From Hellgatewiki.com

Phil Shenk was one of the lead artists and designers on Diablo II. The SuperUnique boss Shenk the Overseer was named after Phil. Like the rest of the crew, he worked on one of the unannounced titles for several years, until leaving Blizzard and becoming one of the nine cofounders of Flagship Studios in 2003.

Contents 1 Official Biography 2 Features 3 Interviews 4 Photos

Official Biography

Phil Shenk has been in the games industry for many years, working most recently as a Lead Character Artist and concept artist at Blizzard North. His work on the Diablo franchise was instrumental in setting the look and tone of the characters and monsters in the games and his unique style is immediately recognizable to gamers worldwide.

Phil was Lead Character Artist on Diablo II and was the Art Director on the expansion set, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. He also created and organized much of the process involved in bringing character art from the concept phase through completion and incorporation into the game, as well as working closely with the technical and design facets of the team to ensure the best possible integration of his team’s work into the project as a whole.

Phil has served at a high level for numerous development companies, including Art Director at Maxis South, Director of Product Development at Wild Tangent, Creative Director at Glasseye Entertainment and Art Director at Electronic Arts (Origin). He left Blizzard in 2003 to join Flagship Studios with some other former Blizzard employees.

Features

Phil's work was described by Bill Roper in a November 2006 interview with WetaHolics.

What techniques do the design & concept team use to formalize new ideas?

We have a very open process in regards to design and concept with a great deal of feedback and iteration. A character or monster design can come from any number of sources ... the game designer who is looking for a specific game play mechanic to be represented, a concept artist that dreams up a demon, a brainstorming session led by our character art director to come up with compelling creations that fit with the castes of demons we have created.

Once these ideas are generated, they all run through Phil Shenk, our Director of Character Art. Phil pulls all the various thoughts, sketches and notes together in an online forum where everyone who is involved in the process can follow the flow of the idea and interact in a very easy way. As the designs are fleshed out and refined, every step is tracked on the forums and approved. This leads us through the concept and design stages, into modeling, rigging, texturing and animating. By the time a creature or character makes it into the game, it has already undergone a good amount of scrutiny and iteration.
--Bill Roper

The RPG Vault spoke to Phil in April of 2006, and asked him what he would be doing at E3.

Officially, I'll be demoing the game, watching people play it, and looking for what they like and don't like. I usually end up doing a couple interviews, and helping out around the booth. I'm especially excited about the premiere of our new cinematic.

Unofficially, I'll be checking out the field, seeing if there's anything groundbreaking going on. I can't think of anything specific that I'm looking forward to, except maybe Spore if it's on the floor, or the Revolution. Maybe go to a few parties, and try not to get too burnt out!

Interviews

Phil's not been interviewed as often as some of the rest of the crew, but he's been seen here and there, over the years.

• IGN interviewed Phil about Mythos in March 2007.

• Phil Shenk in a Gamespot Diablo II designer diary from Sepember 1998.

Photos

See photos of Phil Shenk in the image gallery.