board

Justin Thavirat is an award-winning video game developer since 1994 when he answered a local job posting at school that read, “Do you like to draw and play video games?” Since then, Justin has worked art directing games, building art departments, developing new IPs, and contributing to game art, concept art, cinematic art, marketing illustrations, and box covers for many of Blizzard’s award winning games in the Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, and World of Warcraft series. Justin was art director on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, lead artist on Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void, and an assistant art director overseeing art for several new game development teams at Blizzard Entertainment.

Justins art has been featured in numerous publications and museums including The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, The Laguna Art Museum, and the Computer History Museum. Justin was one of the recipients of the 1995 Game Developers Choice Award for Best Visual Arts, and has presented at the Game Developers Conference, THU, Vision X Live, and numerous other conferences, art schools, and colleges. Justin currently sits on the Game Developers Conference advisory board and is the recipient of an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the Laguna College of Art + Design for his contributions to the industry and his assistance in establishing a thriving game art major at the college.

When not spending time with his wife and two boys, Justins passions are plein air watercolor painting, experimental game development, and building exceptional art teams who cultivate a collaborative development culture and strive to achieve something greater than anyone thought possible.