Hasbro

TF Gen1: 1984 Arcade
Style Guide

Hasbro engaged our team to develop design elements for the Transformers Gen1: 1984 Arcade licensing program, which pays homage to the year that the original Transformers were born through the lens of a video game arcade from that time period.

With the licensing program targeting boys and their dads through its nostalgic appeal, we were inspired by the design of arcade video games from the mid-80s, from the bold graphics and title treatments on the outside of the cabinets to the bright, 8-bit graphics used in the games themselves. The color palette for the artwork taking visual cues from the arcade game cabinets leverages muted primary and secondary colors with a layer of textural aging to give it an authentic retro appeal. The color palette for the artwork inspired by in-game graphics juxtaposes vibrant hues against a background of stark black.

Our design solutions for the licensing program feature pixelated fonts, raceway-styled striping and classic artwork of the classic Gen1 Transformers characters and other visual assets. Taking insights from research provided by Hasbro, we created compositions, badges and patterns based on a fabricated Transformers arcade video game. Scenes were created to convey the classic battle between the Autobots and Decepticons as well as Optimus Prime’s and Bumblebee’s vehicle and robot modes, with backgrounds of space, stylized bursts and explosions. Familiar on-screen graphics and game-related terminology were infused into our designs as a way to trigger a sense of nostalgia and connect with dads on an emotional level.

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