2D Artist

2D artists produce the flat art a game is built from: interface elements, icons, illustrations, marketing images and backgrounds.

Depending on the project, 2D art means interface and icon work, illustration, concept pieces, sprites or marketing assets. The common thread is a consistent visual language and the discipline to produce it at the sizes the game actually uses, where a detail that reads on the canvas disappears on a phone.

Photoshop and Illustrator are the usual tools, joined by Figma or an engine-side layout system where the art goes straight into the UI, and by pixel-art tools in projects with that style.

UI artists are the specialists of the field and often appear under that title; concept artists work earlier in the pipeline and produce reference rather than final assets. Many adverts combine the two and expect both the idea and the finished file.