About Sparth

Sparth (nicolas bouvier) has been an active artistic director and concept designer in the gaming industry since 1996. Born in France, he now lives in Seattle, Washington, working for Microsoft.Having had the privilege of travelling extensively at an early age to such places as far afield as the USA, Singapore, China, France and Europe, he was influenced greatly by the various cultures, and he enjoyed observing people and making notes of all these tiny details of life that he was witnessing. The varied influences are largely responsible for his multiple creative passions, which range from space, to buildings, to robotics and beyond.

There are no limits to his creativity when it comes to translating forms and concepts. One of his greatest passion remains contemporary architecture, of which he applies principles in his own art, with an experimental and original approach. He also harbours a fascination for modern skyscrapers, although he admits that he wouldn't be able to live too high above the ground himself.

Sparth has contributed to the development of several released games since 1997. Alone in the dark 4 (2001), Cold Fear (2005), Prince of Persia - Warrior Within (2004), and Rage, a project still in developement at IDsoftware, and has participated with Darkworks-Studio, to a lot of game projects in collaboration with large companies like Capcom and Namco.

In 2003, he decided to leave Paris for Montreal in order to join Ubisoft on their ongoing projects, Prince of Persia Warrior Within, as well as Assassin's Creed. he left Montreal for Texas in october 2005, where he spent more than three years working for IDsoftware in Dallas. finally, in january 2009, he joined Microsoft to participate to the future HALO adventures.

Sparth has also been having an enjoying career illustrating book covers. His images have been actively chosen by publishers to adorn the covers of multiple french and english authors. When he is not working, he finds time to relax with his wife Lorene and his three children, Arthur, Leopold and Zelie.

Awards, events and demos

• 2006 - Expose 4 - Master award winner category science fiction.
• 2005 - Nominee for The 2005 Game Developers Choice Awards, category "Character Design", for the works on Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within (Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Entertainment) - (march 2005)
• 2006 - Selected artwork for the "into the pixel" 2006 Collection. selection available here.
• 2006 - gnomon workshop - Los Angeles, (february 2006)
• 2008 - Seattle Workshop - Massive Black.
• 2004 - Austin Conceptart workshop - Massive Black.

Online interviews & press

• 2008 - Wired. *
• 2008 - Gnomon interview. *
• 2007 - assassin's creed cgsociety production focus. *
• 2006 - interview for Game navigator (russia) (paper only)
• 2006 - interview Ballistic Publishing. *
• 2005 - interview for CGCHANNEL *
• 2005 - Question&answers with CGTALK. *
• 2004 - Prince of persia Warrior within - more than 30 magazines worldwide.
• 2001 - alone in the dark 4 - selection: Edge, Joypad, Joystick, Playstation2, Playstation magazine, Psone, french gaming press and worldwide.

TV appearance and interviews

• 2004 - g4techtv - Inside Ubisoft and Prince of Persia 2 - ICONS treks to Ubisoft Montreal for an insider's view of Prince of Persia 2
• 2004 - GAMEONE - making of - prince of persia warrior within (october 2004)
• 2004 - SPIKETV - exclusive inside look at the new holiday release by Ubisoft, Prince of Persia Warrior Within. (12/10/2004)
• 2004 - GAMESPOT - interview related to Prince of Persia Warrior Within (16/09/04)
• 2004 - IGN - interview related to Prince of Persia Warrior Within (13/09/04)
• 2001 - GAMEONE - FOCUS - making of "alone in the dark 4"
• 2001 - GAMEONE - darkworks studio - an inside look at the paris based videogame development studio.

Books

• 2008 - Structura - The art of Sparth. *
• 2008 - CFSL.net café salé: Artbook 02. *
• 2007 - CFSL.net café salé: Artbook 01. *
• 2007 - Assassin's Creed Limited Edition Art Book. *
• 2005 - Concept design 2 (participation). five artworks featured. designstudiopress. *
• 2006 - d'artiste concept art - published by ballistic publishing. *
• 2005 - Expose 3 (participation). creative talents of digital artists worldwide. Ballistic Publishing. *
• 2004 - Expose 4 (participation). creative talents of digital artists worldwide. Ballistic Publishing. *
• 2005 - Illustrations with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook - (participation) - publisher O'reilly, computer books. *
• 2003 - Illustrations avec Photoshop - les cahiers du designer 7 - (participation) tutorial book using photoshop. editions eyrolles. *
• 2004 - Prince of persia booklet. (participation) collector's edition art book featuring 36 pages of art and developer commentaries.

Games

• 2005 - 2008 - Rage. Senior concept artist. Idsoftware, Dallas.
• 2007 - Assassin's creed - Senior Concept designer & illustrator, environment and characters. Ubisoft Montreal.
• 2005 - Cold Fear - Darkworks studio - (produced by ubisoft, release date march 2005) lead artist and artistic director.
• 2004 - Prince of Persia - Warrior Within - ubisoft 2004 - Senor Concept designer & illustrator, environment and characters.
• 2001 - Alone in the Dark - the new nightmare - Darkworks - (produced by infogrames-atari) - lead artist and artistic director. 1998 - 2001

Book Covers

• The Never Ending Sacrifice - Una McCormack (2009)
• The Quiet War - Paul McAuley (2009)
• The martian general's daughter - theodore judson - Pyr books (2007)
• Cenotaxis - sean williams - Monkeybrain books - (2007)
• Haze - L. E. Modesitt Jr. - Pyr books (2009)
• Michael Flynn - The January Dancer - Pyr books (2008)

• Les reves du temps - Les anges pourpres - Flammarion (2009)
• Les reves du temps - Taranis et Parfenia - Flammarion (2008)
• Fahrenheit 451- ray bradbury (french) (with benjamin carre) (2008)
• Brian Aldiss - croisiere sans escale folio SF (2007)
• le pacte des barbares - Susan Price - Editions Pocket jeunesse (2006)
• Nouvelles tome 2 - philp k dick (2006)
• Nouvelles tome 1 - philp k dick (2006)
• Les guerriseurs de cathedrales - philp k dick (2006)
• Glissement de temps sur Mars - philip k dick (2006)
• l'echiquier du mal - dan simmons - tome 2 - editions gallimard (2004)
• l'echiquier du mal - dan simmons - tome 1 - editions gallimard (2004)

• Dune - la genèse, Tome 1 : La guerre des machines (2007)
• Dune - la genèse, Tome 2 : Le Jihad butlérien (2008)
• Dune - La Maison des Mères - Frank Herbert - editions Pocket (2005)
• Dune - La Maison des Harkonenn (Before Dune I) - Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson - editions Pocket (2004)
• Dune - La Maison des Atreides (Before Dune II) - Brian Herbert & Kevin. Anderson - editions Pocket (2004)
• Dune - les Heretiques de Dune (Heretics of Dune) - frank herbert - editions Pocket (2005)
• Dune - Maison Corrino (Before dune III) - Brian Herbert % Kevin. Anderson - editions Pocket (2005)
• Dune - Enfants de Dune (Children of Dune) - frank herbert - editions Pocket (2005)
• Dune - Empereur dieu de Dune - frank herbert - editions Pocket (2005)
• Dune - Messie de Dune - frank herbert - editions Pocket (2005)
• Dune - Et l'homme crea un dieu - frank herbert - editions Pocket (2005)
• Dune 1 - frank herbert - editions Pocket (2005)
• Dune 2 - frank herbert - editions Pocket (2005)

• histoire du futur - Robert A Heinlein - Coffret 4 volumes - editions gallimard (2005)
• L'homme qui vendit la Lune - Robert A Heinlein - editions gallimard (2005)
• Les vertes collines de la Terre - Robert A Heinlein - editions gallimard (2005)
• Révolte en 2100 - Robert A Heinlein - editions gallimard (2005)
• Les enfants de Mathusalem suivi de Les orphelins du ciel - Robert-A Heinlein - editions gallimard (2005)
• Le dernier des Templiers - Arthur Ténor - Éditeur : Hachette (2005)
• Perceval ou le conte du Graal - Anne-Marie Cadot-Coli - Éditeur : Hachette (2005)
• Les maitres des dragons (the dragon masters) - Jack Vance - editions Denoel (2004)
• Emphyrio - Jack Vance - editions Denoel (2004)
• Delirium circus - pierre pelot - editions Denoel (2005)
• Continents perdus - thomas day - editions Denoel (2005)
• Ariosto Furioso - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - editions gallimard (2003)
• Darwinia - Robert Charles Wilson - editions gallimard (2003)
• Pas de panique! (don't panic!) - Neil gaiman - editions gallimard (2004)
• Psychohistoire en peril I (Psychohistorical crisis) - Donald Kingsbury - editions gallimard (2004)
• Psychohistoire en peril II (Psychohistorical crisis) - Donald Kingsbury - editions gallimard (2004)
• L'enfant de nulle part - roger zelazny - folio SF ((2005)
• Le sacre de glace (Maximum ice) - key kenyon - editions Fleuve noir (2003)
• Time opera - robert silverberg - editions Le Belial (2003)
• le chateau de hurle - Diana Wynne Jones - editions Pocket jeunesse (2005)

About this site

Welcome to Sparth.com, a site dedicated to the art of Sparth, an online portfolio composed of illustrations, concepts, and sketches. All informations concerning the artist can be found in the extended biography page, where you will also have a complete bibliography, production list, and press reviews.

You can see a selection a recent works on the gallery page. All the images are still available in the old archives site.

Regular news and information updates are also available on Sparth's blog.

Contact

You can contact Sparth at nbsparth[AT]gmail[DOT]com

Sparth is working fulltime for Microsoft - 343Industries, and is currently not accepting any freelance works.