ENGLISH HERITAGE RISK

Packaging | Game Design | Illustration | Art Direction

This project had everything. From packaging and game design to illustration, art direction, and even dragons.

English Heritage Risk began life as a visual update to an existing game, but when the client saw an early board concept, they made the call to relaunch the whole thing from scratch.
I led the client relationship directly throughout, shaping the creative direction,
managing expectations, and keeping everything moving against a hard deadline
tied to factory capacity and holiday shutdown.

When the scope expanded, we had very little room to push the schedule. Getting that conversation right, keeping the client excited while being clear about the constraints, was as important as the design work itself.

This was my final project at Winning Moves,
and I was determined to see it land exactly as it should.

This project had everything. From packaging and game design to illustration, art direction, and even dragons.

English Heritage Risk began life as a visual update
to an existing game, but when the client saw an early
board concept, they made the call to relaunch the whole thing from scratch. I led the client relationship directly throughout, shaping the creative direction, managing expectations, and keeping everything moving against a hard deadline tied to factory capacity and holiday shutdown.

This was my final project at Winning Moves,
and I was determined to see it land exactly as it should.

This project had everything. From packaging and game design to illustration, art direction, and even dragons.

English Heritage Risk began life as a visual update to an existing game, but when the client saw an early board concept, they made the call to relaunch the whole thing from scratch. I led the client relationship directly throughout, shaping the creative direction,
managing expectations, and keeping everything moving against a hard deadline tied to factory capacity and holiday shutdown.

When the scope expanded,
we had very little room to push
the schedule. Getting that conversation right, keeping the client excited while being clear about the constraints,
was as important as the design work itself.

This was my final project at Winning Moves, and I was determined to see it land exactly as it should.

CLIENT & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

I led the client relationship directly throughout this project, working with my contact at English Heritage to shape the creative direction, manage expectations around what was and wasn't achievable, and keep everything moving against a hard deadline tied to factory capacity and holiday shutdown. When the scope expanded into a full relaunch, we had very little room to push the schedule. Getting that conversation right, keeping the client excited while being clear about the constraints, was as important as the design work itself.

THE BOARD

The gameboard is the centrepiece of the whole project and I illustrated it entirely from scratch. England is divided into five colour-coded territories: North, Midlands, East Anglia, South East, and West Country, each packed with historically significant landmarks.

Every location on the board had to meet a strict criterion: the site had to date from at least the Middle Ages, if not earlier, and be either owned by English Heritage or freely accessible without being privately managed. That meant deep research across all five regions, cross-referencing sites, dates, and ownership before a single line was drawn.

The gameboard is the centrepiece of the whole
project and I illustrated it entirely from scratch. England is divided into five colour-coded territories: North, Midlands, East Anglia, South East, and West Country, each packed with historically significant landmarks.

The result is a board full of real history, from Dunstanburgh and Carlisle in the North, through Kenilworth and Nottingham in the Midlands, down to Tintagel and the Scilly Isles in the West Country. Each territory has its own visual character, with illustrated castles, ruins, and landmarks sitting within colour-coded regions defined by bold black borders.

The creatures scattered across the board are rooted in local legend, each one tied to the area it guards. A kraken drags a ship into the deep in the North Sea,
sea monsters lurk in the Irish Sea, a griffin stalks the Midlands, and a dragon coils
in the East. The whole thing feels like an illuminated medieval map brought to life.

The creatures scattered across the board are rooted in local legend, each one tied to the area it guards. A kraken drags a ship into the deep in the North Sea,
sea monsters lurk in the Irish Sea, a griffin stalks the Midlands, and a dragon coils in the East. The whole thing feels like an illuminated medieval map brought to life.

BOX ARTWORK & COVER ILLUSTRATION

The box front bursts with battle: four mounted knights thunder forward as rival armies clash behind them in vibrant chaos. To the right, a Viking raider charges with axe raised; to the left, a Norman knight in heraldic armour rallies his troops.

The board sits at the heart of the composition, mapped onto a 3D globe shape to create a warped, raised quality that pulls you into the scene. Illustrated figures stand proud of the map surface, adding depth and drama. Hand-drawn illustrations and photo assets rendered to match my style combine to create a world that feels somewhere between a medieval manuscript and a living battlefield.

The back features the full game board in a clean product shot, the armoured knight from the cover standing watch to the right.

The box front bursts with battle: four mounted knights thunder forward as rival armies clash behind them in vibrant chaos. To the right, a Viking raider charges with axe raised; to the left,
a Norman knight in heraldic armour rallies his troops.

The back features the full game board in a clean product shot, the armoured knight from the cover standing watch to the right.

The box front bursts with battle: four mounted knights thunder forward as rival armies clash behind them in vibrant chaos.
To the right, a Viking raider charges with axe raised; to the left, a Norman knight in heraldic armour rallies his troops.

The board sits at the heart of the composition, mapped onto a 3D globe shape to create a warped, raised quality that pulls you into the scene. Illustrated figures stand proud of the map surface, adding depth and drama.
Hand-drawn illustrations and photo assets rendered to match my style combine to create a world that feels somewhere between a medieval manuscript and a living battlefield.

The back features the full game board in a clean product shot, the armoured knight from the cover standing watch to the right.

CARD ARTWORK

With the board locked in, the illustrative assets needed to carry across the entire card suite. Territory Cards feature each location's illustrated shape set against a ghosted map backdrop, colour-coded by region, their in-game value displayed on a heraldic banner. Quest Cards give players objectives tied to specific territories, with the reward clearly called out. Power Cards put the knights front and centre, armoured figures carrying the full weight of the medieval world we'd built.

Working from photographic assets provided from the client's 2017 archive and newer images sourced from their library, I used AI tools to recreate and extend my own illustrative style across the card illustrations. Generating illustrations this way is not my usual approach, and it was a solution suggested by the client and agreed upon together in response to the scale of the project and the pressure of the looming deadline. The figures, horses, and armoured warriors all feel consistent with the hand-drawn board and box art, maintaining a unified visual world across every touchpoint, delivered on time and to a standard we were both proud of.

With the board locked in, the illustrative assets needed to carry across the entire card suite. Territory Cards feature each location's illustrated shape set against a ghosted map backdrop, colour-coded by region,
their in-game value displayed on a heraldic banner. Quest Cards give players objectives tied to specific territories, with the reward clearly called out. Power Cards put the knights front and centre, armoured figures carrying the full weight of the medieval world we'd built.

Working from photographic assets provided from the client's 2017 archive and newer images sourced from their library, I used AI tools to recreate and extend my own illustrative style across the card illustrations. Generating illustrations this way is not my usual approach, and it was a solution suggested by the client and agreed upon together in response to the scale of the project and the pressure of the looming deadline. The figures, horses, and armoured warriors all feel consistent with the
hand-drawn board and box art, maintaining a unified visual world across every touchpoint, delivered on time and to a standard we were both proud of.

3D TOKEN RENDERS

The physical plastic tokens from the original 2017 edition presented a problem: the only reference photography we had was too poor in quality to use in new print materials. Rather than compromise on the visuals, I tracked down physical samples, photographed them, and used AI tools to generate faithful 3D sculpts from those references. I then converted those sculpts to STL files using an online tool, which gave me full control over lighting, angle, and detail in the final renders.

The result was a set of crisp, highly detailed token visuals: infantry soldiers, cavalry knights, and a siege catapult, that could be used at any scale across packaging, cards, and marketing materials.

The physical plastic tokens from the original 2017 edition presented a problem: the only reference photography we had was too poor in quality to use in new print materials. Rather than compromise on the visuals,
I tracked down physical samples, photographed them, and used AI tools to generate faithful 3D sculpts from those references.
I then converted those sculpts to STL files using an online tool, which gave me full control over lighting, angle, and detail in the final renders.

THE RESULT

English Heritage Risk was delivered on time, on brief, and to a standard the client absolutely loved. They were over the moon. The project manager and sales team were equally delighted, and for me personally, it was the perfect way to close a chapter: going out on a project that tested every skill I had, from client management and art direction to illustration, research, and creative problem-solving under real pressure.

It's the kind of project that reminds you why you do this.