Giant Skull Brand
Creative Direction
Alternate Reality Brand
Branding brings plenty of opportunities to craft an authentic voice and develop creative visuals but there exists a part of branding often overlooked that can elevate and communicate on entirely new levels. When a brand has a story to tell, everything becomes a canvas ready to express a unique identity. Giant Skull is one of those brands. Their goal was to bring themselves into the world as a premier game studio that would embrace a new approach to immersive brand and game development.
Their directive is what sets Giant Skull apart from every other game studio out there. They didn’t just want a brand, they wanted a world. A thematic reality they could live in and become inspired by each and every day would inspire their work on upcoming projects. They wanted a brand that would evolve with them. They wanted something that - in itself - could become a game for the world to play. This is their alternate reality brand and a true labor of love for everyone who worked on it.
World Building
Our first step in this unique process was to explore what a brand for an entertainment and game development studio is in our current landscape. In just about all cases, these brands become shells that contain the studio mission and a glimpse into the games and products they offer. In the case of Giant Skull, the games are a few years off so the goal is to convey the sensibility, world building, and overall studio aesthetic to build anticipation and establish a platform to reveal future titles in an interactive setting.
The process of game development is primed to be shared for fans who wish to uncover every little detail that might reveal the game before anyone else gets it. I wanted to enable the studio to turn their brand into an interactive brand that would creatively communicate process whenever they wanted. Key to this would be communicating within the world of Giant Skull requiring the keen eyed fan to pay attention and decipher every word. As you might imagine, even the studio material has been designed in the alternate reality world of Giant Skull. Sharing a memo or taking notes is now embedded within their world.
A Cryptic Launch
As part of the brand launch, we designed and developed the studio site as a teaser into their world. With a mysterious video playing on loop, the site intentionally offers very little in terms of company information or goals. The looping video features hidden language and content seemingly redacted at various moments. Only when the user clicks the bracket icon in the upper left corner do we reveal the hidden interactivity of the site. A simple text console overlays the site and allows users to input anything in hopes of a revealing response. We designed this console to be familiar to UNIX development enticing game developers and anyone else who loves a good puzzle. In this console we’ve creatively hidden narrative information and studio details.
The world of Giant Skull is a cryptic voice - communicating across the vast expanse. Their location is unknown and goal equally mysterious. Deep down, a narrative structure we helped establish is there to guide the brand language. We’ll watch as it evolves over time and reveals its true intention. I’ll let you go explore the Giant Skull world and play the ARG because it’s no fun to have any of that spoiled. The Giant Skull brand ARG is a long play so keep a close watch to their site and their social channels for all of the latest updates. Explore it and use the looping video to inspire what might unlock deeper details into the world of Giant Skull.
