A Celebration of the
Anime Universe
The Crunchyroll Anime Awards recognizes achievements for artistic and technical merits in the anime industry. Crunchyroll brings all of the anime universes together under one love for anime. Just as each individual anime universe has its own significant impact on the fandom, when they collide, they create spectacular fireworks.
Creative Goal:
To create a brand identity celebrating the best of the best in anime.
lIVE WEBSITE: LINK
Role: Art Director
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Concept Design + Art Direction
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Style Guide Creation
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Character + Illustration Art Direction
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Website Graphic Design
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Marketing Static Ad Design
Partnered with:
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Web Development - User Experience + Content Hierarchy
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Marketing - Static Ads for Paid and Social Media
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Audience Development - Video Placements / Reels
MESSAGING STRATEGY
+ ART DIRECTION
Taking inspiration from parallels such as celebration & fireworks, and from the real & the anime universes, the event took on a colorful and dynamic visual direction throughout. The bright dot iconography represents the vibrant energy each fan, character, artist and being in the anime community, with the dots forming larger entities as part of a whole, the whole that is anime and Crunchyroll.
2022 Style Guide Excerpts
WEBSITE
+ USER EXPERIENCE
The 2022 Anime Awards website consisted of four phased launches:
Phase 1 - The return of Anime Awards
Phase 2 - The Announcement of Judges and Category Nominees
Phase 3 - The Voting Period
Phase 4 - The Winners Announcement
While much of the original wireframe was kept the same as previous years, The 2022 Anime Awards pivoted and tabled the live show awards ceremony element due to the pandemic. As so, the website and highlight reels needed to showcase an exciting winners reveal to truly celebrate the industry winners and their diehard fans. The winners website consisted of clickable iconography which triggered the category element to drop down with winner's information and initiate an animated, celebratory "fireworks" reaction. Users are able to interact with the website to discover which of their favorite intellectual properties won the titles.
Winners Landing Page
2022 Event Landing Page
Past Winners Page
Category Winners Page
Initial Sketches
Final Character Art
Final Character Art
CHARACTER
DEVELOPMENT
Working with an independent illustrator, the team commissioned illustrations of our mascot, Crunchyroll-Hime and her cat Yuzu. For 2022, Hime represented Crunchyroll in the different phases as the awards show host, the backstage production manager, and the ethereal goddess of the anime universe. Galactic Hime conjures her magic to form a glowing orb - representing a piece of the Anime Universe and the award presented to our industry winners.
Initial Sketches
Initial Sketch
Final Character Art
Final Character Art
Social Media Announcement
Social Media Header
MARKETING
Roughly 1200+ internal and sponsored marketing placements were created for social media, lifecycle, user acquisition, and other channels. These assets included winners laurels to be distributed to industry winners, nominee assets showcasing hundreds of intellectual properties, and social media assets to drive engagement -- all of which were adapted for localization in eight languages.
Winner's Laurel
Social Announcement
Carousel CTA Assets
In-App Asset
Social Media Announcement
Social Media Header
2021 ANIME AWARDS ASSETS