MATT CRANE
Tracy Charlton, owner of Minus World runs an amazing retro game show at the Davis Convention center. I had the unique opportunity to create branding for the show. About 2500 people attended the show with 100 vendors and 7 celebrity guests. 8 totes of canned goods were donated to a local food bank.
As a fan of all things retro gaming I wanted a strong theme for this show. I sketched up a variety of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles parody ideas. After chatting it over with Tracy we agreed that even though the Chilie Peppers mashup with TMNT was a fun idea it would be better to go with the arcade cabinet concept.
After agreeing to move forward with the arcade cabinet concept sketch, I fleshed the idea out in more detail. The final version was very successful in evoking the TMNT Turtles In Time arcade cabinet from the early 90s without actually being that cabinet. The branding I created was used in a variety of formats for the show including the street sign above.
When the visual branding was finalized I moved on to creating animated versions. These motion graphics were used to promote the show in Instagram Stories, Facebook and X posts. They were also used for signage on the TVs inside the Davis Conference Center.
The Instagram Story alone garnered over 4400 views and 160 likes. The combination of branded motion graphics with event footage helped draw attendees to the show and give them a great taste of what they would see when they walked through the doors.
I'm very proud of the branding I created for this show and felt deeply satisfied in seeing it used throughout the event and on merchandise. This show was also a blast to attend! As a huge nerd and fan of retro gaming I couldn't have been happier to have my passion for motion & graphic design collide with my love of gaming. Meeting Paul Niemeyer and hearing his cautionary tales about working as an artist/designer on the Mortal Kombat logo was one of the hilights of the show.