Lead UI Artist

Team Name
Unannounced Project

Job Title
Lead UI Artist

Requisition ID
R026120

Job Description
At Blizzard, we craft genre-defining games and legendary worlds for all to share. Through unparalleled creativity and storytelling, we create immersive universes and iconic experiences that are beloved across platforms, borders, backgrounds, and generations – only made possible by building a work environment that nurtures the artistry of game development and unleashes the aspirations of our people.

As a Lead UI Artist, you will be responsible for leading the visual design, creation, and implementation of the user interfaces for Blizzard's next great game. You will have the opportunity to be a part of an art team that enriches and guides the player experience in both core gameplay and meta.

You will partner with experienced UI artists, UX designers, technical artists, and game designers to create extraordinary game experiences that will be played by players around the world. The role will be complex, creative, and engaging with loads of opportunities to hone your skills and try new things.

We're a close but inclusive team that welcomes new members with unique perspectives. We care about each other, the games we build, and how we create them. We can't wait to meet you

Responsibilities

• Work closely with the art director to support the definition of the UI art style (in-game) and quality benchmarks for art on the project.
• Lead and manage a small team of UI artists, providing coaching, guidance, and support, ensuring they are engaged and empowered within their careers at Blizzard.
• Work with producers to ensure both the tactical and strategic production planning for the project's UI art is current, accurate, and continually improved.
• Create and implement high-quality UI assets, in the required style for your project.
• Support artists on your project to deliver art to the required levels of quality, workflow efficiency, and content scalability.
• Ensure all UI art is delivered to a specification that offers great on-device performance, within the required technical budgets, and that it is created and implemented in a way that is tidy, optimized, and scalable for the game to become a long-standing, live service game on a wide array of mobile devices.

Minimum Requirements

• Proficient in crafting high-quality UI elements in both 2D and 3D and implementing them efficiently into the game.
• Experience in and understanding of how UI art fits into the production of game development in collaboration with other crafts and disciplines, especially visual development, tech art and meta, core gameplay, and economy design.
• Experience in and understanding of what creates a great player experience and how to deliver on the expectations of a modern mobile game experience.

Knowledge & Skills

• Strong understanding of the fundamental principles of graphic design, including color, composition, information hierarchy, and typography.
• Strong skills in the creation of UI game content, including buttons, menus, pop-ups, and HUD elements.
• Strong understanding of motion and how it is used to enhance UI and communicate effectively to the user.
• Knowledgeable in the technical aspects of creating in-game UI, covering the full end-to-end pipeline, and adept at implementing art into a game efficiently, with a focus on clean, structured, and optimized processes.
• In-depth knowledge of industry standard software for the creation of UI art and any industry relevant game engine.
• Experience at using interface design tools such as Figma or similar.
• Strong understanding of all fundamental user experience (UX) design principles.

Key Attributes

• A passion for making high-quality games in a cross-discipline, collaborative team.
• A champion for creating great user experiences for our players.
• A caring leader, keen to support their team to do their best for the project, and their careers.
• A natural problem solver, keen to do what's right for the UI art and the game as a whole.
• A proactive contributor, keen to learn and develop your skills and to share your knowledge with the team.
• Excellent skills in communication and organization.

Nice to have

• Experience with Unity and mobile game development.
• Technical skills (shader creation, particles, VFXs, and/or procedural content creation tools).
• Abilities in motion design, VFX, and/or 2D animation
• Experience in font design and creation.