REUNIFICATION
CLIENT: Brian H.
ROLES: Art Director, Concepting, 2D Animation, Music Edtior
A trailer for a small video game tournament, taking place in Dublin, Ireland.
I was asked to develop a unique identity for the event and its trailer that was unlike any other eSports event. As most eSports events are styled to be technological and ‘in your face’, I chose to fashion the event and trailer’s identity in Swiss Style for a bold yet understated look that prioritises a design’s function to create an evocative scene.
Many scenes directly reference artists such as Jean Widmer, Sascha Lore and Hans Neuberg as I wanted to practice storyboarding and designing the motion of existing graphics for a project as if I was provided assets from a studio coworker. This approach was approved by the commissioner.
All referenced artists+works were fairly credited in a comparison video that was mentioned in and released alongside the original trailer.
PROJECT DATE: Feb 2025
PROJECT DURATION: 10 Days
ADDITIONAL CREDITS:
Referenced Designs - Miscellaneous Artists (More details below)
SOFTWARE USED:
After Effects (Motion Graphics, 2D Animation, Colour Correction, Typography, Concepting)
Final Cut Pro X (Storyboarding, Video Editing, Music Editing)
STYLE FRAMES
REFERENCED DESIGNS
Many scenes were directly based off existing, unrelated works by miscellaneous Swiss Style designers. As the storyboards to my works previous to this were entirely original designs I’d made myself, I wanted to practice working with other people’s work, as if the graphic designer of a workplace had handed a variety of style frames they’d created and I was tasked with animating both their motion and how they would function together.
A few designs (particularly in the ‘featured players’ section) fall lightly outside of Swiss Style’s stylistic principles. Early experiments revealed that attempting to individualise player announcements while abiding to limited colours and simplistic shapes and typography would lessen the impact and memorability of each scene compared to allowing certain rules to be broken.
The video below credits any referenced design while also displaying how I chose to fit them all together into a fluid piece of motion design.
RECEPTION
Considering the originally minimal reach of the event's social media page (which began at 28 followers), the trailer performed fantastic, arguably due to its unique stylisation.
The trailer’s success resulted in the event increasing its entrant capacity; it ultimately attained 117 total in-person attendees.
Additionally, the event’s graphic designers adopted the trailer’s style and continued Reunification’s promotional campaign with a series of original Swiss Style designs.