Interview
Sergi Brosa
Dominic Carter interviews the Gearbox concept artist and character designer about his career, style and love of post-apocalyptic worlds
TRAILBLAZER Post-apocalyptic art is popular now, but that wasn’t always the case. “This is why my work stood out when I started, it was new and fresh.”
Having worked for the likes of Fathom Interactive, KOJO STUDIOS and now Gearbox, Sergi Brosa has honed a signature look that has come to define games like Borderlands 3 and the post-apocalyptic genre as a whole. Here, he tells us about his career, how he developed his recognisable style, and why his end-ofthe-world settings always come with a sense of hope.
Tell us a little about your background as an artist. How did you get started and what has your career been like so far?
I got started the same way as a lot of people, by drawing Son Goku when I was in school and later just to avoid reality. I was a different kid who was into manga and video games, so I needed to spend extra time drawing and creating my own realities in order to keep my mind distracted from any real-life issues.
Later I studied a comic book art course while also teaching myself stuff I couldn’t learn at school. Then I moved on to different internet art communities such as DeviantArt, where I could start growing a fanbase and getting my first little art commissions. I couldn’t live and pay the rent from that, but it was a cool starting point where I felt I could end up doing what I loved for a living.
Artist PROFILE
Sergi Brosa
LOCATION: Spain
FAVOURITE ARTISTS: Masashi Kishimoto, Jude Smith, Didier Cassegrain, Nesskain, Alessandro Barbucci, Naoki Urasawa
MEDIA: Manga Studio, Photoshop https://sergibrosa.gumroad.com
"Something I realised about my art and my career a few years ago was that I wanted my art to survive time"
BLENDING IN Having made his mark, Sergi is content to not stand out. “There are many great artists and productions diving into post-apocalyptic possibilities.”
After some years of diving into different styles and topics, my natural inspirations led to me drawing postapocalyptic characters in some sort of anime/French comic book style. This furthered my career as I started officially working in the video game industry as a concept artist.