Harald Lieske was born in 1975 in Siegen, Germany and is an illustrator, game designer and musician. After beginning to study art in Siegen, he switched to studying design in Münster with a focus on game illustration and comics. Even during his studies, he already created relationships with publishers and created illustrations for a few games. During this time he also worked on a handful of game prototypes. At the end of his studies, he had two prototypes, one of which (Das Gold der Inka) had already been published.
- Website: http://haraldlieske.
de/
Audio Transcript
“My name is Harald Lieske. I have been a board game artist since 2005. I became a board game artist because I love playing games and I love drawing, so it’s the perfect combination for me.
“The art style I am best known for is having no certain style but a huge variety of styles. I love challenging myself with new styles I’ve never done before if it fits with the game I’m working on.
“The first board game I was an artist for was Piratengold by LudoArt. The work I’m most proud of was for board games like Colonialism, The Cost, Kohle und Kolonie and others, because I also like working on special themes. So I have no certain favourite. I like creating artwork that is some kind of different or special.
“I get my inspiration from simply everywhere and also very important for me: coincidence. I think the most important part of making artwork for board games is to keep it clear, because board game illustrations should support and simplify the understanding of gameplay mechanics.
“I think the most challenging part of making artwork for board games is to define sizes of game components, like punch boards and cards, at the beginning of the working process, because this step defines how much space I will finally have for illustrations and often there isn’t that much space for illustrations left.
“The longest I worked on art for a board game was for… I simply don’t know. I have been working on more than 100 games now, I simply can’t remember, because I’ve grown old in the meantime.
“In my view, more board game artwork should show more variety in illustration styles.
“The artist who I admire the most is none. I’ve seen so many different illustrations of different artists I really like.
“My favourite colour is white, because any other colour works on it.
“What very few people know about me is, I am a musician as well. I play bass guitar in a band called Zimt.
“If you wanted to become a board game artist yourself, I would tell you that illustrating board games is about working with a tight time and money budget for the best possible result.
“If you want to get in touch, you can reach me per email via my website haraldlieske.de.”
Transcript by Make My Game Travel (https://makemygametravel.