Lockdown 2020
Designing a board game during Covid-19

 

In June 2020, three months into the first UK lockdown for the Covid-19 pandemic, I was approached by Great Family Board Games (GFBG) to create the illustrations and final design for their new board game, inspired by the lockdown itself. 

I love a good board game as much as a video game, so this was a really exciting project to be part of, and the first of three collaborations on board game design with GFBG.

The brief

The client had created a concept for a family board game based on the theme of lockdown – to highlight the positives and offer a fun way to spend time with family.  The aim is to complete several engaging and funny challenges, to be the first player to make it out of lockdown. 

The makers were looking for several assets to be created: the game board itself including 42 icon illustrations, the 20 challenge cards, the game box and lid design, and a logo.  They shared rough sketches with initial ideas, and I used these as inspiration to build the gaming world of Lockdown…

Design development

My first priority was to develop the logo, using the styling and colours agreed for this as a basis to create the other assets. The game board itself was structured around a bird’s eye view of a family home and garden, with players working their way around the path outside the house plot to make their way out of lockdown. 

I worked digitally using an iPad Pro for this project, to create everything up to the final artwork stage. The iPad has completely transformed the way I work with my clients, as you can bring ideas to life in real time discussions, and create artwork-ready files on the go.

Digitial illustration character icons for board game design.
Digital Illustrations of icons for a new Board Game, set against a brown orange background.

Creating the illustrated character icons was great fun.  Twenty unique challenge cards including ‘make up a lockdown song or rap that lasts for 20 seconds’, and ‘name three ingredients in banana bread’ provided great inspiration for some fun drawings.

The game box and lid design were based on the logo, with the challenge cards also tying into this, having the black and yellow striped ‘tape’ framing them around the edges.

 
Lockdown Boardgame family fun! Contact me for your product design needs.

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