Wanna know who designed our game? An interview with Táňa Sekerková

Putting everything that makes Tour de France the cycling's greatest spectacle into a game plan is no easy task. During the creation of the Tour de France Board Game, graphic designer Táňa Sekerková was given this task - and succeeded! When you look at the game board, a unique atmosphere will impress you at first glance.

"I hadn't worked on a board game before so it was a completely new challenge for me," Táňa told us. "When I entered the project, a large amount of work had already been done on the game. The design was supposed to move it all forward, but could also harm it. That is why I had great respect mixed with great enthusiasm and joy all the time. I was given the opportunity to create a small illustrated world and this kind of work is really a dream for me."

How much preparation was needed? Did you study the locations?

Before we started, I knew that Tour existed, but I didn't know much about it. The first acquaintance took place through the audiobook Old Lady's Tales. I shook my head in fascination over each chapter, and more and more I was overjoyed to be a part of it. I also tried to understand the rules and get to know the individual riders. But if you look at the game design, you will find almost no cyclists. So whenever I watched or researched the Tour, I focused on the fans, the flags, the road signs, the environment or the ads. We mainly tried to portray the atmosphere around the track. Roman Čermák, our boss, knows a lot about Tour, so he always gave me tips and I tried to make the most of it.

Is it necessary to empathize with the feelings of the people who will later play the game when designing?

The first thing is to excite people and make them want to play it. And the second? To ensure that they enjoy all the details during the game itself. We put a lot of thought into making the individual stages different from each other. We looked for distinctive places, fans and specifics of each stage. I also tried to make the game interesting from all points of view as it didn't matter which side of the table the player sat on. And it was very important that the illustrations did not interfere with the game plan and did not complicate it.

The game plan also includes authentic ads. Was it difficult to incorporate them?

Very good question! Ads belong to the Tour and without them we wouldn't create the right atmosphere. From the beginning, I tried to see them as another illustration and not take them as something that just "has to be" there.

How did you enjoy your work? Was it special in some way?

I like to work on projects where the final output is on paper. So when Roman approached me at the beginning, I was very happy. At the same time, it was a huge challenge because I had never been part of such a big project before. It was beautiful that Roman supported me in my ideas all the time and let me be myself - this is not always obvious.