Tendril created a visual identity, motion branding system and toolkit for Riot Worlds 2022, a global championships event for League of Legends. The challenge was to create a design system that could scale with each stage of the competition and allowed us to have many combinations of team colours, logos, and assets while remaining consistent, beautiful, visually distinct and recognizable as Worlds 2022.
What is League of Legends?
League of Legends is Riot's premiere MOBA-style game that is played by millions around the world. With a roster of over 100 unique champions, LoL is a game that requires a combination of tight teamwork and individual skill to win.
What is WORLDS?
WORLDS is the yearly world championship event of League of Legends Esports. Twelve regions from around the world send their best to compete in stadiums worldwide. WORLDS 2020 viewership was 50 million, and fandom continues to grow every year.
The Brief
Design the League of Legends Worlds 2022 Event Package, creating a concise visual identity with a flexible and highly editable toolkit for RIOT teams.
01—Identity Elements
Logo
The hero logo is our primary brand signifier. Comprising of a holding shape, typography, and the 'Worlds' existing shield, we crafted a wordmark that echoes the same sensibilities and keeps the world's logo front and center across all design work. The logo forms the basis of the grid system, meaning that all elements within the system scale up or down while maintaining a consistent relationship with one another.
Motion Behaviour
The power of LoL comes from how teams can reconfigure their champions in an almost unlimited number of ways. A mixture of strengths and weaknesses shapes each game's overall play style and outcome. Using this idea as the basis for our motion, we developed a distinct ‘reconfiguration’ behaviour that unites all our 2D elements across the system.
Typography
Our visual identity uses two different fonts to create clarity, contrast, and typographic rhythm to layouts, reflecting Worlds's sporty and gritty nature.
Manuka Bold, our primary font, maintains the distinctive bold compressed style synonymous with LoL Esports, but with enough nuance and character to feel unique to Worlds '22. Fraktion, our secondary font, maintains an athletic, technical edge, with enough visual density to stand alone when we aren't using our primary font.
Color
We developed a bold and energetic color palette that can be combined in different ways to create a coherent color story across the entire competition. Throughout the tournament, the color combinations and densities transform, helping to differentiate each stage at a glance.
02—The Package
We took the identity elements and expanded them into an entire event package, bringing a bold vision for Worlds 2022 that is fresh, impactful, and exciting.
Client: Riot Games / Creative Director: David Jung, Vince Than / Creative Director: Alexandre Torres, Nidia Dias, Tom Crate / Executive Producer: Ramona Gornik-Lee / Producer: Niko Hook / Emily McCallen / Coordinator: Andrea Chan / Director: Adam Brandon / Art Director: Bruno Canales / CG Sup: Alexandre Veaux / Designer: Rafa Cezar, Leonardo Bortolussi, Pedro Cruz,Yeseong Kim, Runbo Chen / FX: Bruno Canales, Benjamin Luthold, William Sharkey, Aiden Riekenbrauck, Yeseong Kim / 3D Animation: Benjamin Luthold, William Sharkey / 2D Animation: Hernan Lindenbaum / Lighting + Rendering: Alexandre Veaux / Compositing + Grading: Corey Larson / Finishing: Corey Larson / Toolkitting: Zack Lovatt / Pitch 2D + Designer: Andrew Footit
