Art Directors and TTRPGs

Let’s talk about art direction. It can be the butter or the bitter part of a project. The following is just my advice to art directors and small press TTRPG folks. It’s not the “rules of the biz” it’s just simply my feedback based on personal experience as a creative and working with creatives. Take it or leave it.

Art directors don’t need to be artists, but they DO need to speak the language of art. There seems to be some unusual ideas out there about what Art Directors are and should do.
Sometimes in one-person publishing, the single writer, layout, PR, and operations person also must wear the hat of Art Director. Some faux pas can be forgiven in such circumstances as not everyone can do everything all the time. However, there is no reason not to learn to be better and get your artists on board with your own vision.

Some small operations bring on a dedicated Art Director and it can start to feel like you are really in business. It is the CEOs role to make sure the art director is representing the company the way they want them to. An art director is not just a freelance artist “Boss”. Free lance artists are their own boss. The director should consider themselves more like liaison between art and business. Even some larger companies with dedicated Art Directors and staff artists still have to understand the art world AND the business model at hand while making the two worlds function together.

What is an Art Director?

Different companies see this role differently. From my personal perspective, an art director, as mentioned, is the liaison between the artist world and the business model of production. They need to know the creative vision and get that into the project on time to be profitable and something everyone can be proud of.

They should have a solid grasp on contracts, deadlines, art requests, revisions, and how to speak to the artists to land the results the publisher needs without burning a bridge in any direction. It can also encompass PR campaigns, social media posts, and scheduling / timing with marketing to keep excitement rolling about a product. They also need to keep creatives excited about making the product.

I am 100% sure there exists a more concise description of the role, but it might be important for us in the small press TTRPG world to say out loud what we need or want the roles to be. A company that writes out in detail what services they need from an art director will more easily be able to track success and find ways to make it efficient.

FIRST RULE – trash your AI

Not that there are any rules, but one of the guidelines I offer to anyone working with artists is to NOT use AI. Don’t use it to write a brief, a description, or to drop placeholder or “Example” art that you want an artist to replicate. Just put in a blank box as placeholder text. A creative will naturally want to fill that.

“But it’s so efficient and I can’t draw.”

Yup, you hired artists – remember?  Just don’t use it. It will poison your entire creative pool.

For example, If someone sh*ts in a swimming pool while they are filling it up and someone knows there was sh*t in the pool…. Will they tell anyone? Will they want to get in that pool again? How excited are they expected to be about jumping in?

As an artist, I can tell you that if I get a ChatGPT description for a piece, I suddenly feel like no one on this project has their genuine heart into it. I wonder if they even like gaming. A piece of my own fire goes out the window and half-assery can be expected to follow. I then start looking harder at all the text to decide if it is also ai and whether or not I can let my work represent the project at all. (That’s just me, feel free to disagree).

Artists also know other artists. And they talk….. sometimes a lot!

“It’s just placeholder art”

Below I will cover why an art director commissions an artist, but if you want your artist to just paint over or recreate some ai slop, just print the ai slop and be done with it. It’s not productive to show an artist ai slop then ask them to “do your version of this.” If that is what you want – use THAT.

Showing an artist ai slop is demoralizing for a creative. It is a bit insulting. It also adds to the idea that those at the top are only invested in sales and not quality. It shows the entire creative team that if there weren’t social push back, you would just replace them all with generated junk. Ai slop can poison a project and morale from the roots to the top. Like a turd in a pool.

Use your brain, take a minute. The author, layout person, and art director can all have basic input and help write a short description of the art they would like to see in the space. Sometimes you don’t need anything specific. Just write in a box “Filler art” with dimensions.

A Brief

You don’t need to show your artist your underpants here, but you should have a brief of the project. Just define the project, the number of illustrations, and the expected timeline. Keep everyone on the same page. It can be a contract but can also just be an outline with dates. It might help to have a “mood board” (without AI) or a description of the vision to set the vibe of the project. Is it dark and broody? Light and fun?

A simple bullet list of adjectives can be of great help (Not ai generated). A big bonus is to use the artists own art in the mood board. Or have the artist make one for the team.

Hiring or commissioning an artist

An art director should be following and interacting with MANY artists all the time. Use their social media, be a fan, know the look and feel of their finished pieces. An art director recommends or commissions an artist based on THE ARTIST’S STYLE. The purpose of an artist is NOT to replicate someone else’s style or duplicate ai results.

Some larger companies do have guidelines and a style guide to target. That is fair for larger scale productions needing continuity. 99.9% of the time, that is not a small press TTRPG publisher. If you want to be the exception, be prepared to double your art rates and extend deadlines so artists can hit the style guide. The art director must also create a SOLID style guide with color palettes, digital brushes, layer production process, etc.. in detail.

For the most part, commission an artist based on their existing work. They are not mechanical printers. If, as an art director, you don’t like their style for the current project but think you can get them to make their work look like another artist – go hire the other artist or bring the project inline with this artist’s aesthetic.

Art Requests

Artists often are not going to read your entire book to pluck out spot illustrations. Requests should dance a line of vague and specific. Does a page just need something to add a “vibe”? Let the artist have some room to do whatever feels right.

Does it need to illustrate some specific piece or puzzle of the adventure? Highlight that and make it important, without dictating everything in the image. In most cases, let the artist be the artist. Avoid dictating what elements are in a piece and where each element is in the composition. Describe what is needed for clarity of the project, but not what the art looks like at the end.

I wish I had saved some of the emails and texts from classic TSR folks who sent me requests. Some were just perfectly specific, but vague. I will do my best to replicate one:

“A small ship with lateen sails carrying a crew of 20 through rough seas. It’s been a dangerous trip, but the heroes are bearing up. There’s an enraged titanic Kraken after the ship bent on its destruction.”

Sometimes the team or author will give me a cultural reference to consider, which can be very helpful. “Inspired by ancient Egyptian priestess” or something of the sort. Usually this is understood in the project brief, but sometimes the request strays from the brief.

Revisions

All projects have revisions. Even with the best art requests. As an art director it can fall to them to decide if it’s a better path to revise writing or art. Which creative is currently less burdened? Does it NEED to be one or the other?

Revisions are, or should be, in the contract. Usually, a couple small changes in an image or writing are free and expected. Major or multiple revisions cost money and time.

The art director really NEEDS to speak the language here. “Do it better” is NOT a revision request. An art director should know how to use descriptors about composition, value, hue, mood, and perhaps more eloquently describe what’s needed in words that make sense to the project and creatives involved.

Artists for other purposes

Sometimes artists are wanted as guests for conventions or to come aboard for long-term multiple projects. This is where an Art Director can really earn their stripes. It is important to know a bit about the creative you are considering recommending to your team. Know their social media. Do they have products that match your venue? Do they have social tendencies that can misrepresent your event or organization?

Artists are human. They are not always good at “Business attire and corporate propriety”. Maybe they can still be involved but in a way that is not representative of an event or your company. Or perhaps some simple accommodation is in order and the art director can negotiate those things. Sometimes making a simple request of the artist can work. Asking them to keep the work on your projects or events to a specific theme or genre.

All these things require an art director to be involved in the creative community and have connections and lines of communication. One artist at a family event that creates or behaves in a non-family friendly way can really put a hard mark on an event. It may happen anyway, but a director can often spot these issues out front and avoid disaster.

Beating a Deadline

Artists burn out. Life happens. The Art Director should have access to everyone’s contracts that include deadlines and schedules. Sometimes life just happens and some juggling has to happen by fault of no one. The director can bring in new creatives, let others rest, and discuss with each how their progress is moving without feeling like “Muscle” task masters.

Jake works early in the morning. Mary works into the wee hours. Filbert hasn’t had their morning coffee until 10:30am. All these little things are the tools of the Art Director interacting positively with creatives to stay in touch about the project.

Artists Being Professional

All this isn’t to say that the world revolves around “artist royalty”. Working artists can of course be expected to carry some professionalism and meet their own deadlines and responsibilities. That expectation looks different to almost everyone though.

Some artists do come into a project like royalty, and it might not be a fit. It is also the Art Director’s responsibility to either manage this or make recommendations on the project.

Some creatives might be new to working in the field and need extra guidance. After a while though, constant hand-hold can bog everything down.

This wall of text of an article exists to help some folks maybe become aware of how this role is approached and some of the potholes I’ve seen. Artists aren’t creating factory widgets and it can be like herding cats at times. I get it. But also if you’ve ever tried to make too many demands of the cats, you know where that leads.

I am hoping I can help some Art directors in the field…. Open a proverbial can of tuna and get the cats to swarm to them lovingly.