Nicolas Bouvier, more commonly known as Sparth, is an art director and concept artist who has been working for over twenty years in the computer game industry. With his family, he traveled around the world, becoming intrigued by each country and inspired by their culture which he came in contact with. In the growth of his imagination, those influences played a crucial role, helping him to realize works which process classical concepts and shapes in an original and experimental way. Contemporary architecture, which can be recognized at first glance by looking at his works, is among his greatest passions.
During his career this Digital Artist contributed to the development of tons of video games, some very well known such as Alone in the dark 4, Cold Fear, Prince of Persia – Warrior Within and Assassin’s Creed, collaborating with some of the biggest development houses such as Ubisoft, Capcom, Namco, ID software and Microsoft, where he also took part to the creation of the successful HALO.
Sparth has been a part of 343 Industries almost since its inception, and it’s fair to say that he was already a huge star in concept art circles even before he joined the Halo team. Sparth is a blend of dizzying, imaginative vistas, and a loose, almost impressionist style of painting, bely the tremendous atmosphere and depth his paintings have. But painting isn’t his only skill – as Art Director on Halo 5: Guardians, and Halo Infinite. In order to unify design languages for different species and planets, as well as the eponymous Halo, Sparth is tasked with driving the overarching vision and aesthetic of Halo's environments, automobiles, characters, weapons and wonders, along with a large team of photographers, animators, model painters, producers and more. Sparth set himself a new challenge with Halo Infinite to expand our game's reach, size and fidelity, while tapping heavily into the tradition and iconic concepts that propelled the Master Chief to fame.
He also finds time to paint both Halo and personal pieces, considering the immense project and staff management that his job infers, ensuring that certain art and architecture muscles are completely flexed and limber. Sparth joined the 343 team-and started his second gig with former art director Kenneth Scott-the two had previously worked together at Id Software in Dallas. And then, while Sparth's first Halo attempts on Halo 4 and 5 were to adapt and change an established theme in certain respects, Halo Infinite offers something very special-a whole different idea of what Halo is, yet deeply rooted in classic designs and design language.
Sparth’s work gives us an imaginative view of what the future might look like. As an Architect student, watching his art gives me inspiration to design. Futuristic artwork has inspired many of the advancements in technology such as AI’s, flying cars, cloning, etc. His artwork constantly questions our humanity in a speculative way, including our relationship with our environment. Spaceships and buildings in his work have a very massive scale thus it does not relate characters to the natural world. I feel like these environments can inspire us more to think in terms of how we as an architect would be designing if the environment around us would evolve in such a manner. His aesthetics of cyberpunk is the hyper-exaggeration of the applications of technology in architecture, envisioning a future time period.
Sparth insists that everyone should be motivated towards their work by their curiosity and their passion. He says be good in all fields, and be a specialist in one particular area of your choice. It will make you irreplaceable. During his childhood, the only thing he was passionate about was making drawings.
Sparth says, “I have been driving my career with two keywords that always resonate in my mind; talent and diplomacy. They’re both very obvious principles to respect whenever you work in a studio. Talent is mandatory and comes from dedication, training, and a lot of hard work. Diplomacy has to do with the way you constructively insert yourself into a team, gaining respect, as well as learning from your peers. These terms hit the right balance for me and I have been trying to stay consistent to this simple philosophy.”
He believes that by keeping continuity and alignment effective, art direction can be communicated to the greatest number. Integrating concept arts and aesthetic choices into all the critical needs of gaming and sandbox and making a product that looks familiar to the fans, but yet shockingly new and distinct in the long term.
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MLA Citations:
343 Industries. “Employee Spotlight: Nicolas Bouvier.” 343 Industries, 10 June 2018, www.343industries.com/news/articles/employee-spotlight-nicolas-sparth-bouvier.
Bouvier, Nicolas. “Sparth.” ArtStation, www.artstation.com/sparth.
Halopedia. “Nicolas Bouvier.” Halopedia, Halopedia, 24 May 2020, www.halopedia.org/Nicolas_Bouvier.
“Sparth Art Director & Concept Artist.” Nuts Computer Graphics, www.nutscomputergraphics.com/en/ispirational/sparth-art-director-concept-artist/.
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