Behind the scenes : Who is behind Lovemaps? (Patreon)

Hello everyone,Here is the first topic of "behind the scenes".It talks about who I am and how I came to propose you maps.• Who is Lovemaps?

As you probably know, my name is Damien, I’m French and I created Lovemaps in March 2021. Lovemaps makes maps dedicated to Lovecraft.

• But how did I get here?

For the last 15 years, I worked in advertising.I was the main art director of a small agency and I was in charge of...almost everything: The ideas, the concept, the image and sometimes even the wording.I made many posters, magazine covers, scripts for small movies, sets for events, didactic illustrations...

In 2019, I decided to start my own business. And I left the agency, while continuing to work with it.

It worked very well until .... COVID :) The consequence: I had a lot less work.

But you have to find the positive in all this. I got a lot of time back for myself. And the possibility to open myself to other projects.

I started to play role-playing again, something I hadn’t done for a long time.And you know what... I play Cthulhu right away. Because I love the «horror fantasy» genre and I’ve read several Lovecraft books (The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Out of Time, and several other short stories…).

And when I decide to make my group play the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign, we are in September 2020.Looking for maps to propose to my players for this campaign, I don’t find much.So I decide to make my own for my group.

After having drawn about fifty of them.I said to myself : «hum maybe these maps can interest other people» !So I tried to put them in the store and it worked pretty well.

So I decided to dedicate myself to it full time. And I turned down some advertising jobs, to devote all my time to Lovemaps. (I choose the name Lovemaps for Lovecraft+maps, obviously). We are in February 2021

I finished the Nyarlathotep Masks and put them on sale in April 2021.

Then I created my Patreon in June 2021.You pretty much know the rest. I decide to split my creation time in 2 :- I create maps that will be used for this universe on my Patreon.- I read and create maps for official scenarios

• Why is working as an art director important for Lovemaps today?

1- I did a lot of Photoshop editing, it’s a software I know well. And obviously it’s the main tool I use.

2- The pace of work. It’s not a legend, advertising is a job in which you have to know how to manage a sometimes intense productivity, and big workloads. It allows me to have a sustained rhythm to produce big maps every week.

3- Thirdly, to have realized didactic illustrations, allows to better understand how we think and decipher an image. And it’s an important parameter in a map. it must not only be beautiful, it must also be well designed to be playable and accessible to all.

4- And of course for a fourth point, the communication : the map package, the branding, the social networks...I’ll talk about this in another post, but the time breakdown is:50% map production / 50% communication.It may sound like a lot, but believe me, one can’t go without the other.

----------------Now you know a little more about who I am and why I make maps today!We’ll talk more about my work week in a future post.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions, I’ll be happy to answer them! :)