Portfolio
Gamers Unite GameCon
Duration: 4 Month
Tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, Figma, Blender, After effect
Role: Art Direction, Branding, Stage Design, Motion graphics, Web/Stage UI
Problem
Gaming is often looked at as a bad habit and not encouraged by parents, and gamers may face certain stereotypes as well. However, gaming has many underestimated benefits, promoting socialization is one example; gaming can help people open up and become more confident.
It is undeniable that gaming has both positive and negative influences, which is why I want to bring out the best of gaming through this event.
Solution
The idea is to break the current stereotypes towards gamers and gaming as a hobby. The purpose of this event is to create a space where gamers feel comfortable socializing and connecting with each other, give gamers more platforms to interact as well as act as a platform for new players to receive information.
Through modern and fashionable graphic style, the event will act as a great platform for socialization, and attract people of similar interest and promote people to making new friend and strengthen relationships.
Branding
The branding strategy is to play off of modern game design vibes, and use bold, saturated colors to evoke player's resonance with gaming, thus make them interested in the event.Â
The logo design is custom type-based, with a star as its main iconography. I designed it this way because stars are often present in games as rewards, it acts to unite both the top and bottom text and creating a bold and unified look.
In tribute to the sense of gaming I am trying to establish, a lot of GUI elements such as dot grid, holographic boarders, outlined text, blur and glow effect as well as custom geometric shapes are used as fluid elements, and will be considered when designing the marketing creative materials.
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Marketing
Campaign
All the marketing materials will follow the branding guidelines mentioned above use popular games and selected fluid elements to attract gamer demographics and increase socialization and interaction.
The main visuals will include elements from the games, such as splash art, maps, or slogans. All sponsor company's logo will be present on the background of the main visuals.
The social media aspects will also expand on the current branding guideline and strive to create simple and effective posts that shows event details.
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Stage & Stage UI
I designed a circular stage so people from all directions can see the ongoing events at the conference. Paid audience are close to the stage and can watch at a closer range and have more interactions with the guests. The guests enter and exit through the audience, making the audience feel more engaged.
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The stage will have 6 rectangular screens on the outside which will stream the game that is being played, as most games has a set screen proportion.
There will be a rounded screen below, which will be used to show the players that are on stage and their performance score ( if it is streaming a game that is competitive ). The screen can hold up to five player’s profile on each hemisphere, ten in total ( as most competitive games are a 5v5 standard). When there are less then five player’s profile on screen, the size of their profile will enlarge and be tiled.
The inside of the screen will show view’s comments as only the players on stage can see them.
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Reflection
As my thesis project, it is definitely quite challenging to take on so many different aspect of design and complete a project on such a big scope. However, with the initial target of trying to bring gamers and people of similar passion together and facilitate socialization and bonding, I feel like one event is not enough. Also considering the pandemic, it can be challenging to host such an large scale event in person.
In order to expand on this event, I think designing an app that brings gamers around the world together can be cool. It could have features such as forum, news, a friend and bonding system where meeting people who enjoys the same game as you. Making the gaming and relationship building experience easier and more enjoyable.
