Hero Time Academy · Step 5 of 10
Board Game and Card Game Art
Board game art is every picture and every layout in a game, and two different people make it: the artist draws the pictures, and the graphic designer places them on the cards, boards and box so players can read them and the factory can print them. Making the art is step 5 of the ten steps in how to make a board game. These guides cover who does what, how to brief an artist, how to set up files for print, and the CAD and 3D files that cut wooden pieces and mould plastic ones.
Artist and Designer
An artist and a graphic designer do two different jobs, and a game usually needs both. The artist, or illustrator, draws the pictures: the box cover, the characters, the card illustrations, the board's landscape. Each board game illustration is one of the game's assets, and they are usually painted in a raster program such as Photoshop. The graphic designer takes those pictures and builds the components around them: the card frame, the icons, the text, the order in which a player's eye reads a card. In design terms this is the game's information hierarchy and its user interface (UI). Then the designer sets the files up for print, with bleed, CMYK colour and layers, usually in Illustrator or InDesign. In short, one creates the artwork and the other places it on the files. Graphic designer vs illustrator is the same question in industry words.
The same split exists in 3D. A sculptor makes a miniature beautiful; a CAD designer makes a piece that a steel mould can release. Our guide to board game graphic design lists every design job a game needs, from cards and box to rulebook layout, 3D pieces and the crowdfunding page. Our guide to the board game artist covers when to hire one, what it costs, and how to write the art brief that tells them the style you want. Card game art follows the same rules: the artist paints, the designer lays out the deck.
Print-Ready Files
Print-ready files are the most common cause of delay in a game, and the easiest to fix. A file is ready when it is the real size, has bleed and margins, uses CMYK colour within the ink limits, has crisp outlined text, and stays layered and editable so the factory can adjust colour. Our print-ready artwork setup guide covers all of it in numbered steps, and shows how to upload files so nothing is printed twice or missed. Board game artwork set up this way prints right the first time.
3D and Cutting Files
Some pieces are cut or moulded, not printed, and they need a different kind of file. A wooden meeple or an acrylic standee is cut along a line, so the factory needs a vector drawing of that line: our guide to what is a CAD file explains when an Illustrator or SVG outline is enough and when a real CAD file is needed. A plastic piece is moulded from a 3D model, and our guide to STL vs STEP explains the two 3D file types and the design rules that let a mould open, from undercuts to wall thickness. The materials and mould costs of plastic figures are in board game miniatures, in the Components category.
Next Step: The Board Game Manufacturing Process
With the art finished and the files ready, the next step is production: proofs, samples and the factory run. Continue with manufacturing a board game, step 6 of the ten.