Ian Fox

I am a passionate and highly creative professional illustrator and character artist with over 10 years experience in fast-paced and demanding creative roles. I infuse all my designs with character and enjoy bringing exciting and eye-catching projects to life, be it for a client or a personal project. Driven by achievement, creativity, and self-improvement, I work well both independently and when contributing skillset as part of a larger team.

Plush Designer / Character Illustrator at HTI Group (2024-06 – Present)

Lead design of plush toy products and character/packaging design for toy ranges

• Lead design of new plush toy products
• Character and packaging design/illustration for other toy ranges

Freelance Illustrator and Designer at Freelance (2017-01 – Present)

Independent illustration and design work across various projects and mediums

• Designed and illustrated full-colour covers for a series of gothic fantasy novels
• Created concept art and final card, tile, and board illustrations for a range of tabletop games
• Led the production of 2D environment art for a point and click indie adventure game
• Illustrated numerous bespoke fantasy and sci-fi character, environment and prop commissions
• Produced original 2D animations, mascots, and icons for Twitch stream branding projects

Toy Designer / Character Illustrator at SAMBRO International (2022-05 – 2024-03)

Character design and illustration for plush toy production and new product development

• Visualising licensed characters for plush toy production with consideration of materials and manufacturing costs
• Designing and Illustrating new own-brand characters for toy lines (plush, interactive, and novelty)

Concept Designer at EPH Creative (2021-09 – 2022-04)

Concept art and design for exhibition and production projects

• Producing iterative concept art and developing visuals of props for production
• Illustrating and designing creative exhibition stand concepts
• Illustrating a wide range of characters and props in numerous themes
• Designing large props and characters with 3D production in mind
• Digitally painting backdrops and creating graphic designs for large-scale print

Creative Designer at KD Decoratives / Blachere-Illumination UK (2017-01 – 2019-09)

Environment, character, and ride theming design for theme parks and shopping centres

• Led mid-scale environment, character, and ride theming design and artworking projects for Drayton Manor Theme Park, Paultons Theme Park, Sundown Adventure Land, and various other independent clients
• Produced concept art and designed successful bespoke seasonal lighting schemes, photo opportunities and animations for shopping centres

Artist/Designer at Seasonal Group (2015-02 – 2017-01)

PGCert in Graphic Design – University of Hertfordshire (2014)

Digital Painting – CG Master Academy

Oil Portraiture – Northern Realist Academy

BA (Hons) in Popular Music – University of Gloucestershire (2006 – 2009)