Artist Exploration

Philip received his formal education at Paier College of Art where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and received advanced training in computer illustration in the period of 1991 – 1995. His work career started in 1994. Philip is currently employed with Warner Brothers Games, in Seattle since 2009 as their Art Director and has worked in multiple other places; among them are Big Fish Games, Unity Entertainment, NcSoft, and Electronic Arts Tiburon. He has held many titles from Studio Art Director to his current title of Art Director. In the process of his employment so far, he has worked on Madden, NCAA, NASCAR 06: Total Team Control (PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360), NFL Street (PS2, Xbox, GC), Tiger Woods ( PS3, Xbox360) NFL Head Coach (PS2, Xbox, PC), Superman Returns: The Videogame (PS2, Xbox360, GC, PC), Guild Wars 2, Tabula Rasa, Lineage (PC), 3 Unannounced Original IP (PC, Wii) for NcSoft, currently he is working on Lord of the Rings: War in the North, 1 Unanounced Title (XBOX 360, PS3, PC). 2008 through Feb. of 2009 Philip took the time to work exclusively on the Utherworlds and Secret Places interactive properties (PC) both game and interactive book. Utherworlds is currently being made into a feature film. The interactive book can be found on line at http://www.utherworlds.com it is amazing.

Philip has done lectures and workshops and classes since 2001 some of the titles have included Environment Concept Art, Creating Concept Art in the Entertainment Industry, Corel Painter Promotional Event, Siggraph "D'artiste, Fundamental Illustration Using Digital Tools; From Student to Successful Illustrator, and The Illustration Process. He has done multiple interviews with various different Web sites and magazines.

Philip Straub is also a traditional artist as well as an Illustrator. He focuses on invoking an emotional response from his images through composition, color, light and subject matter. He has achieved international acclaim among a variety of artistic circles through his use of traditional media with 3D and 2D software to create his illustrations. Philip Straub has entered in at least 47 art competitions and won at least 5 times. Those wins include the “The Society of Illustrators” 37th annual student competition scholarship, Silver Medal in the "Society of Illustrators Los Angeles" 44th annual competion, 2006; Bronze Medal in the "Society of Illustrators Los Angeles" 47th annual competion, 2009; Award of Excellence from Web Awards for Utherworlds.com, 2010; Grand Prize for Design in the 2010 Indie Book Awards for Utherworlds, 2010. He has also been awarded with eight Kota Awards, two 3D Total Image Awards, and Twelve CG Talk Choice Awards. Straub has acted as Judge in competitions for The Society of Illustrators, CG Networks and Corel Painter 10. As well as serving as Advisory Board Member for Expose 3 years running and as CG Society Advisory Board Founding Member five years running. He has shown his work in at least seventeen different Gallery and Trade Shows including Los Vegas Art Expo 2007 and Art of Digital 2006.

His work has been published in Spectrum for their “Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art 4,5,8,11,12,13,14,15,16, and 17”; also in “ The New Masters of Fantasy” Vol. II and III. Over 30 children’s books contain his art work under the license of Mercer Mayer’s Critters of the Night series, Little Critter Series, Little Monster book and Nickelodeon’s Rugrats license. He and his wife continue with their own line of children’s books in the Imaginaries series. Some of the illustrations from the Imaginaries have been used on children’s back packs. And, of course, Utherworlds book, website and in the future feature film.

Straub has marketed his licensed designs on a wide variety of products: textiles, stationary. Scrapbooking. Wall Murals, lenticular prints, puzzles, games, books, and children’s backpacks. Among his clients are Mattel, Fisher Price, Disney, Universal studios, Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and Knowledge Adventure. His freelance clients include many big names such as: Nickolodeon, Toyota, National Geographic, Golden books, Random House, TSR, McGraw-Hill, Mercer Mayer, Big Tuna Trading, Softmotion, RJ Reynolds, Fisher Price, Matttel, Universal Studios, Zoo Publishing, Harper Collins, 3D Total, Electronic Arts, Ballistic Media, Corel, Harper Collins, Sci Fi Channel, Sunsout Puzzles, and Scholastic. His lessor known freelance clients include Stylorouge, Popcap Games, The Canadian Group, Gander Mountain, Martin Design, American Traditional, Harper Festival, Magic the Gathering, Simon and Schuster, Utne Reader, John Wiley and Sons, Synthelabo Global, Wizards of the Coast, CR Gibson, David Textiles, Satchi and Satchi, Brewster Wallcoverings, Future Publishing, Draft Worldwide, Bonner and Co., and Cendant. Throughthese clients his work has appeared on broadcast media, book jackets, CD Covers, Magazine covers, trading cards, in feature films and in advertizing.