Gingham and Gazebo are two strategy board games published by Bitewing Games. After the release of Cat Blues, I was hired to come up with artistic direction as well as executing all illustrations and graphic design elements for both games. This included full box designs, clamshell cases, six boards, rulebooks, components, and tokens.
The resulting Kickstarter was successfully funded within hours, hitting over 1000% of its original goal.
Design Process for Gazebo
Gazebo started out as a Reiner Knizia game called Qin (photo below, left). Bitewing rebranded it as Gazebo, giving it a more colourful, mass-appeal theme while lightly tweaking the core mechanics. The base template (right) is an example of the assets I received before beginning work.
All components for Gazebo were sketched before beginning any execution or colour palettes. Given the scale and complexity of the game, I chose a clean yet complex and vibrant vector style that would be both iconic and timeless.
Early cover concept
Early sketches and layout
Gameplay Components
Gazebo comes with over 170 tiles and components, all of which had to be designed to be both visually distinct for gameplay purposes, and also colourblind friendly for good accessibility. The dominoes themselves have three themes — water, plant and flower. Their designs had to be visually delightful as well as sharp enough for engraving.
Gazebo is designed to be a travel friendly game, meaning the entire thing compacts down in a carrying case. Therefore the play boards are a printed, foldable fabric. This design challenge included coming up with four distinct Garden themes (bird sanctuary, butterfly sanctuary, flower garden, jungle garden), and then executing a clean yet impactful design that would print well on material.
Print Production
Gazebo came with the additional responsibility of production design and prepress. I worked with Bitewing to ensured all products were properly set up to the manufacturer's standards. This included pristine print files, Pantone colour guides, and clean manufacturing spec sheets to ensure the final product was ready for both Kickstarter and retail store shelves.
Final Result
Reimagining the classic 'Qin' as Bitewing's 'Gazebo' was a fantastically fun project as a solo-designer and illustrator. Bitewing was a solid client, trusting me to execute something that both elevated their new streamlined game, as well as met their high-quality standards as a top-tier board game company. Gazebo remains one of my favourite projects to date.
“Alisha has been fantastic to work with across multiple projects. Not only is she fast and responsive, she delivers amazing artwork that truly elevates our products.”
– Nick Murray, Bitewing Co Founder
– Nick Murray, Bitewing Co Founder
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Gingham, a companion game to Gazebo, is a uniquely competitive game where players place ants on an abandoned picnic basket strewn with delicious treats. Competing ant colonies vie for the most points by surrounding and claiming goodies. Illustrations for Gingham included two fabric boards, unique play piece designs, a picnic basket-esque carrying case, as well as a highly detailed and delicious box cover.
Design Process for Gingham
Similar to Gazebo, Gingham came with the challenge of designing a game board that would both be attractive, print well on fabric, all while remaining visually similar to one another. Below you can see the original prototype designed by Bitewing (game creation by Robert Hovakimyan), as well as the base template.
Game Components
Gingham has over 200 components, including score trackers, wooden ants, queens, sugar cubes, and sweet claim tokens. It was important from the beginning to ensure all final components worked in harmony and were also colourblind accessible.
Print Production
Gingham came with the additional responsibility of production design and prepress. I ensured all products were properly set up to the manufacturer's standards. This included pristine print files, Pantone colour guides, and clean manufacturing spec sheets to ensure the final product was ready for both Kickstarter and retail store shelves.
Final Result
I am deeply proud of how Gingham turned out. Bitewing allowed me full creative freedom to bring Robert Hovakimyan's game to life, and I couldn't be happier with the results. Not only is it a solid companion to Gazebo, it also stands on its own as a strong, uniquely competitive board game. 
All of my projects are entirely AI-free. I do not believe in using generative AI, both creatively and morally. All work you see is 100% human-made.
