Role: Senior Graphic Designer / 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
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 / Live Show
Reunite in New Crunchy City
The second year creating an all-virtual anime event with industry and fan panels, guest meet & greets, live art, entertainment and more.
Creative Goal:
Due to a change in web CMS, limitations caused the previous experience to fall flat and posed obstacles in creating a truly personalized and dynamic experience. This year's goal was to enhance the fan journey and user experience flow through vibrant visuals, creative messaging strategy and thorough website executions.
MESSAGING STRATEGY
+ ART DIRECTION
In 2020, our goal was to take our fans to another world, where they could escape the confines of quarantine. For 2021, we wanted our fans to reunite online - in a vibrant New Crunchy City, reflective of our anime family and the world we had built in-person in years past. We conducted brainstorm sessions to discover the deep values our fans had for anime and pop culture, then explored visual themes which included modern retro, energy and vibes, and a community of characters. Eventually landing on a mix of all three, we coined the term "newstalgic" in hopes of bringing new experiences that evoke nostalgia for years to come.
2021 Style Guide Excerpts
2021 Event Landing Page
Digital Badge
WEBSITE
+ USER EXPERIENCE
The team explored and troubleshot various topics from creative messaging, website content hierarchy, and user experience - taking deep dives into themes, functionality and content. In addition to troubleshooting around the event producer's CMS limitations for web design, we also came up with creative solutions around geo-blocked content, scheduling for multiple international time zones, and other content experience obstacles. Once the team figured out the framework, I took responsibility to execute the creative vision across all 1400 assets to ensure the fan journey remained on brand. The user experience touched everything from initial promotions, event registration, website navigation, scheduling, interactive gamification, streaming content, video on demand, artist and exhibitor e-commerce and more.
Schedule Screen
Stream Frames
Scavenger Hunt
Subpage
Initial Concepts
Final Character Art
CHARACTER + ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT
Working with several independent illustrators and design studios, the team commissioned illustrations of New Crunchy City, our mascot Crunchyroll-Hime and her cat Yuzu, as well as ten Gacha Characters. The Japan-inspired New Crunchy City districts reflected the various types of content offered at the expo - virtual industry and fan panels (Theater District), artists' alley (Anime Arts District), exhibitors (Central Shopping District), and entertainment (Super Arcade + Club Yuzu). Crunchyroll-Hime wears digital retro-inspired attire with virtual designs, and the Gacha Characters each have their own mix of personalities inspired by our district themes, Japanese figures, and of course, the diversity of our fans.
Video & Mograph Clip
Final New Crunchy City Illustration
Initial Sketch
Final Character Art
Final Character Art
Initial Concepts
Social Announcement
MARKETING +
MERCHANDISE
Catering to an international demographic, roughly 650+ internal and sponsored marketing placements were created for social media, lifecycle, user acquisition, out-of-home advertising, and e-commerce, with many adapted for localization for eight languages.
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Cosplay Contest Awards
Registration Incentives
Web Banner
Teaser Video
Social Announcement
In-stream Merchandise Placement
Mobile App Banner