The Life and Times of Phil Campbell
Phil Campbell is a Design Consultant with over twenty years experience in the interactive and architectural fields. His most recent work includes two new iterations for the popular ‘Spore’ franchise by Maxis and innovative new titles for family favorites such as Nancy Drew, Snoopy and the Hardy Boys.
As a Creative Director for Electronic Arts (ERTS) from 2001 to 2006, Phil led the design for 2 successful James Bond Projects, ‘Agent Under Fire’ and ‘Everything or Nothing’, both shipping worldwide on multiple platforms. Most recently he was Creative Director on EA’s blockbuster title ‘The Godfather’ and was responsible for creating, the interactive story, dialogue, mission designs, world maps, ‘playground’ building designs, the racket system, new characters and the cinematic sequences.
From 2000-2001 Philip was the Chief Creative Officer at Quantic Dream, using venture capital investment to create a new vision for gaming – Episodic interactive content for broadband. This concept has now translated into the award winning ‘Indigo Prophecy’ (aka ‘Fahrenheit’).
From 1996-2000, Philip was the Senior Designer for the leading computer entertainment publisher Eidos Interactive (EIDSY). He created the ‘Tomb Raider Gold’ franchise for the PC platform, which to date has sold over 3 million units worldwide. As project leader, Philip created, wrote and designed ‘Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business’, ‘Tomb Raider: The Golden Mask’ and, ‘Tomb Raider: The Lost Artifact’. The critical success and popularity of these titles marked a defining involvement in the growth of the Tomb Raider franchise in the US, as Philip created many diverse and unique aspects of the ‘world’ of Lara Croft. These included writing personality-defining dialogue for Lara’s web presence, scripting for the first comic book release by Top Cow Comics, collaborating with renowned author Douglas Coupland on ‘Lara’s Book’, and conceptualizing the release of the TR Editing Tools.
As Eidos’ senior designer on ‘Omikron: The Nomad Soul’, Philip worked closely with David Bowie and the rest of the QD team to create a unique ‘Living World’ experience. Other accomplishments at Eidos included a design treatment for Michael Crichton and a role as design consultant on the best selling Playstation game ‘Fear Effect’.
THE ARCHITECTURE YEARS…
From 1994 to 1996 Philip worked as a senior designer in architecture for San Francisco firms BAR Architecture and KMD, heading concept teams for clients such as Spinelli’s and the San Francisco 49’ers. His ‘Mezzanine’ design can be seen at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, LAX.
Also in 1994, as a senior designer for WATG Inc, Philip developed the architectural concept for Lego’s first UK Theme Park in Windsor, created the competition bid for Legoland, California, and worked on Disneyland, Paris.
Prior to WATG, Philip worked for seven years with prestigious London Architects Rolfe Judd. As a Project and Design Architect, he specialized in 3D CAD concept designs for numerous Urban and Theme Park projects.
As a freelance consultant under the suitably mysterious title of ‘The Design Engine’, Philip has created event concepts such as ‘Blitz2000’, ‘The Big Breakfast’, and ‘ChildsPlay’ for a number of clients, including Coca Cola-Schweppes and Park Avenue Productions.
Philip is a qualified Architect and holds a Masters Degree in Architecture from Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom. He is also the author of a little-known volume of poetry entitled “Chasm of Cries – A Library of Screams and Papery Moans”. His mother thought it was “Quite good”…
