In the shifting times we are all experiencing in the creative industries, it is always good to look, observe and discuss how some roles might be changing with respect to new developments. During this edition of The Art Department we will reflect on the changes in the role of an art director for different types of projects.
Playgrounds director and curator Leon van Rooij will invite his guests Floris Didden, Benjamin Schulte and Atey Ghailan to discuss the criteria of making successful art direction and what will changes with regards to AI bring.
Floris Didden is a concept artist and art director working in the games industry and other creative fields for projects such as Game of Thrones, Killzone and Horizon Zero Dawn to name a few. He won three Emmy awards together with Karakter Design Studio, the studio he co-founded.
Also from the Karakter team we will be joined by Berlin based design director Benjamin Schulte. He worked on productions like Independence Day: Resurgence and Bahubali 2.
In the 7th season of Game of Thrones, he was involved in the development of Dragonstone and on vfx concepts for scenes in Casterly Rock as well as King’s Landing.
Completing our panel will be Atey Ghailan, CEO and creative director for Envar Studio. Throughout his career, Atey has worked on projects like League of Legends, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Valorant.
Envar is an outsource studio based out of Stockholm, Sweden. Their close-knit team of world-class artists has been the driving force behind the success of the biggest games and entertainment IP’s of this generation. Envar Studio collaborates with major clients like Riot Games, Blizzard, and Tencent among others.