In 2022 I had the enormous privilege of being invited to contribute to the design of the main-stage and a number of sponsor’s stands by the team at Leisure Expert Group, Netherlands, on behalf of the event organisers, Insomniac, Los Angeles. Unfortunately, I’m not permitted to publicly share my designs but from the dozens of initial explorations of the stage design that I undertook, the final design of the stage inflatables does significantly draw upon my later contributions, notably the ‘art deco’ video screen towers, the design of the rays and how they intersect those towers, and the vines wrapping around the tower bases and defining the central stage.

A number of my proposals also included the projection of vines and greenery, which was carried over into the final effects line-up. It was an amazing project to work on and I feel privileged to have contributed to it and to have worked with the immensely talented team at LEG.

Here I demonstrate a relatively simple workflow for those with little experience in application such as Photoshop. What is also demonstrated is how to address a brief, the initial brainstorming process using mind maps and other techniques, creating moodboards, thumbnailing approaches, thumbnail selection and refinement, consideration of shape-language, and readability through silhouette, and a hierarchy of form and of secondary details, of values and of saturation. Readability includes considerations of directionality, environment, style, level of detail, functionality (friend or foe), and personality. Finally there is the consideration of refinement and presentation, including turnarounds and callouts.

In the demonstrated example, the brief calls for a a Non-player Character – a Quest giver for an isometric, fantasy-style RPG with a cartoony, painterly and highly stylised visual style. for the purposes of demonstration, the style, the brief, and the design are deliberately kept simple.

I demonstrate a non-destructive workflow for students intimidated by working in colour and value in Photoshop. Colour and value are handled in separate layers (using the power of the layers and adjustments system applications such as Photoshop to work for you) to ensure a infinitely tweakable non-destructive workflow that achieves great results with minimal stress. The demonstration is over two weeks. I’ve only included some highlights here.

Here’s another concept dusted off from the vault, and another that I’m still rather proud of to this day.

Undertaken for the Rise of the Godslayer expansion for Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures. Echoing traditional Bhutanese and Tibetan architecture yet giving a decidedly ‘Conanesque’ flavour with a level of solidity and pared-back detail that befits the Hyborian world. During my time at Funcom, I undertook countless designs – often turn-arounds – for structures.

I’ll share more of these in future updates. Those I did for Stygia for instance I’m still fond of, and I’m proud of the visual language we developed for that mysterious Hyborian land – echoes of the Middle East (Moroccan and Yemeni vernacular), and of Ancient Egypt yet something altogether darker, more flamboyant, and dare I say Gothic in style.

Between early 2005 and late 2011 (feels like a lifetime ago) I worked in the Art Department of Funcom in Oslo, Norway – first as a Concept Artist, and later as the Assistant Art Director (and Concept Artist) on Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures, and on the expansion Rise of the Godslayer, set in a mythological Hyborian land called Khitai, which was heavily inspired by ancient China. I have hundreds of concepts from these projects – from very polished visuals to rough and at times rudimentary sketches (when you work on a project such as this, not everything is a polished ‘Artstation-worthy’ piece of artistic flexing, and often you’re called upon to produce a simple sketch at a moment’s notice) consuming Gigabytes of hard drive space.

During a general backup, I happened to stumble upon this sketch from Rise of the Godslayer for city walls, and specifically a sea-wall gate for the passage of ships in and out of the harbour to the grand capital of Khitai, Paikang. Ultimately Paikang was considerably scaled back in scale and ambition, however I believe the sea-gate was made.

I have to say that I really love this sketch. The proportions, the sparseness of the walls themselves contrasted with the detail of the decks and layered roofs, the sense of scale and mass, the purposeful design with the staggered decks affording a clear vantage point for observing and potentially repelling seaward incursions. Monumental was the aim and I believe that this very simple sketch achieves this.

Subsequently I completed a more polished concept though I have to say, I actually prefer the simple sketch above.

I have a few other sketches from these projects that hold similar appeal and that I’m not entirely ashamed to share (given their age – I’d liked to think I’ve improved at my craft since then). I’ll share these relics from the vault from time-to-time.