Deus Ex : Mankind Divided – System Rift

I have a larger post coming about my work as art director on Deus Ex : Mankind Divided – Breach, but before that I thought I’d share a piece of concept art I made for System Rift, the recently released extra chapter for the main game, and explain the thinking behind it as well as a little bit of the process.

I was working under Martin Dubeau’s art direction, trying to come up with a concept for the office of Palisade’s CEO, trying to convey her character but also to surprise players when they reach that office, after a long stretch of infiltration in a concrete and metal building.

I came up with the idea that her office had to have an outdoors feeling despite being underground, to provide a bit of fresh air to the player, and started toying with the idea of her office being a greenhouse. It was an unexpected choice that still connected with the notion that the Blade building you’re inside of is host to an important network, which I saw as soil in which connections are as many roots.

The pergola sort of structure above the room used to be just fabric, like a tent, as you can see in this early mood sketch :

But I thought I could use it as a way to turn the ever-present neons on their head, essentially making a neon structure that produces shade.

I ended up making that very simple structure made of wood that would produce a soft shading, and made matching furniture.

As you’ll soon see in my upcoming Breach post, I have done very few of this sort of concept arts, which I call “grown-ups concept arts”, for which I made a 3D base, and made refined textures. However, I still started out by sketching ideas on paper, but more on that later.

Cheers!