Roberto Cirillo was the lead concept artist on Codex: Tyranids. Roberto is a new addition to the Games Workshop Design Studio and so you may not have heard too much about him. His work on the Tyranid Codex, however, is an impressive introduction.

Roberto joined Games Workshop in 2004, and brings a wealth of commercial design experience with him, having worked on two- and three-dimensional art for the computer games industry for almost 13 years.

In true Design Studio style, Roberto was thrown straight in at the deep end and was chained to his art cubicle to begin work on the new Tyranids book the moment he walked in the door. Many artists working in the wider industry might have trouble engaging fully with the very specific and refined imagery of the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes, but Roberto took to it straight away. "I've always followed with interest and excitement the releases of new Warhammer 40,000 miniatures," explains Roberto.

Roberto's first task was to work alongside Jes Goodwin on the design for the new Hive Tyrant. "It started with Jes talking me through some of his original designs and ideas. We discussed what was essential to keep and which elements were worth exploring and expanding," explains Roberto. It was this element of expanding an already well-realised design that enthused Roberto the most. "I just love all the weapons and bio-organic devices - the way they so smoothly integrate themselves into the rest of the living creature. It all makes for one big, mean alien!" Roberto and Jes spent some time refining the look of the Hive Mind's equivalent of technology. "There are no bolts, cogs, or inorganic compounds of any type," Roberto explains, warming to his subject. "It's pure, self-sustained evolutionary genius."

Another concept Roberto produced was the Broodlord. "I was given relatively open-wide freedom," says Roberto. "But it's very important that new designs maintain the look and feel of the race. They have to fit within the existing range."

As well as collaborating with Jes, Roberto worked closely with Phil on many parts of the conceptual design process. "It was important that I didn't come up with something that simply wouldn't work in the game, but at the same time, I needed to maintain the freedom to come up with cool new designs." Phil and Roberto obviously worked well as a team, and I'm sure everyone seeing the new miniatures will appreciate the work they've put in at an early stage.

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