Pyxel-Perfect Portfolios #1: CONCEPT ART
Working across gaming recruitment is a truly exciting experience across the board, the people you meet and the processes you find yourselves involved are always going to keep you on your toes. At Skillsearch we genuinely pride ourselves in our ability to assist artists and developers along the recruitment trail, both through helping them across the interview process and advising them on their portfolio approach.
At the start of everything art wise in games, comes Concept Art, the very foundation of every map or level a player will find themselves traversing will have been conceptualised and designed in detail from the very beginning. However, from a portfolio standpoint, this can be somewhat difficult to showcase, with so many different areas to explore. Through extended contact with numerous different AAA & Indie game studios around the world, we have compiled a few top tips to help Concept Artists showcase what studios want to see in 2023 and assist them in finding their ideal next move. To find out what these tips are, keep reading...
Concept Art covers a wide range of ideas, from initial illustration to design and even 3D work, it can often be a tad tricky to work out how best to showcase your skillset to a new studio. Through extensive contact and conversations with the hiring managers and department leads across a range of different studios, we have compiled a short list of three things that will help you level up your portfolio in the eyes of potential employers.
Showcase design & iteration work as much as possible
It might sound slightly obvious to some, but from a studio perspective, it is always important to be able to see how you got to your final idea. Think of it like a secondary school maths test, there’s always extra points available when people see your workings. Across many of the role qualifications that we have been involved in for Concept Art positions, the main factor has been for people to showcase as much design and iteration work as possible, rather than focussing on illustration. In my searches it seems like the design element will often take a backseat, which can be easily reversed for better chances of success!
Showcase 3D ability
Although a large proportion of concept artwork is primarily focussed around 2D ideas, studios now are keen to see those ideas actualised into a 3D format, which has, in our experience, been a real deal breaker with setting up first stage interviews. At the end of the day, the point of a portfolio is to showcase your full skillset, so even if you do not have a wide range of 3D concept artwork, showing that it is something you are capable of is always going to be a plus.
Keep your portfolio updated
Again, this one may seem like a bit of a no-brainer but keeping your portfolio up to date is possibly the most crucial of all these three tips. The simple truth is that the quality of games is constantly improving in tandem with technological jumps year by year. This means that employers want to see that you are up to date. As soon as something is available to share in accordance with NDA’s, it is worth gathering the materials you need to post it as you never know when your perfect next move will come knocking.
These three simple tweaks to your portfolio, in our experience, can make a huge difference in your appeal to your potential future employers and at Skillsearch, we are always happy to help advise you further.
Are there any specific art-based roles that you would like portfolio advice on? Feel free to get in touch through my LinkedIn or by sending me an email on JRM@skillsearch.com
Keep an eye out for the next instalment in our Pyxel-Perfect Portfolios series coming very soon...
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