So how did you first get involved in making board games?

After graduating from art school, I didn’t know where to begin to become an illustrator. So, after some time, I remembered that my teacher (Vincent Dutrait) told us that the board game industry was growing bigger and bigger and we should take the chance to get involved. I contacted every company in France. By mistake I wrote a mail to filosofia without knowing that they were in Canada. They asked me to work on “Traders of Osaka” and that’s it, I had a foot in this industry.

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 get is a pitch from the art director. He gives me all he can at this stage (story, rules, old version of the game if it’s a reprint, etc) and if I can, I like to play one or two games just to know what it’s all about. If it’s a new game, I have more flexibility to play with the look (like for Smile as an example). In the case of a Pandemic game, the style must be close to the old ones.

We discuss about all the components that need to be illustrated and I do some visual research to feed my imagination. Then I can start sketching. I like to begin with the cover, I think it gives the tone for the rest of the game. But every company has its own way of working so you must adapt. For every part of the game I provide different sketches and the art director chooses the ones they want me to develop. Then I refine it and try some color sketches on it, and they choose the one they think best fits with their vision. After we agree on all of it, I can work on a final illustration. There are not so many changes in the process but art directors are humans, so I must deal with their different temperaments, but we always find a way to work together.