CONCEPT ARTIST

As a Concept Artist at BULKHEAD, you’ll play a key role in defining the visual identity of our games by collaborating closely with a cross-disciplinary team of Artists, Designers, and Producers. Your work will help shape the creative direction of the project, delivering concept art that inspires, informs, and aligns with the game’s overall vision.

From early thumbnail sketches to detailed, production-ready illustrations, you’ll contribute to the development of environments, characters, props, and more. With a solid foundation of industry experience, you’ll demonstrate strong design skills, creative problem-solving, and an ability to take ideas from concept to completion. You’ll also begin supporting more junior team members, offering guidance, answering questions, and sharing knowledge where appropriate.

At BULKHEAD, we foster a collaborative and growth-driven environment. As a Concept Artist, you’ll be encouraged to bring forward new ideas, take ownership of tasks, and contribute meaningfully to the project’s artistic goals. Your ability to iterate on feedback, communicate clearly, and help raise the quality of the team’s output will be essential as we work together to build rich, visually engaging game worlds.

This role is based at our new Manchester studio. The studio hasn’t opened yet, so you may work remotely at first.

What you’ll do

• Research and gather strong visual references, building mood boards that clearly communicate visual direction to the team

• Generate a wide range of thumbnail concepts quickly, exploring multiple solutions with clarity and intent

• Develop thumbnails into fully realised concepts with strong detail, clarity and visual storytelling

• Apply solid art fundamentals, including composition, colour theory and anatomy, to make well-reasoned design decisions

• Use Photoshop and photobashing, plus basic 3D tools (e.g. Blender, SketchUp) for block-outs and overpaints, with an understanding of how concepts feed into Unreal Engine pipelines

• Work closely with Leads, Designers and 3D artists so concepts match gameplay and artistic direction, and give clear visual guidance across disciplines

• Own your tasks and deadlines, keeping the Lead and Production updated in Jira and flagging blockers early

• Support Graduate and Junior artists with constructive feedback and knowledge-sharing, helping build a positive, collaborative team culture

What we're looking for

• An understanding of the technical constraints and challenges in game development

• 2+ years industry experience

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to effectively convey varying ideas and confidence when talking to new people

• Great understanding of anatomy, atmospherics, proportion, scale, composition, perspective, lighting, and colour

• Experience creating concept art for first-person shooters, or a portfolio showing an understanding of FPS design needs

• Passion for immersive video games