When a local game store came to us wanting a really defined brand for their new store's grand opening, it was something we really couldn't say no to!
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Unplugged Gaming is a local game shop located in Manlius, NY with a focus in trading card games. They do also provide gaming supplies and provide an economy for locals to trade in their old cards.
Project timeline
Along with establishing a brand and its guidelines, we also provided voice & tone and photography direction.
my part to play
I was one of two lead designers working to help conceptualize and then develop this brand’s visual look & feel.
software
In mid 2020, the owners of Digital Hyve sold off their company and stepped down from their leadership positions to start off new careers and new ideas, one of which as a local game shop. Jake was opening it in the Greater Syracuse area with his wife as they both had a passion for trading card games and their local community. Knowing his old team, he asked us to make a brand and standards for him and his wife to use for their shop. With my love of video games and Magic: The Gathering, I was more than excited to hop on board and see what could be done!
I unfortunately wasn’t around during the moodboard process, however what the client liked the most was the use of bright, vibrant color with geometric shape and fun visual monochromatic styles. These are some of the more finalized concepts.
After a variation of my first concept above was selected by the client, my fellow designer and I worked with the copywriter to flesh out their final brand guidelines as well as photography, type, and voice & tone. Since we were only doing their brand development, it was important to get this as solid as possible.
It’s not every day that your local game store wants to change or evolve. After all, these places are built on having a small and dedicated community and those typically come with fair amounts of nostalgia attached. Regardless, it was still a joy to work on and while I still hope that one day I’ll be able to design a kick-ass site or hybrid app that they so definitely deserve, I can take solace knowing that I’ve done my part to help out my local game store in more than just buying product.
Jake and his wife ended up selling the shop to another owner in 2022/2023 and it’s still going strong with trading card games, vintage video games, and tabletop RPGs. They’ve kept the branding we’ve done for them and now having a thriving Discord community of almost 800 members as of 2024.