Working with Artists, Part 1

The look of a board game can immerse you into a theme, make a game more accessible, lower the cognitive load needed to play the game, and draw interest into the game. There’s a portion of board game buyers that will buy a game simply based on how it looks.

Those are only a few reasons why the illustration and graphic design of a game are important. So, if you want to get your game looking exactly right, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re working with the right artists, the right number of artists, and working well with them.

Types of Art and Artists

There are a lot of different types of art, each of which requires different skills. Here are three main categories in terms of board game art:

• Illustration: this is what most people think of when they think of art; it’s what people initially see when they look at a card or box. Illustration can include box art, character profiles, landscapes, and more. Illustration can definitely set the scene for the game and make it very thematic, while also showing what type of audience the game is meant for.
• Graphic Design: this includes aspects of the game, like icons, headers, font choices, and card frames. This is the main way that information is conveyed to the players, so making sure that it’s easy to understand and intuitive can go a long way to making a game enjoyable.
• 3d: Not every game needs a 3d artist, but if you want to make miniatures, you’re going to need to get someone to make the sculpts for them.

Each of these aspects can be further broken down, as well. One reason to break them down further is that certain artists specialize in certain design aspects and may not be great at other things. There’s certainly overlap in certain areas but knowing where artists really shine can make it easier when you’re choosing which artist to work on what piece for you.

Types of Illustration

• Box Art: Boxes are particular as they’re physical objects that are also in three dimensions. This means that unlike a flat piece of art, the corners and sides have to make sense and either line up or have specific borders or something so that the box looks right when you’re looking at it from all angles.
• Portraits: With portraits, the artist is going to have to know about how the human body looks and works in various positions and angles. Portraits can also include objects, and the important part of this is really knowing the subject matter and getting the details correct.
• Landscapes: These are kind of the opposite of portraits; portraits usually have one focal point, while a landscape has a lot more going on with it. Everything must work together to create the scene, and nothing should feel out of place.
• Backgrounds: These might not be important for all games, but I really like getting nicely illustrated backgrounds so that everything feels more thematic and put together. While a plain, solid-color background is fine, being able to add hints of theme without overpowering the focal point of the piece takes skill.
• Other Illustrations: There are other things that could use illustrations, too! Anything chipboard, like coins, game boards, or dice towers, for example, all require an artist.

Types of Graphic Design

• Logo: The game logo represents the game and should give some idea of the game’s theme and audience.
• Icons: Game icons need to be clear and identifiable, and they need to match the style of the game. They should help players understand and lower the cognitive load of the game while also making the theme more apparent.
• Card Frames: Creating a good card frame involves taking the card illustration and the important information (such as icons and text) and organizes them in the best way to convey information to the players. This typically also involves choosing an appropriate font and font style.
• Rulebook Layout: Rulebook layout focuses a lot on drawing the eye of the reader to the important parts of the rules, making clear diagrams, and showing how all parts of the game interact together.
• Chipboard Layout: This is something that is only important for physical products, so it’s not a skill that all graphic designers have. Some chipboard layout is simple: merely laying out tokens on a sheet and making sure that the cut lines are in the appropriate places. It can also be very intensive if the game has any chipboard that fits together to create larger objects, such as dice towers. The chipboard will need to fit together, be easy for players to construct, and sturdy enough to hold up over time.
• Meeple Outlines: Meeples are also physical objects and need to be made such that a manufacturer can create them and so that they work well in the game. This might mean that the meeple needs to be able to balance itself without falling over or be thick enough in all parts so that it isn’t easily breakable. It can also mean making sure the meeples are small enough to fit within spaces or outlines.
• Marketing Assets: This can be anything from ads — like banners for websites or images for social media posts — to media kits and other promotional materials.

Starting The Art Process

Before you start to reach out to artists, you should figure out a bit of what you want from them. I usually separate illustration and graphic design and get them done by separate people, but you can have them done by the same person if you wish.

First, make a list of all the assets that your game has and what they are made of. Assets can usually be broken up in the following areas:

• Cards
• Boards
• Chipboard
• Box
• Meeples, Dice, Bags, and other things

Cards are the largest part of most board games. You’ll want to break up your cards into the different types of cards and get the following information on each type:

• Card Size: Standard poker size, mini, tarot, etc
• Illustration Needed: Not every card needs an illustration! And you’ll need to decide if the illustrations need to be unique, if they can reuse identical artwork, or if existing artwork can be recolored.
• Icons Needed: This list could get VERY long, but it’s usually easiest to list icons by card and note which icons overlap onto other cards so that you don’t forget any.
• Card Back: Note: some cards may be double sided and don’t require a card back.

Next, you’ll want to think about everything chipboard. This includes things like markers, money tokens, and dice towers:

• Sometimes it’s hard to know with things like money tokens exactly how many you want and in what denominations. Make sure to record the highest amounts of the tokens used each game so you have a running list that will help you decide how many tokens are absolutely needed in most games. You’ll also want to think about making things easy. For instance, in Wicked & Wise, one of the options when you win a trick is to take 2 coins. This meant that it made sense to have 2-coin tokens. However, if three coins were more often earned, it would have made more sense to have 3-coin tokens.
• You can also have multiplier tokens, so you can have fewer other components. For instance, if each game session typically uses 40 cubes of a certain color, you might want to try using 20 cubes along with x4 tokens that players can put under a cube to show that that cube is counts as 4. Not only would this reduce the number of components required and overall price of the game, it’s also easier than counting a bunch of cubes all over the place.
• With chipboard, you could have the same background OR a different background. Or it might be important to have a consistent back if players are drawing tokens at random. And as far as coins, it’s often a nice touch to have each different, but with identical fronts and backs, just like real coins.

The main thing regarding the game box is what size it’ll be. In general, larger boxes are more expensive. You’ll also want to consider what each side of the box will look like. Will you reuse the front cover artwork on the sides? Or will the sides be a continuation of the front cover, meaning the illustration will be much larger than just the cover? Will the back cover be unique, or will it reuse other artwork?

Then there are all the other various things you may have! Do you want to have custom meeples? Then you need the outlines for the meeples. If you want to have custom dice or to have meeples with designs on them, you’ll have to have the designs for each. If you have a bag, you might want to have a pattern for that bag. Any component might have graphic design or illustrations on it, so you don’t want to leave anything out!

Tricks and Things to Consider

It’s often a lot cheaper to get one piece of artwork recolored than to get two different pieces of art. You might think you need 20 different illustrations, but would the immersion be any less if you had 4 illustrations done in 5 colors each? Or should you get 10 illustrations, each in two colors?

You also don’t need to get all the art decided on at once. Sometimes I make a range on the number of illustrations I need, as I want to see how different the illustrations end up feeling and how many different ones I feel need to be there. If you’re crowdfunding, you might also decide to get a certain percentage of the illustrations done before the campaign and set some aside to be done after the campaign; you don’t want to spend too much money on art in case the campaign fails, but you also need enough to entice backers.

Part 2

This will get you started with thinking about your project and what art is needed, but there’s also a lot more to go over! Such as:

• Choosing a Style of Art
• Finding Artists
• Deciding How Many Artists You’ll Need
• Reaching out to Artists
• Having a Good Working Relationship with Artists

These should be in part 2 of Working with Artists!

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Did you enjoy this entry? What do you see as the hardest part of working with an artist? Please let me know! I’d love to hear what you think and what kind of things you’d like to see from this blog. Feel free to send me an email or comment with your thoughts!

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