The Gathering 2023 - the return of Norway's largest LAN parties where people from all corners of Norway and Europe gather to celebrate digital culture. For us in the team this was a return to form, a return to building a new chapter for this event's lifetime, and the continuation of the story we had constructed before the Covid-19 pandemic.
My role within our design team changed to a senior graphic designer role, managing and designing content for the event, especially since our team was very small in comparison to others within the wider crew. This required a new perspective upon the matter of coordinating our efforts and a new focus on presenting the event for both returning and new customers.
The design process pt. 1
The timeline starts during 2020 - after a succesful 2019 with establishing a new story and theme for the event regarding a conflict against a sentient AI where users could choose sides and get rewards for doing certain achievements, we continued this on with the story for the next LAN event.
By the end of 2019 - the AI faction one and the losing faction would have to evacuate their planet in search for a new home.
This is where the current story picks up, where the current faction we are focusing on is subdivided into 2 more (this would be fresh factions, with no connection to the previous ones in 2019):
1) The Starlight Brigade, which focuses on mechanized terraforming of the new planet and a strong establishment for their faction to defend their hom
2) Bio/Tech, a faction that looks to terraform the barren planet they are on and bring new life after discovering strange crystals beneath the desolate sands.
1) The Starlight Brigade, which focuses on mechanized terraforming of the new planet and a strong establishment for their faction to defend their hom
2) Bio/Tech, a faction that looks to terraform the barren planet they are on and bring new life after discovering strange crystals beneath the desolate sands.
The conceptual process took several tries, sparring back and forth with the head designer/art director about how each faction would present itself to the users - especially when it came to creating activity.
We had multiple drafts, taking inspiration from franchises like Star Trek, Halo, Metal Gear Solid and Warframe. A large part of the challenge was to present them as familiar, yet visually interesting to spark interest.
Drafts of Bio-Tech, one of the factions made for the event
Designs for buttons created for our achievements for people participating in the LAN party
The design process pt. 2
Continuing on to the neutral design for the event, we focused on the themes of growth and stability. This was reflected in the presentation of shapes and colors with the combination of rounded polygons. We had used a color palette combining green, teal and a mute blue to reflect both sides and the partial collaborations they had to make to keep their community afloat.
Another part i had worked on was the creation of general purpose maps for crew and users throughout the event, not to mention wayfinding. The Vikingskipet where the event is held, is a large, winding arena that needed a proper amount of wayfinding for everyone - especially during a state of emergency.
This has prompted me to provide clear and concise maps both physically and digitally to users who will call this place home for a week during the month of march. This was the first time i had done wayfinding on a large scale, so this took a long time to create and discuss with the security staff who'll be using this map to guide people.
The design process pt. 3
Content Creation for digital events and merchandise
The latter half of my time designing for the event was spent on creating layouts for the livestream and promotional material that would be posted throughout the coming days. The creation of these small parts that would contribute to a whole would also prove challenging in the face of a tight deadline, given that we the team had to work with large projects involving the coordination, printing and shipping of key merchandise which were used by the crew and given to users who join the event.
These designs were simple, and mostly followed a template that had been used for our merchandise since 2019 due to its succesful use in the coming years.
During the event, we had also produced posters that would be placed around the arena that could be up for grabs should a user have enough achievement points or meet certain criteria. They were either fictional propaganda posters or concept art used during 2020 that couldn't be used for other projects. Nevertheless, the project work during the event cooled down and the team could relax a bit as deadlines were met earlier during the prep phase of the arena.
Reception and Afterthoughts
Looking into the future of the event.
The overall reception to the event was very positive, despite some hiccups and a limited amount of seating as this event was started a few months after the country opened up. It was a challenging ordeal to get this event back in track - especially the advertising and marketing. A lot of deals had to be made and many darlings killed for the sake of reaching a deadline in a reasonable time.
Towards the future of the event - i am concerned, with the coordination of the event. Despite using 4 months for preparation to the event, it doesn't feel as comfortable as it should be as the event became bigger and bigger.
One of the largest challenges i had to faces as a senior designer was collaborating and coordinating with other crews as our deadlines were very tight towards the end, which demanded clear and concise information that i wish was used more.
