The second is the world of Ghibli’s studio approach. As a kid, I spent so many hours watching Miyazaki’s movies that my mind is full of its magic. It was a natural convergence to me.
N: The Canadian Woods and Nature in general were big inspirations but I also wanted to give the game a little “nordic” feeling, which shows in the characters that have warrior paintings and heads that looks a little like skulls. I also tried to capture the wind theme and the subtle magic in my paintings. KIWETIN should be mysterious and friendly without becoming too obviously magical.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
G: I spend a lot of time every day browsing portfolios on Behance. I’m also part of a famous website awards jury (Awwwards), so I’m aware of new tendencies in various domains. I’m very curious by nature, so i’m open to draw inspiration from any kind of creative field. I just finished reading the complete Foundation by Asimov and I’m moving on to Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. I’m listening a lot to old albums from Twin Shadow and some random playlists on Spotify. I cannot live without music
N: I like to listen to instrumental music (the original soundtracks of movies are my favorite). That inspires me a lot. Also impressive landscapes, culture and society in general blend into and fuel my work, not forgetting I have a thing for science, especially space.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
G: Work, work and work. Having ideas is one thing. I have thousands of ideas, but the real challenge is work. So stay focused on your objectives. Don’t let go and be original. Due to hard work, results will arrive.
N: I think it is important to try new things and to give your best during the project. Like Gary said it is important not to stop with the ideas but also to finish a project, so people can see and experience the result. You’ll learn from every step.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
G: We are currently working of 4 new productions. Our next game will be quite different from our first one. We are re-interpreting a classical game in a more strategic avenue with a great digital tool. Stay tuned ;)
N: I'm currently working with “Thundergryph” on a game called “Spirits of the Forest” which will be appearing soon on Kickstarter.
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
G: My portfolio is available on Behance : www.behance.net/garypaitre
N: You can find my work on http://nataliedombois.de/ or https://www.behance.net/nataliedombois
(All images supplied by Gary Paitre and Natalie Dombois).
By Order Of The Queen - Justin Hillgrove: Art in Board Games #14
I love character design so creating the character art was a joy. The game designer and I both have daughters who enjoy gaming and we feel strongly about making games that appeal to men and women, so we took care to make sure that at least half of the characters were female, and that none of those characters were sexualized..
Editor’s Note: Worldbuilding fascinates me, and any board game that features a unique setting full of charming characters always catches my eye. Justin Hillgrove, the artist on the board game “By Order Of The Queen,” joined me to talk about that game and more. Enjoy!
Be sure to check out the interview archive for more great insights into board game art.
Hello Justin thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with my wife, 4 kids and some chickens, ducks, rabbits and a cat. I work out of my home studio on all kinds of art, mostly doing traditional acrylic paintings of non-traditional subjects like monsters, robots and the like. I also self-publish a comic and illustrate board games for our indie game team “Junk Spirit Games.” I sell my art, books, games and toys through galleries, art shows and online (ImpsAndMonsters.com). I’ve been showing my work for the last 11 years – full-time for the last 6 years, and worked as a graphic designer for 10 years before setting out on my own. When I am not creating art, I am usually gardening or playing games and hanging out with my family.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be an animator or a toy-maker when I was a kid. Later that idea expanded to include just about anything art-related.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
A few years ago an old high school acquaintance, David Gerrard, approached me and basically said “Hey dude, I design games and you draw stuff. We should make games.” I’m paraphrasing but that’s the general idea. Sounded like fun so I jumped in, then we recruited my friend Travis Torgerson to do layout and design so I could focus on the art.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
I always start with a lot of sketching, getting feedback from the team as to the direction of the art. Then I usually pencil and ink my characters, scan them into PhotoShop and color them digitally. Once I have some of the core art figured out, I’ll plan out a cover image and paint it in acrylic paints on a canvas and scan that. From there, all the elements go to Travis, our designer, who puts it all together and makes it look good.
You were involved in the creation of By Order of the Queen, so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
Our second game was a pretty massive undertaking that required a lot of time and effort by everyone on the team. There was so much art to be done that we recruited another artist friend, Zach Vail, to do additional art including the board map and card backs, as well as a number of spot illustrations. I created art for about 70 hero cards (64 of which were used), 49 items cards, 52 monster cards and a bunch of other spot illustrations and game assets.
I love character design so creating the character art was a joy. The game designer and I both have daughters who enjoy gaming and we feel strongly about making games that appeal to men and women, so we took care to make sure that at least half of the characters were female, and that none of those characters were sexualized (as tends to be the norm in most fantasy and game art). We were also world-building – creating a fantasy world that was filled with creatures that aren’t just standard fantasy, but instead included unique peoples and creatures while still giving a nod to a lot of our favorite DnD tropes.
Most of the challenges faced were more related to the game mechanics, card layouts and the overall “look” of the game. All of these received multiple overhauls during the year we spent working on “By Order Of The Queen.” On the art production side, the biggest challenge was the amount of art that needed to be produced, but as I mentioned previously, creating both the heroes and monsters was a lot of fun.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on By Order of the Queen?
One of the ideas behind By Order Of The Queen was to make a board game that would give you the great highlights and memorable moments from playing a DnD or other fantasy RPG campaigns, so much of the inspiration came from those games that we’ve been playing since we were kids. We also wanted the world we created populated by a fantastic mix of races that all mesh together similar to something like a “Babylon 5” kind of style.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
I listen to a lot of audiobooks while I work, and some of my favorites are The Dresden Files and anything by Brandon Sanderson. I also just started re-reading “Bone” by Jeff Smith. If I need to think I prefer silence or a little classical music.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
Go places and meet people in the industry and join board game designer groups. Don’t just wait for a “help wanted” ad to show up. Like so many things, you kinda need to make it happen yourself so get out there.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
We (Junk Spirit Games) will be at GenCon Indianapolis showing off our upcoming game “Crows.” This game was originally designed by Tyler Sigman (Red Hook Studios / Darkest Dungeon) and he will be joining us in the booth. We are excited to be demoing the game and talking to people about our other games. Of course, depending on when this interview is published, GenCon may already have passed and we’ll begin getting ready for next year.
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
My art can be found on: https://www.impsandmonsters.com
And Junk Spirit Games site is: http://junkspiritgames.com/
(All images and artwork supplied by Justin Hillgrove)
Justin Wallace: Art in Board Games #13
I wanted to depict a diverse cast of characters, yet push each character just far enough to fit their given occupation/archetype. I wanted each character to feel distinct, and I based them off of people, faces, or characters that are memorable to me. I tried to capture those features the way that I see them..
Welcome to Issue 13 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. I love discovering new art, and indie publishers. This week, we have Justin Wallace, an artist who has worked on games such as Private Die and The End is Nigh, and works for independent publisher Mystic Ape Games.
Be sure to check out the interview archive for more great insights into board game art.
Hello Justin thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m an artist working out of St. Louis making board games with an independent company with 3 of my friends called Mystic Ape Games. I grew up in Minneapolis, but moved to St. Louis for college, and I’m constantly being surprised at how large the board game community is here.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
As a kid I always loved video games and really wanted to be a game designer, before I even knew what that would entail. I remember being enamored with games like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot that created little capsulized world to explore, each rich with their own theme. As I grew up, I split that captivation into two parts. My day job involves a lot of coding & dealing with technology, but for Mystic Ape I get to explore the personal and organic interactions that make tabletop gaming special.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
I got reeled in much like other people by getting invited to a board game night and playing increasingly complex games. Then at my day job I met Austin and got brought on to do some playtesting and artwork after he knew I had a good amount of experience with playing games.
After Private Die, and just before shipping The End is Nigh to backers, I got brought on as the fourth member of Mystic Ape Games.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
The first thing I keep in mind is the tone of the game, and what I would want the game to look like if I were playing it. It’s actually pretty difficult for me visualize exactly how a game will look before mechanics are about 70% concrete. The feel of the game while playing should match the visual aesthetic. I start with creating a folder full of inspiration images (interiors, people, colors, etc.) then refine the style over time based on how mechanics change.
I came into Private Die pretty late in the development stages, so everything was pretty final, and it has a very defined style. I actually picked up the artwork after it had already been started, so adapting to the decided-upon style was the biggest challenge there.
For The End is Nigh, I really got to decide early what the art would look like and somewhat selfishly choose a process that was most appealing to me. Most of the character art in The End is Nigh was done by sketching first and doing digital painting based on that sketch.
You were involved in the creation of The End is Nigh, so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
Portraits and character illustration are some of my favorite types of art, so I felt right at home, yet still challenged by the diversity of characters. The most challenging, yet also the most fun part of doing artwork for The End is Nigh was the Quarantine Art Expansion Pack announced halfway through the Kickstarter campaign. This add-on provided alternate artwork for all of the refugees in the game, as well as all of the trait cards. The major challenge there was expanding all of the characters by determining how they’d handle a viral outbreak in a way that matched their character. This was a pretty big undertaking and time management got super important so that we could still deliver to Kickstarter backers by the promised deadlines.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on The End is Nigh?
I wanted to depict a diverse cast of characters, yet push each character just far enough to fit their given occupation/archetype.
I wanted each character to feel distinct, and I based them off of people, faces, or characters that are memorable to me. I tried to capture those features the way that I see them.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
Twin Peaks has been the most formative work of art in my life for a while. Especially with The End is Nigh, I tried to build the characters in the way David Lynch does for the residents of Twin Peaks. I’m really still waiting on a game that cultivates as rich of an atmosphere as Twin Peaks does.
Another thing that really motivates me is watching other artists progress and evolve. Mackenzie Schubert, Kyle Ferrin, and Cameron Stewart are some of the most socially active artists that I follow, and it’s intimidating and exciting at the same time to see the incredible work they’re putting out on an almost daily basis.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
The most important thing I’d say is that being a game designer isn’t a passive job at all. Anything that you’re passionate about and want to get good at, is something you should be prepared to integrate into your life every day. For an artist, that means drawing, painting, or sketching with purpose every day.
The board game industry has lower barriers of entry than many other industries, and Kickstarter can be a great way to break in. It’s tempting to overestimate how much of a factor that luck will play in a successful Kickstarter, but hard work and careful implementation of feedback will go infinitely further than happenstance.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
Being an official member of Mystic Ape now means that I’m involved in pretty much every idea from the very first playtest. The game that is furthest along is tentatively titled “The Feral Frontier,” which is a worker placement all about exploring the furthest reaches of space after humanity has gone extinct and animals have reclaimed the universe. I’m really excited about the art direction we’re going for this. There are going to be at least 50 crew members in the game, which is a pretty huge amount of artwork necessary. To simplify the art, we’re going with a unique color palette for each crew member’s role (Pilot, Captain, etc.), then each set of crewmembers will be a distinct animal tribe. I’m really excited to challenge myself by going for a more stylized approach, and doing animal artwork instead of the humans I’m used to!
Also deeper in the concepting phase, we have a really promising time travel game, and another quick and fun game all about the cutthroat world of paleontology.
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
I’m most active on my Instagram, at instagram.com/timeparadox
The most exciting game updates come from Mystic Apes official social media channels at:
facebook.com/mysticapegames
twitter.com/mysticapegames
kickstarter.com/profile/mysticapegames
And of course, our website at: mysticape.com
(All artwork and imagery supplied by Justin and Mystic Ape)
Jordi Roca: Art in Board Games #12
This project meant working on a game for the revered authors of War of the Ring, surely one of the best strategic games for two players that exists and a massively popular best-seller. For David and I, it was a challenge to accept and live up to the demands of this project..
Welcome to Issue 12 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. Graphic designers' work isn’t celebrated enough. Illustrations bring theme’s to life, but good graphic design helps us comprehend what we are seeing, pulling everything together and making it work. This week, we have Jordi Roca, a graphic designer and art director who has worked on games such as Victus: Barcelona 1714, Verbalia, Enigmàrius, and Barcelona: The Rose of Fire and with companies such as Devir, Vexillum, and Saladin games.
Be sure to check out the interview archive for more great insights into board game art.
Hello Jordi thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi everyone, I'm 53 years old and I graduated in graphic design at art school and started working in 1986. Since then I have worked in different studios, graphic arts workshops and agencies, as a designer and art director. At the moment I am director of graphic services in an advertising agency, but have frequently collaborated in editorial projects related to the world of boardgaming for 12 years now.
At the same time, I've been a board games enthusiast from the beginning, although I discovered a new generation of games, taking my hobby in a new direction when (in 1979) I bought Kingmaker, my first game from Avalon Hill Games. Since then my passion and collection has never stopped growing and already exceeds 1,000 titles.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
My father's fondness for art and illustration surely predisposed me to my willingness to work in the graphic world. When I had the opportunity I trained for it and entered the professional field. After working intensively in the advertising world, it was not until years later, that my first works in the world of games arrived.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
My link from graphic creations to board games came much later than my work in design, when I became acquainted with Oriol Comas, a creator and promoter of tabletop games in my country. I started work with him in 2006 to carry out the graphic parts of several projects after we had met thanks to our common liking for board games, and we kept traveling together for years to the Essen Fair. In 2007 we worked together on a game funded by the University of Barcelona, alled Pompeu Fabra i el seu temps, a card game that was the first box format game I worked on the graphics of. Through Oriol I contacted Vexillum, who wanted to publish their first board game Patim Patam Patum and two years after that became the first collaboration with Devir, a brand with which I have already carried out many more projects on an ongoing basis. The first was Verbalia in 2010 and the most recent is Barcelona - The Rose of Fire published this past year.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
Depending on the type of game, the work plan may be slightly different between some projects and others. For example, it would not be the same when making a game based on a historical moment, than it would be when working on an abstract games theme or environment. Having said that, I can identify these steps in the creative process of the graphic part of a game:
The first step is to test the prototype of the game that the authors have, as many times as necessary. In this first step I begin to take notes and imagine where visual and graphical improvements could be implemented with which to enhance the player's experience.
The second step is a documentation and research phase. Keeping in mind what components and mechanisms the game includes, I start a data collection phase. In this part of the process I research for data through the network, but also in museums and libraries, or in places where I can trace information. A good example would be when I worked on Barcelona - The Rose of Fire, where I spent a lot of time collecting old objects and publications, mainly in flea markets and from antique stores.
The next step is to elaborate on the overall graphic proposal of the project, describing the approach of the different components to present to the authors and editors. This proposal will be studied in terms of gameplay, simplifying and improving the visual language of the different elements, rethinking formats, ergonomics and accessibility of these game components.
Once the proposals have been approved, we establish the graphic work plan with the rest of the team and the illustrator makes the first sketches and illustrations that will be gradually incorporated into the final art of the project, before eventually sending them to the press.
All this creative process, depending on the project, can take 8 to 18 months.
You were involved in the creation of Barcelona - The Rose of Fire so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
In April 2015 Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello were working on the development of Barcelona - The Rose of Fire for Devir. At that time, Victus - Barcelona 1714 had just been published, for which David Parcerisa and I worked together on all the graphics. Marco and Francesco liked the work we did for Victus and spoke with Devir about the possibility of us taking over the graphic part of their project. Two months later, the first playtest of the games prototype with the authors took place, in which both David and I participated.
This project meant working on a game for the revered authors of War of the Ring, surely one of the best strategic games for two players that exists and a massively popular best-seller. For David and I, it was a challenge to accept and live up to the demands of this project, and especially exciting as this game tells the story of our dear hometown.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on Barcelona - The Rose of Fire?
Barcelona - The Rose of Fire recreates a long period of time (from 1850 to 1930) where the city lived a real revolution in many aspects. From urban and sociological to industrial and artistic, this era brought about its definitive transformation from city to metropolis. This moment in the history of the city has multiple elements, of which, without a doubt, modernism is its greatest expression, encompassing architecture, painting, new construction techniques, mosaics, amongst many others. The biggest challenge we faced, both David Parcerisa and I, was trying to capture all those icons and visual elements and interweave them in the most harmonious way possible in the final aspect throughout the project.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
As a fan of boardgames, I have always liked fictional historical novels, because of their resemblance to the What if effect. They propose alternative versions of history, with the same elements or protagonists as we have when playing historical games. Within this genre I am follower of the work of Matilde Asensi, and now I am reading his last book The Hall of Amber.
Related to games, I also find inspiration in Sid Sackson's books A Gamut of Games and Philip Sabin’s Simulating War.
In terms of art, I love books that compile contemporary art trends from the second half of the 20th century, applied to graphic design, for example 1,000 record covers by Taschen.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
If someone who wants to dedicate themselves to the artistic part of the game world I would recommend that they really immerse themselves in it, in order to understand the challenges they face from within. I think that they should play and know as much as possible about published games, existing forms and game mechanics. For this, the great events of the world of games like Spiel fair in Essen each year, can be extremely enriching.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
Lately I have rejected some proposals from a couple of publishers to better focus on personal projects, also related to the world of games. These projects will probably see the light next year.
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
You can see all my game projects in my profile in Boardgamegeek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameartist/11896/jordi-roca-parse
(All images supplied by Jordi Roca)
Flamme Rouge - Ossi Hiekkala: Art in Board Games #11
When I was asked if I would like to make illustrations for a bicycle racing game, it didn’t take me more that half a second to say ”YES!”. As a road bicycling enthusiast the subject was more than pleasing, but when I playtested it, I was thrilled. It really was a game..
Welcome to Issue 11 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. Some box art perfectly encapsulates the theme of a game. Flamme Rouge features kinetic characters, in the midst of a race, and the energy bursts from the box. Ossi Hiekkala, created this artwork and we discuss his career below. Enjoy!
Check out the interview archive for more great insights into board game art.
Hello Ossi, thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi, thanks for talking to me. I am an illustrator from Finland and I have been in the business officially since 2005. Before that I had been living and studying in Japan for three years. My portfolio is full of every kind of assignment, from food and beverage illustrations to book covers and stamps. Board games are just one part of what I do, albeit a very pleasant one.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I am not lying if I said I wanted to be a comic artist and illustrator. Drawing has been my passion since I was a kid. Now that my first comics album has been published, I can also say I am a comic artist too.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
It was somewhere around 2009 when lautapelit.fi first approached me and asked if I wanted to illustrate their upcoming game Hornet, by the Moliis Brothers. I have no recollection how they ended up choosing me, but it was a very interesting assignment as I had never done anything related to board games before. I’m always eager to try different things. It apparently went well as they wanted me to illustrate another game after that.
It also showed me that illustrating board games is a group project and I had to expect lots of changes during the process. Illustrations, like graphics, have to be tested. Sometimes you hit it with the first shot, sometimes it takes more tries. I like board games as a format for illustration and their big boxes allow large size art. It’s like comparing CD’s and vinyl albums. It becomes an appealing object in itself.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
I am grateful that my clients trust me to propose visual ideas. It is often the best part of the project, sketching and brainstorming. In comparison when working in advertising more often than little thought is expected from the illustrator, which is kind of waste.
Making the art is group work. The designer, graphic designer and publisher all want their needs to fulfilled, so illustrator has to learn to listen too. I want to make the games visually appealing but also true to the rules and spirit. That’s why I don’t want to force the visuals to fit my style but rather try to think what kind of visuals would fit this game the best. Sometimes it’s more polished, sometimes more painterly. I want there to be a story in the pictures, if possible - especially on the cover.
I start with the quick idea sketches, after which we proceed to more detailed sketches. When those are accepted, I start the final piece. It still might have to be tweaked here and there before it goes to the printer. It is also good if the typography and other graphics are done hand in hand with the illustrations, so they can support each other.
You were involved in the creation of Flamme Rouge, so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
When I was asked if I would like to make illustrations for a bicycle racing game, it didn’t take me more that half a second to say ”YES!”. As a road bicycling enthusiast the subject was more than pleasing, but when I playtested it, I was thrilled. It really was a game that suited my tastes. Fast to learn and fun to play. Asger Granerud, the designer of the game, did manage to create a game that simulates the racing in a simple but pleasing way. I have enjoyed playing all the games I have been involved with, but this game I just love.
There were many possible ideas for the visual style, but I am happy that my suggestion to make the game a bit more retro in style was well accepted. The cover came pretty easily, but the cards, player boards and the track pieces took more tries. They had to be tested and improved. There was a lot of emailing back and forth with lautapelit.fi’s graphic designer Jere Kasanen to work on this until everything was finished. What I like about making board game art is the slower pace for producing the illustrations. You have time to think and plan what you can do.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on Flamme Rouge?
I guess my own passion for bicycling was the greatest inspiration, as was my love for older illustrations from the 1900’s. I collect art books and they provide me lots of inspiration. I just stop for a moment, have a cup of coffee and sit down in my armchair with a few selected books.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
I have a small baby boy who keeps me away from idleness. But if I can, I love to spend my spare time reading non-fiction or watching documentaries about history or art history. I am big fan of history and I have been lucky that I have had opportunities to portray it in the board games I have illustrated. Luckily I can also listen to podcasts while I am working, and many of those podcasts are about history. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to play board games, for the aforementioned reason.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
It’s a world full of people who would love to do the same thing you would love to do, so the competition is tough. I’ve been lucky to have been involved with lautapelit.fi’s great people and taken part in designing games that have been gone on to be critical and commercial successes.
My advice is to try to meet an individual game designer looking for an artist for his or her project and get your foot in the door. For an illustrator, understanding what a graphic designer does is essential, so you can communicate with each other. Also, work with the professionals, if possible, since they will know what is commercially possible and value same qualities in others.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
I am happy to tell that while I was writing this lautapelit.fi made it public that Flamme Rouge’s first expansion Flamme Rouge - Peloton will arrive (hopefully) to Essen, so here is the cover. There are other games waiting to get to a printer, and some underway, and some at the drawing table. But unfortunately I am not able to say anything about those yet. What I can say though is that I have enjoyed working on every one of these, and I hope it will show.
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
I have my own homepage and blog in www.archipictor.com
I also have an Instagram account I try to update regularly: www.instagram.com/ossihiekkalaillustration/
And of course Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Kuvittaja/
(Illustrations and artwork provided by Ossi Hiekkala, product shots by More Games Please).
Roland MacDonald: Art in Board Games #10
A project always starts with research. First broadly, everything to do with the theme. Then narrowing down to the different elements required for the illustrations. I make a new Pinterest board for each project and look at as many different approaches and sources as possible to get away from the obvious.
Welcome to Issue 10 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. Battle Line is one of my favorite games, but I’d be lying if I said the original version art set my heart on fire. Then, I discovered an indie project that reimagined gorgeous medieval art. I had to learn more! The conversation with Roland below is the result of this curiosity!
Be sure to check out the interview archive for more great insights into board game art.
Hello Roland thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am from London but am now living in the Netherlands. I began my art career working in the computer games industry for five years, culminating in concept art, illustration and art direction on Shogun 2 Total War. After that I went freelance and moved to the Netherlands with my girlfriend. The life is great here. Since going freelance I have worked for pretty much every industry, from comics and books to pharmaceuticals to Google but in the last four years I have focused increasingly on art for games, digital and tabletop.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I was probably always going to do something artistic. I latched on to drawing at an early age and was always making something. I think I thought I would be a graphic designer at a young age though I probably didn’t really know what that was. I studied fine art but it was in the end a conceptual art degree. I wanted to learn to paint but ended up learning about philosophy and nothing about painting.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
The girlfriend I moved to the Netherlands with really liked games and her father is very involved in the games scene in the Netherlands. He has over 5000 games! He helped me make some contacts and I made two games in 2012 for Cwali games. It was a pretty bad experience, largely due to communication problems, and partly due to my inexperience with how much work was involved as I created the art and all the graphic design. As it was also badly paid I gave up on board games as a viable business direction. Over the last few years though the industry has boomed and good art and graphic design is better respected and valued. Over the same period my love of board games has grown so I decided to take another shot.
In 2015 I went to Essen to get meetings with publishers and I took a redesign of Cluedo as a card game to give away to them. That game was called Suspicion and was the catalyst for my new growth in the board games business. I chose Suspicion for two reasons, one, it’s a classic and two, has good characters, some items and some locations. That’s a pretty good spread of things to have in a showcase project. Also I had done a lot of work on a detective comic in the same style and knew it had a lot of potential. Of course once I started redesigning the cards of Clue I couldn’t help tinkering with the rules too. By stripping out the roll and move mechanic and by adding some event cards to increase interaction I think I ended up making some good improvements. This was also my first attempt at manufacturing a whole game which taught me a lot about the process. That experience, plus understanding more about how players interact with your art really added some great tools to my arsenal.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
I like to work closely with the client and understand the needs of the gameplay to come up with a great solution. A project always starts with research. First broadly, everything to do with the theme. Then narrowing down to the different elements required for the illustrations. I make a new Pinterest board for each project and look at as many different approaches and sources as possible to get away from the obvious.
If you are doing a Wild West game there are a ton of reference points. Partly these cliches are helpful as it helps the player connect to the IP and understand aspects of the game easier. However, looking sideways to Pirates or Samurai might give us some new ideas for character types or looking at 18th century American landscape paintings can help us get beyond the colour palette of Spaghetti Westerns and yet still feel authentic. Ideally the project isn’t rushed, then there is time to explore the theme with a range of sketches and different design solutions.
Once a basic look and feel is worked out I do sketches for all of the elements of the game. Mostly this process is digital, even the sketching. Though if the weather is nice I will use pencil and paper on a beer terrace. Sketches are loose as I like to keep some of the fun for painting. It keeps the illustrations alive and stops that part of the process being paint by numbers. Sketches are followed by rough colours studies. Once these get approved the final illustrations are done. It is Photoshop all the way. It's the fastest way to work for me and allows me to make changes both quickly and offer the publisher variations where needed. I used to do the whole sketch and scan process years ago but learning to use a Wacom tablet well enough to sketch has made that process a bit redundant. It was too slow and fussy.
You were involved in the creation of Stop Thief!, so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
I have worked on six board game projects in the last year. Stop Thief is the latest one to get published and comes from a new company, Restoration Games. Their aim is to take old games and revamp them for the modern market. I was brought in to re-imagine the original 1979 game and modernise it with a nostalgic twist. The board has a very tricky perspective and had to fit a lot of gameplay information. Handling these two things, making convincing looking locations with visual interest that wouldn’t distract from the gameplay was a fun and difficult puzzle. I worked with the design and graphics team closely to refine elements of the original layout to create an optimal solution. We were all really pleased with the final board. It is both visually rich and very functional.
The project was on a tight deadline as restoration games are launching three titles at GenCon 2017 so the other challenge was the schedule. I don’t like to cut corners on the quality of the art so I worked for 32 days straight. It was tough but the outcome was really worth it.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on Stop Thief!?
I was chosen as the artist for Stop Thief! based on my own project Suspicion and the work I did for Escape Room: The Game. The colourful noir look of Suspicion was a great match for this game. So, that was a large part of the art direction I received, but as this is a redesign of an older game the other major influence was of course the original. That game was very much a product of its time style wise, and mechanically. It’s art was charming but a crude and simple strip comic style that now looks very dated. The new layout fairly closely matches the original game board and as the original game is well know by a certain generation part of the project’s appeal is the nostalgia.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
I don’t know that anything I am reading, watching or listening to is really seeping into my work. I do browse a lot of animation blogs and keep upto date with game and art trends. I love advertising art from the mid 20 century and that is a constant influence. Al Parker, Bernie Fuchs and early Bob Peak work are a few among some amazing talents. I could probably do with taking more time off and enjoying a good book but I am a workaholic.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
Do it because you love it. There are easier ways to make money. Computer games pay double what you get for a board game. If you want to learn what makes good game art and get your name out there maybe try reimagining an old game you love. It has worked twice for me and taught me a lot in the process. I recently redesigned Battle Line as a passion project and that and my Cluedo redesign have gotten me quite a few jobs and made lots of new contacts.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
I am publishing my redesign of Battle Line as a very limited edition, 400 copies only. That is currently at the printer and available for Pre-order. The other project that is even more exciting for me is my own design, Ruthless - Legends of the Black Flag. This will be published by Essen this year! I have completely designed this Pirate themed deck builder from scratch and illustrated it too. I am very proud to say that it has found a European publisher. I will have some copies in English at Essen if you can find me but hope to find an English language publisher at Essen this year, or I might try Kickstarter.
Oh and look out for Kaiju Crush later this year.
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
My portfolio can be found here http://rolandsrevenge.com/ or https://www.behance.net/PaperSails
Battle Line Pre-orders here http://rolandsrevenge.com/battle-line-2nd-edition/
I post regularly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rolandtheillustrator/ both with art and stuff I like.
Twitter as an illustrator - https://twitter.com/RolandDraws and as a micro publisher - https://twitter.com/RolandsRevenge
(All images provided by Roland MacDonald)