Giant Bomb • 2021
Giant Bomb Game of the Year 2021
Role(s): Lead Designer
Giant Bomb usually approaches end of the year coverage differently than most outlets. With GB there isnt the over the top flashy, awards like feeling to things, instead they look to present a more behind the curtain look at how Game of the Year is decided amongst staff. The coverage they provide is to air their discussions live to the audience and really bring them into the process
My Responsibilities:
• GOTY 2021 logo
• Thumbnail design strategy/execution
• Promotional design strategy/execution
• Social design strategy/execution
• Stream graphics strategy/execution
Since the focus isnt really on the games itself and is much more centered around the hosts and the brand, i wanted to really play that up in the visual approach
putting the GB brand and logo first and foremost into the branding was an easy way to make it feel special and important while also reminding users why they come to Giant Bomb for their GOTY coverage. Something straight forward like this cut through a lot of the noise and just go straight to promoting the brand in a vibrant and colorful manner
goty 2021 day 1 live on twitch.tv
Like the majority of Giant Bomb's content these days, there was a need for stream overlays to make the event of GOTY feel like it was still special and something you don't see often. I went with a fairly simplistic approach visually and let the colors be a nice backdrop for the content to sit on, I'm always a sucker for a vertical logo as well so it felt natural here with the proportional size 16:9 i had left
Initially i wanted to go with an even stronger typographic approach but when i started to apply it to assets it took away from either the content or the GB brand and that wasn't where we wanted this to sit. Sticking with just GOTY and not spelling it out (while trusting the audience to know) allowed the brand to be used many more places than before
social post temaplate developed for gb
For posting clips of certain discussion pieces i developed a template the team could use. It had editable spaces for each day and for the headline spaces as well with a 16:9 frame to go with. I was happy with how this came out from a branding perspective and something that would stand out on a social feed
gb goty 2021 day 1 thumbnail gradient
gb goty 2021 day 2 thumbnail gradient
gb goty 2021 day 3 thumbnail gradient
Giant Bomb 2022
I had a simple goal when developing these thumbnails, to create something that would graphically stand out on tv sets, laptop screens, phones, wherever. The way i achieved that was setting up a 4 part gradient that would link between thumbnails day after day while promoting the day number second in the hierarchy behind the giant bomb logo
Even with the repetition of the GB GOTY logo i made, the drastically different color backdrops helped make the thumbnails still feel elevated
day 3 thumbnail live on youtube
When the time came for the thumbnails to actually be put up, my goals were fairly well realized. The art stood out well from a sea of other thumbnails and had a strong visual core that might at least intrigue people who didn't previously know giant bomb before now.
thumbnail for our guest articles
Game Mess Mornings
Giant Bomb 2022
For the winner art I wanted to continue the use of the centerpiece motif where the GB GOTY bomb had originally sat. For the overall winner art though it felt like a nice opportunity to highlight the game and push the GB brand a little more secondary. It made for a nice plaque of sorts that our friend Greg Lobanov and Finji who made the game Chicory