Earlier this year, Asmodee teamed up with Mojo Nation to launch an initiative aimed at encouraging more illustration and graphic design students to consider careers in board games.

Called the Art of the Tabletop, the initiative saw students from several different universities across the UK tasked with creating new artwork for some of Asmodee’s best-loved games, including Codenames, Mysterium, Concept and Splendor.

The brief saw students create fresh art for the cards, boards and packaging of each of these games.

You can check out the students’ work below:

Brief 1: Codenames

Brief 1 – Ravensbourne University’s take on Codenames
If you would like to reach out to any of the students below, please email course leader David Foldvari at: d.foldvari@rave.ac.uk

Aaron Louis Alexander

Abdallah Youseef

Anaab Ibrahim

Brandon Wager

Cherie Lee

Finlay Godden

Gabrielle McEntee

Heeral Sonigra

Ivan Watkins

Julian Sterling

Kunqi Geng

Marco Pedata

Rebecca Leen

Solomiya Svystun

Tia Smith

Tin Zhang

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Brief 2 – Concept

Brief 2 – Lincoln University’s take on Concept
If you would like to reach out to any of the students below, please email course leader Barrie Tullett at: BTullett@lincoln.ac.uk

Claire Hayes-Bowlzer

Elizabeth Brisbane

Elle Murdoch

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Brief 3 – Mysterium

Brief 3 – Birmingham City University’s take on Mysterium
If you would like to reach out to any of the students below, please email course leader Joel Mercer at Joel.Mercer@bcu.ac.uk

Dominyka Stanaityte

Harry Jones

James Rudd

Brief 4 – Splendor

Brief 4 – Plymouth College of Art’s take on Splendor
If you would like to reach out to any of the students below, please email course leader Sam Rowe at srowe@pca.ac.uk

Chris May

Sean Morgan

Fraizer James

Esme Midwinter

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The post Art of the Tabletop Gallery: Check out students’ revamped versions of Asmodee’s Codenames, Concept, Mysterium and Splendor appeared first on Mojo Nation.

Today, we’re catching up with Repos Production, the studio within Asmodee responsible for games including Time’s Up, 7 Wonders, Concept, When I Dream and last year’s Spiel des Jahres winner, Just One.

We caught up with Tanguy Gréban, Development and Publishing Director at Repos, to find out more about the firm’s approach to art direction, and what to do when confronted with a game that has no obvious theme.

How did you get started in the tabletop space?
Repos Production was created in 2004 by two game enthusiasts, Cédrick Caumont and Thomas Provoost. They created their company to publish one of their favourite games, Time’s Up, in French. The success started there and hasn’t left them for 15 years! The game was a commercial success but also a critical one; with numerous awards collected all over the world.

I met Thomas and Cédrick just before the launch of Repos, back when I was launching a game store with an associate. It was a store specialising in adult board games and which offered a unique choice of French versions of lots of new games.

We collaborated over the past 15 years and then, when Asmodee acquired Repos back in January, the company asked me if I wanted to join and to manage the development, the editing and the art direction.

It’s a very great honour and I didn’t think about my answer for very long!

How important would you say the art is to the success of a game?
This is an issue that has evolved a great deal over the past few years.

We come from a world where only the quality of the mechanics counts, but attracting consumers with a nice cover can be enough to sell a lot of boxes. That said, there are no miracles; it’s the quality of the game that dictates the durability of its success.

Given the current number of releases, three points are essential; attractive artwork to make people want to discover and own the game, efficient game design and ergonomics for quick and painless immersion and perfect game mechanics for great replayability.

Our goal is to release few games, but release games that last. As we work on games that are exported all over the world, it is particularly difficult to define what is “good artwork”. Tastes are very different even within a family, so when you look at the whole world, the notion of beautiful and ugly is very relative.

What guides your approach to working with artists and graphic designers?
We collect and create art books throughout the year and we follow what’s being done in animation, video games, comic books and of course, board games.

As our games require time and a large investment in terms of graphic research and testing, we also need to find professional illustrators who are reliable in terms of deadlines, who respect technical instructions and who are used to working with the constraints of our sector. In addition to these qualities and their talent, we also need them for their creative proposals and all that their universe can bring to the game.

With all these criteria, we go through the books, contact the artists who correspond best to the project’s universe, sometimes ask for tests and then choose the one we think is the best – if they’re available!

Is there any attempt to create a ‘Repos style’ that spans all your games?
The editorial line of Repos Production is “to have no editorial line”. We do not forbid anything. If the game is good and we do our job well, it has a chance of finding its audience. We can make mistakes and we can make bad choices; some can correct themselves or some cannot, and that can sink a game.

We do a creative job, but it’s also very technical and linked to specialised skills such as marketing and sales for hundreds of different markets. We learn every day and we adapt just as much.

In my opinion, you can’t do this job properly if you’re always doing the same thing. It may work for a few years, but at some point you have to evolve, even with a game that’s a huge success.

Some of your games haven’t got a obvious theme to guide the art style – I’m thinking of games like Just One, Concept and Time’s Up. With those kinds of games, where do you start when it comes to choosing the art direction?
These are the hardest games to create! They are a nightmare sometimes! Sometimes the idea comes quickly and all the other choices come from that first idea. Sometimes nothing goes right, you doubt everything and you get to situations where you no longer believe in the game or its potential. But with hard work and a lot of testing with a very varied audience, little by little, we manage to create a game that we hope will be the best possible. It’s time that allows us to see how we could have improved it.

Let’s delve into one of your big hits – Concept. The game relies on many icons serving lots of different roles and functions so that players can convey almost anything with them. How did you decide which icons to include, and what made Éric Azagury and Cédric Chevalier a good fit to take care of the art for the project?
Concept is a game that required a lot of R&D and a lot of testing. Turning a game into a universal tool for image-based communication required a lot of work and Cédrick – who mainly supervised this project – knew that he would need an illustrator who would agree to redo his work as much as necessary.

The drawings had, above all, to be as understandable and efficient as possible. Simplicity is often what requires the most work and it is the basis of our game development work: simplify everything that can be simplified and remove everything that is not necessary.

At Repos, we’re lucky to have graphic designers who are also artists and creators, and Eric took care of all this creative work. He also illustrated the Concept Kids Animals edition for children.

I’m also interested in the development process behind When I Dream – which is a personal favourite! You had 20 different artists work on the incredible dream cards in the game. Why was it important to incorporate a range of different styles for the project, and how did you choose who to be involved?
For When I Dream, that creative choice was inspired by a time constraint – and I think constraints are often the source of very good ideas.

Thomas and Cedrick were very enthusiastic about this game; it required little development and they wanted a dynamic approach that wouldn’t drag on for years. Given the massive amount of illustrations that had to be provided, they decided to divide it up between different illustrators and since the dream theme lends itself well to it, they decided to divide it up among a very large number of illustrators in order to have a wide variety of images and universes.

They contacted some of the best illustrators specialising in games and asked them if they could make a few cards according to their busy schedules. For an illustrator, it’s easier to free up time to create a few cards with a lot of freedom than to invest months into a game with a lot of “technical” constraints that are padlocked in at the briefing level.

For any artists or illustrators reading this and thinking ‘I’d love to work with these guys!’, what would you say is key to creating artwork for a Repos game?
We receive a lot of solicitations, but we only make a few games a year and we are quite loyal to our illustrators, especially if their work is a good fit with the universe of a new project. This means, unfortunately, we only have work for a few artists each year. That said, we look at everything that is proposed to us and we always answer.

The best approach is to create a web page with your work and send us the link. We don’t make any appointments at exhibitions as our time is entirely taken up by meeting designers and testing their prototypes.

If I could give one piece of advice it would be to diversify and make sure to deepen one’s art by going out of one’s comfort zone. I see a lot of illustrators who master perfectly a specific atmosphere or type of illustration, but who have not diversified enough. This is key as a game often requires variety in its illustrations.

Perspective, anatomy, composition, colour theory; mastering all the basics is essential.
It is also crucial, in my opinion, not to have images that are just “beautiful”; they must also be well constructed and very legible, especially as far as a game cover is concerned.

Finally, there has to be a respect for deadlines. Producing games in large quantities and in many languages is a complex process and our releases are always scheduled for selected events, so delays are not really an option.

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The post Art of Asmodee: Repos Production’s Tanguy Gréban on simplicity, variety and why constraints fuel creativity appeared first on Mojo Nation.

MAD Toy Design, Inc was founded in 2006 by Jeremy “MAD” Madl as a one stop shop for a whole host of services, including toy design, illustration and factory liason.

The firm has developed products for clients including Mattel, Mojang, Pepsi, Spin Master and Netflix, and as well as working in the mass market, Jeremy has also enjoyed success in the designer toy space with his own lines launched under the MAD Toy Design label, including the popular MAD*L brand.

We caught up with Jeremy to learn more about his approach to design, and why he feels the toy designer scene has had a huge influence on the mass market toy space in recent years.

Hi Jeremy – let’s start at the beginning; you were the inaugural Toy Design class at OTIS, right? How was that?
Yes, I was in the first class of Toy Design (1996-2000) when Otis started the program, and it’s great to see it still going strong 20 years later – congrats to the recent 2020 Otis toy grads!

Since it was a new major for the school, we had no idea what to expect, but the department head brought in some amazing industry veterans who showed us the entire scope of the toy design business; not only focusing on the design side of toys, but the psychology, marketing, business, safety and manufacturing as well.

It was a great experience and allowed us to go into toy world with a clear understanding of what it takes to make our ideas into fun playthings.

Looking back, are there many key learnings there that you still apply to your work in the industry today?
Yes! To this day I still approach all my projects with the some of the same fundamentals I learned back in school. Granted I don’t render drawings with markers much these days, but the process I use for creating and developing toy concepts has grown from that foundation. Learning early on how to design toys with the knowledge of how it’s going to be made has been invaluable in my career.

Six years on from graduating,  you launched MAD Toy Design Inc – what led you to the launch of MAD, and for anyone reading that hasn’t worked with you before, what areas do you cover?
I started doing freelance illustration and design jobs when I was in high school and college, so I always knew “working for myself” was my long-term goal.

Out of Otis, I worked at a few creative design agencies focusing on toys and inventing, then in late 2005, me, my wife and our two sons moved from Los Angeles back to Kansas City to be closer to our family. Since there weren’t a lot of toy opportunities in Kansan City, I decided to go back to freelancing and officially started MAD Toy Design, Inc. as my full-time gig.

I had made a lot of connections within the toy industry while in LA and was able to bring in projects not only in the retail toy world, but also branch out into other markets as well.  At this same time, I started getting more and more into the “designer toy” world and had already made quite a few designer vinyl figures with different companies. This eventually led me to self-producing my own figures and products and offering that same service to artists and brands.

Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of working with so many great companies, both big and small, on projects in a variety of development stages and while the bulk of my work has been in figures and collectables, I’ve also worked on plush, girls toys, play-sets, and pet toys.

The list of services I’m able offer to my clients ranges from initial product development and planning for plastic/plush concepts, production art, packaging, and manufacturing consulting/ management. I’ve been able to help my clients go from a rough sketch to finished product in a warehouse and everywhere in between.

Great, and our research has thrown up that you worked with Mojang on the very first line of Minecraft figures for Jinx. How was it working on that brand right at the start of its rise?
It was an amazing ride! When I was first contacted by Jinx for the project, I hadn’t really heard of Minecraft. (of course my kids had!), but Jinx and Mojang wanted a stylised version of the Creeper character as a six inch vinyl figure, and reached out to me to help them with the design and manufacturing for it.

I quickly fell in love with the game and had an instant design direction in mind. When the Creeper figure was released, we were already working on two additional figures for Steve and Diamond Steve to add to the line-up. That’s when things really took off.

The game had become a huge hit and our figures were some of the first on the market so orders started pouring in. This led to designing additional products for an Enderman figure, blind boxed gachamon-style mini-figure series, and even a large scale Creeper Anatomy figure with puzzle like parts.

It was an awesome opportunity to not only design a bunch of cool products but help Jinx bring it to market on a large scale.

You’ve worked on lots of licensed products – does your approach to design change much when working with a brand?
Not really. Working on different licences comes with territory when doing freelance. The biggest challenge is understanding the in’s and outs of the licence so I can brainstorm ideas that makes sense for the project. That can be tough when coming up with product for a game or movie that hasn’t even had a trailer released, so it’s always nice when there’s ample reference to work from.

Since I’ve got a solid process down for developing different types of products, I’ve been pretty good at applying different licences to that process to fit the needs of the client. The challenge of figuring out how to merge the licence with fun and innovating products is one of my favourite things about the work I do.

You mentioned designer toys earlier, and you also create these under the MAD Toy Design label. What led you to first start creating MAD*L toys, and what guided their distinctive aesthetic?
In early 2001 I started seeing “urban vinyl” figures from HK popping up in my research for my day job.  Most of the toys I collected then were full of hyper-detailed sculpts, but these were clean stylised “street art” inspired and I was instantly hooked.

I came up with an idea to make a five inch vinyl figure “platform” that could be repainted in various ways to create new figures and decided to call it the MAD*L (pronounced “model”).  Knowing the most cost-effective ways to design and produce the figures, all I needed was the “look” of the toy.

In 2002 my first son was born and being a new dad was a big part of the design of the figures.  The shape of the figure was intended to represent a child (a big head and ears, and stubby legs) but still be a clean shape that could easily be “wrapped” in artwork by different artists.

The first set of three figures were released in 2004 and I’ve been making them off and on ever since for collectors all over the world.

Have you found that there are approaches to design in the ‘designer toy’ space that actually could be in demand when it comes to creating mass market toy lines?
I already think the designer toy space has influenced a lot of mass market lines.  As toy designers, we’re trained to always be looking for that new cool look or feature, so it makes sense that those traits would start popping up in more mass/retail environments.

Stylised cute and simplistic designs, low run “limited” editions and blind boxes were all staples of the designer toy world thanks to companies like Medicom, Kidrobot and Toy2R in the mid-Noughties. Now those elements can be found everywhere in the toy aisles. Once companies started applying these traits to licences it quickly caught on and became some of the successful lines we see on the market now.

One unique trait for designer toys is the sense of freedom they have because they’re not tied down to traditional product lines and licensing rules. In the end the artist or designer is making the calls and taking risks with the design to create something new and unique. I think this is what I enjoy most about them and I always try to bring some of that freedom to my projects when I can.

Speaking of creative freedom – how do you fuel your creativity?
First off, I’ve been collecting toys since I was a kid, so getting to make them for a living has been a dream come true.  I know it sounds cheesy, but my main source of creativity is a combination of my faith, my family, and loving what I do everyday.

My kids have grown up with a ‘toy designer’ for a dad, so are used to me showing them new weird concepts and samples and are always coming up with new ideas and stories of their own. I’ve tapped into them for help on some projects over the years, researching video games and cartoons, coming up with new character ideas and my daughter even got to design her own MAD*L figure. They are always inspiring me and keep me motivated to always push forward and keep playing.

Combine that with the fact that I just love toys and the process of bringing them to life also helps keep the creative juices flowing.

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Having worked at the likes of Jada Toys, Spin Master, Jakks Pacific and Alpha Group, Carlos Mendoza is a seasoned designer and illustrator who now creates ghoulish monsters and gruesome props as Art Director at Spirit Halloween.

With multiple categories under his belt, as well as experience creating toy lines for brands like Marvel, LucasFilm, SpongeBob SquarePants and Subway Surfers, we caught up with Carlos to learn more about how he started out in the industry, and why a background in illustration proved invaluable when it came to toy design.

How did your passion for illustration start?
My passion for illustration started when I was in junior year of High School. I found a fascination with graffiti when I took a train to Downtown L.A with my friends and ended up in an abandoned yard. I saw so many colourful characters illustrated on these walls, I was instantly hooked.

I continued to paint on walls up until my senior year, then one faithful day things changed; let’s just say the law caught up with me, and I was assigned a probation officer.  He was curious to know why I wanted to waste my life in graffiti? So he told me, “I’ll make you a deal – you come with me to Walt Disney Animation Studios, so I can show you what you can do with your drawing skills, and I’ll sign off your complete probation time.” Not knowing that was the day that would change my life, I agreed – mainly to get out of probation – and the rest is history.

Who knew we’d have that probation officer to thank for so many cool toy lines! And on that, how did the world of toys and games come into your life?
I was working in a major insurance company and my desk was filled with toys, art and drawings of mine. One day I looked underneath one of my toy cars and it had the logo for Jada Toys. Long story short, I got an interview there.

As they were going through my very amateur and basic art portfolio, I advised the director interviewing me that I was an illustrator. He misheard me and thought I said I knew Illustrator – the Adobe software! I didn’t know Illustrator and I’d never even heard of Photoshop!

So he hired me but later came to find out I didn’t know Illustrator, and so I was given a week to produce something or else I would be laid off.

Wow! So a simple misunderstanding massively shaped your path into toys!
Exactly! And that following weekend I went into my home studio and borrowed a laptop, a Wacom Intuos tablet – which at the time was wizardry – and a printer from a friend. I had him give me a crash course in how to use these magical programs. The following Monday I brought in what I had done and they liked it; the rest is history and I never had to go back to insurance again!

I eventually left Jada to pursue new opportunities with Spin Master to work on their online MMO games. It’s there where I was introduced to concept art and digital illustrations, and that when I fell in love with illustration all over again.

How does a background in illustration help when it comes to toy design?
Being an illustrator helps me communicate to my team, directors and the overseas teams as to what my concept are. Because I don’t do 3D, I rely heavily on my illustration techniques to help get my ideas across in a clean and clear visual.

Drawing plays a big part because it needs to be clear that the toy I’m designing is functional and looks awesome at the same time, so drawing your design from different viewpoints is super, super important.

Is there any key advice you’d give illustrators about succeeding in the toy space?
Yes, to succeed in toy design, they need to be problem solvers not just an artist. You also need to be a visual communicator to effectively give the other teams working with you the proper information to execute the best possible product.

Are there any ‘bad habits’ that artists or new designers have to drop to make it in toys?
The habit to drop is the copycat ‘me too’ design mentality. Some designers tend to just draw what they find in stores and think ‘that’s what we should do next’, but not take into account the item that’s inspiring them was probably in development a year ago.

I would say be more innovative and find creative solutions to your designs so we keep our industry growing and exciting.

Good advice! Now we first met back when you were at Alpha Group and you were nominated for a Toy Designer of the Year (Licensed Product) award for your work on the SpongeBob Masterpiece Meme Collection. You’ve worked on lots of licensed products in the past, so I’m interested in how your approach to design changes when working with a brand?
Working on license is a lot fun because you get to work on brands that you might of grown up with. SpongeBob was one brand that I was given to refresh, and that in itself was an honour. Working with the Nickelodeon team, I was able to explore many wacky and unique approaches to this core character, and that’s rare in licensed products.

With SpongeBob, I used a lot of influences from pop culture and cartoons that have inspired me in the past, like Ren & Stimpy, Looney Toons and even Adventure Time. These cartoons really pushed the envelope of story and character identity, and that’s what I wanted to emote in each of my toy designs for SpongeBob. I spent most of my day with SpongeBob playing on my second monitor so I could really understand and learn his humour and personality.

You also worked on Alpha’s Subway Surfers range too right, looping us back that street art style that initially sparked your love of art?
Yes, with Subway Surfers I took advantage of my graffiti background and character design and did my best to stay within the lines of the IP, but still put my  twist on the art and the concepts. I knew going in that it was going to be tons of fun!

Are there any tricks to creating great licensed toys?
My advice to anyone working on toys for a license that you might not like: find something fun in what you’re doing with it, find creative ways to push the ideas and innovate. Try to make the license you’re working on work for you, so that you can use what you learned in development for your next project.

When I was given the freedom to go nuts with these brands, I knew this was a chance to push myself and the brands. If you’re ever in that situation and you’re trusted with an iconic IP, immerse yourself in the project and you too will leave your mark in it.

You’re now Art Director at Spirit Halloween – what does a typical day look like there, and does the toy design experience come into play when creating cool props and animatronics?
Absolutely. What I’m doing now is big moving toys – animatronics! Everything we do here is amazing; I get to draw monsters all day as well as create new and innovative weapons, masks and home décor. Halloween is my favourite season,  so to be a part of this industry is a treat – no pun intended.

Our typical day in the Hardlines team is pretty busy. We are working on new ways to improve the look and feel of the Halloween experience for the fans, horror buffs and the novice. Working with the team at Spirit has been an amazing and humbling experience so far, but working with my team and growing together in this next stage of innovation is important. With their knowledge and experience with monsters and Halloween décor along with my understanding of character designs and toy development, I’m confident that there are some amazing new things to come from Spirit.

How do you fuel your creativity?
I surround myself with creatives all the time. I love to be inspired by artists and designers that push themselves and grow. I know for sure that’s what got my art and design sense to mature and develop into a more polished and confident place in my career. I appreciate people around me that go after their creative goal and achieve them. I see it all the time in my circle of friends, so it fuels me to do the same and inspire them.

Great stuff, and finally, what advice would you give other illustrators who are looking to work in the toy space?
I would advise them to broaden their thinking from just a pretty picture to a functioning one. In other words, when you draw a concept as an illustrator, think about its purpose and function; that’s where problem-solving comes in to play. Master these two things and you are well on your way to creating some incredible toys, because you’ll have the ability to make it function and look amazing. Stay creative!

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Asmodee has teamed up with Mojo Nation and UK Games Expo to launch an initiative aimed at encouraging more illustration and graphic design students to consider careers in board games.

Launching in February, the Art of the Tabletop initiative will see students from several different universities across the UK tasked with creating new artwork for some of Asmodee’s best-loved games, including Codenames, Mysterium, Concept and Splendor.

Asmodee will be speaking at the participating universities on the role that great artwork plays in the success of a board game and the opportunities present for budding artists in this space.

Students will then be briefed to create a reimagined look for all facets of a particular game, including fresh art for the cards, boards and packaging. They will have two months to design their interpretations, before a team from Asmodee and Mojo Nation return to the universities to check out the results.

An exhibition of the best new game artwork from the initiative will then go on display at UK Games Expo 2020 as part of a wider focus by the show on emerging design talent.

“We’re looking forward to ushering in a new wave of brilliant artistic talent into the tabletop space and are over the moon to be able to showcase the students’ efforts at one of the world’s biggest board game events in UK Games Expo,” said Mojo Nation’s Billy Langsworthy.

“It’ll be an incredible opportunity to immerse the students in this industry and celebrate their creations.”

Ben Hogg, Marketing Manager for Asmodee UK, added: “The rise in popularity of tabletop games has been widely reported for a number of years with students and the younger generation a key contributor to this growth. We want to showcase to budding art students the depth and variety of the visual design that goes into the huge number of games released every year.”

“Whilst many students may enjoy playing games, they may be unaware of the sheer size of the tabletop world and the amount of artwork that is created for it. We can’t wait to see how the students will reimagine our games!”

Tony Hyams and Richard Denning, directors of UK Games Expo, are delighted to be able to host the exhibition, adding: “We were in discussion with Mojo Nation about this project before Expo 2019 and it’s terrific to see such a worthwhile challenge in motion.

“We aim to support budding games designers and publishers through our Publisher Designer Track and this is a natural extension to include design and artwork as vital parts of the game making process. UKGE attendees are always keen to see new things so the display will get the attention it deserves at the show in May 2020. ”

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The post Asmodee, Mojo Nation and UK Games Expo to usher in next wave of tabletop art talent with new university initiative appeared first on Mojo Nation.