BACK TO THE BASICS

Job: Artwork for publication
Client: Retro Gaming

CONCEPT: Design a visual that contains a comprehensive collection of home console videogame mascots that span the ’70s to current day.

CHALLENGE: Select pivotal hardware advances in gaming history via the most iconic and beloved 8-16 bit game characters, arranged in a way that evokes nostalgia for each era.

SOLUTION: Adobe Illustrator provided a good balance of drawing tools and free-form typography. Five of the seven characters were faithfully recreated at scale from their original sprite sets, while the other two were based on polygon renderings and drawn freehand with the pen tool. For the grid background, a hot pink ’80s arcade neon glow effect was added and balanced with a classic 8-bit monitor green font. Inspired by the resurgence of retro 8 and 16-bit styled video games, I titled this artwork The Devolution of Video Games: Back to the Basics.

RESULT: Creation of a sharp image that worked perfectly for the intended article! The elements successfully tied together and illustrated the retro game design style of “less is more.”

Trademarks and copyrights for all games and characters depicted are owned by the companies that market or license those products and are protected by international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.