Penguin Brief - Extended Development designs

Following on with the vector designs of the character Adrian Mole and the watercolour background. I transferred them all on Photoshop and put in the correct measurements of the actual size of a Penguin book (These were told on the competition brief online website). 

By this I created and tested multiple designs for the Adrian Mole book cover design. 

Below are some examples of book covers that I have created and finished ones. Below are the examples of the book cover designs. 

 

The reason of the silhouette of a young boy is for the children to imagine what they believe Adrain Mole would appear like when they read the book and imagine is features. This is an inspiration from Noma Bar's style who designed the book cover of Haruki Murakami. Then combined it with Andrew Bannecker's colour art style i.e. the colourful background, typefaces and illustrative style. 

Below are two mock designs for the Adrian Mole book. One is red and the other is white. For the red design cover, I wanted the book to depict the diary which belonged to Adrian Mole. As Adrain Mole has many diarys which he documents his life, I gave the diary more of a flushed appearance (worn out/well used). Then I have added some British symbols on the book designs such as: the pounds and pence, the UK land, UK flag, cup of tea and as the book is set in the Margret Thatcher era, I added the shovel and pipe axe to symbolise the miners. Then also included some stickers, sweets and pencil to make an image that Adrian Mole is a child in education. 

For the second mock design, I made a more lighted and softer cover. As the other design has a more stronger presence for the target audience to see. With this design, I kept with a white themed, as I wanted the colourful typeface and the silhouette to stand out for the children to see. For the border of the cover, I have used various amount of school equipment as Adrian Mole is in education, the back has a book (indicating his diary for the blurb) and finally the spine is a pen which connects the ink to the book and visit versa. 

Penguin Brief - Development Designs

Illustration Designs (Digital Designs)
After doing a few illustration sketches of the character Adrian Mole on previous designs and the television actor. Adrian Mole is young teenage boy who is nerdy, spotty, lanky and has glasses. Therefore, I have taken these recurring elements of the child character and sketched them in my own illustration style. 

After finishing the sketches, I began to outline the sketches on Adobe Illustrator. The reason of this is so I can experiment with colouring the character, Adrian Mole. I drew over the sketches with the pen tool, tested with the various stroke thickness lines. Then once I have chosen the appropriate stroke thickness, I create a vector of the character. This vector is for the Photoshop, were I experiment with colours. 

Below are some images of the vectors I have created. 

D&AD New Blood Awards 2017 | Hasbro Brief - Colour & Typeface

Type/Design Tips for Board Games Designers
Information by Christina Major, February 1st, 2016 - www.Leagueofgamemakers.com

Here are some top tips that Christina Major points out when making a well designed Board game. While the other elements of your art and components might be designed to be impressive and eye-catching, what you want out of typography is an invisible experience. Great typography in a game doesn’t mean fancy illustrative fonts, most of the time. It means that type treatment is so intuitive and serves the game so well in both theme and mechanics that nobody has trouble reading or understanding your design choices.

Usually Major starts with these free fonts: Font Squirrel or Google Fonts, because both are generally free when it comes to commercial use. Commercial projects are things you’re making money off of, so you want to make sure any font you acquire is licensed for that if you’re publishing. If it’s just a prototype, though, non-commercial is fine. You’ll probably actually want two or three fonts, so try to find things that look like they belong together.

ASSIGNING HIERARCHY

Picking a family of fonts that go well together is really only half the battle. For game components like tiles or cards, you can break your font treatments down in a hierarchy. Typography is a relative thing. Think about the information you’re conveying and the speed of accessibility to determine emphasis.

1. Illustrative/Logo Treatment: Logo treatments reinforce the flavor and style of your game more than anything else, but you might also have a word game or labels on the back of different decks where the typography will be your art. Like any illustration, an experienced artist will often be essential in giving it the right look for your finished game. But if you’re just prototyping, big and clear will do just fine.

2. Functional: Think of the numbers or letters in the corner of an Uno deck or the tiles in Acquire. They’re not really there to be read so much, just glanced at to identify what group/row/column it belongs in, so they need to be your quickest read. Make Functional type your highest emphasis by making them larger than the other fonts, in a bolder font face, or with the highest amount of contrast with your backgrounds.

3. Header: A header treatment’s going to be used in name of a card or tile. This might be a thing you reference, like a cheat sheet outlining player phases. So they also need to be big and clean, but a touch smaller and with less emphasis than your Functional treatments. You can use a slightly more thematic font if reading this text the card/tile isn’t essential once it’s played.

4. Descriptive Descriptive text, if you have it, outlines the function of the component, and comes up a lot in deck-builders and other card based games. This should be your very simplest, most basic looking font. Do not try to get cute with thematic/narrow/bold/italic fonts here.

5. Flavor: If you want to educate your player beyond the basic function of the card/tile about the history of the Norse Gods or national parks, make this a point size smaller than the Descriptive treatment/a shade lighter/italicized to indicate it’s optional information that won’t affect the gameplay.

TREAT YOUR TYPE RIGHT

Let it breathe: Leave at least 1em (the width of the letter M in your font) of space around the edges of the card. These are easy fixes in Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign. If you’re trying to prototype using tables in a word processing program, you can also change your cell padding in Microsoft Word. And if you’re working with a printer, ask them how much space they prefer you leave. Sometimes they’ll have guidelines for bleed and safe area.

Don’t use light text on dark backgrounds for anything longer than 5 words. For headers, it may work out, but if you have a longer description on a card, you want it to be dark text on a light-coloured background with lots of colour contrast to be easier to read (and also to print).

Visually balance your type for a natural read. Try not to leave one word of text on its own line in a paragraph; you can either put a hard return or play with letter spacing/kerning here. Also, I’m usually of the school that says any technique can work in the right context, but for the love of all that is holy, never use any tool in an art or word processing program that auto-justifies your text. It will bloat out your spacing and look bad every time.

Instead, look to adjust the space between your lines (leading) and letters (kerning) to make the typography easy to read.

CONCLUSION

Though your art and minis might be the starring actors on the stage of your board game, typography is part of the backstage crew that invisibly frames the experience. By having even just a bit of knowledge behind the art of typography, you can showcase your game in the best light possible, whether that’s presenting it to your publisher or getting your Kickstarter funded. Happy footing!

Typefaces for my Board game

Colour choices for my Board game

D&AD New Blood Awards 2017 | Hasbro Brief - Chosen Idea | 3D Pictionary

3D Pictionary
Summary of the game rules - For this game, it involves 5 players. The concept is again using 3d shapes to build what the word or board game says. The shapes will be put in the middle of the game board and the players can only get their colours and no other (unless you have a card that lets you). There will be a time limit to make these shapes.
However, there is only a limited amount of shapes to build the exact word. Therefore, with the use of the game board spaces, dices and cards will help the player either gain 3d shapes either from other players or lose. Each colour of the cards, will set the difficulty of the game. For example: green - easy, yellow - hard, red - difficult, bronze - challenging, silver - insane and gold - pro. 

Influences of the 3d Pictionary idea and design for the board game

Lego
Lego (stylised LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colourful interlocking plastic bricks accompanying an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. Lego pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct objects; vehicles, buildings, and working robots. Anything constructed can then be taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects.

Tetris
Tetris is a tile-matching puzzle video game, originally designed and programmed by Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov. "Tetriminos" are game pieces shaped like tetrominoes, geometric shapes composed of four square blocks each. A random sequence of Tetriminos fall down the playing field (a rectangular vertical shaft, called the "well" or "matrix"). The objective of the game is to manipulate these Tetriminos, by moving each one sideways (if the player feels the need) and rotating it by 90 degree units, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of ten units without gaps. When such a line is created, it disappears, and any block above the deleted line will fall. When a certain number of lines are cleared, the game enters a new level. As the game progresses, each level causes the Tetriminos to fall faster, and the game ends when the stack of Tetriminos reaches the top of the playing field and no new Tetriminos are able to enter. Some games also end after a finite number of levels or lines.

All of the Tetriminos are capable of single and double clears. I, J, and L are able to clear triples. Only the I Tetrimino has the capacity to clear four lines simultaneously, and this is referred to as a "tetris".

Monopoly
Monopoly is a board game that originated in the United States in 1903 as a way to demonstrate that an economy which rewards wealth creation is better than one in which monopolists work under few constraints and to promote the economic theories of Henry George and in particular his ideas about taxation. The current version was first published by Parker Brothers in 1935. Subtitled "The Fast-Dealing Property Trading Game", the game is named after the economic concept of monopoly—the domination of a market by a single entity. It is now owned and produced by the American game and toy company Hasbro. Players move around the game-board buying, trading, or selling properties, developing their properties with houses and hotels, and collecting rent from their opponents, with the goal being to drive them all into bankruptcy, leaving one monopolist in control of the economy.

Jenga

Jenga is a game of physical skill created by Leslie Scott, and currently marketed by Parker Brothers, a division of Hasbro. Players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks. Each block removed is then placed on top of the tower, creating a progressively taller structure.

The name jenga is derived from a Swahili word meaning "build".

D&AD New Blood Awards 2017 | Hasbro Brief - Ideas & Sketches

List of my ideas of a New board game

1. Tetris Towers - The concept of this game is a 4 player game. Whoever can build their tower the tallest within an hour wins the game. There will be pros and cons within this game, including the colour of blocks each one will hold a specific amount of points. And rolling a dice or landing on a colour space determines if you either gain or lose points. Beware that some Tetris pieces are difficult to balance and build with.
2. Building Blocks - Within this game is pretty similar to the concept above, again landing on the right colour space and rolling the dice, will either help your chance of winning or losing. Instead of a Tetris shapes, this game uses blocks such as cubes, cuboids, and any others. However, there will some deformed or difficult shaped cubes to stop the players on their chance to win. 
3. Body Pictionary - This game concept, requires a some physical skill (similar to Twister). Instead of the player using a pencil and paper to draw out the word. There will be cards deciding which part of the body needs to draw out the word that has been seen. This could be either the players: mouth, toes, armpit and so on. The one who can guess the drawing gains a point, and rotates. 
4. 3d Pictionary (3d Shapes) - For this game, it involves 5 players. The concept is again using 3d shapes to build what the word or board game says. However, there is only a limited amount of shapes to build the exact word . Therefore, with the use of the game board spaces, dices and cards will help the player either gain 3d shapes either from other players or lose. Each colour of the cards, will set the difficulty of the game. For example: green - easy, yellow - hard, red - difficult, bronze - challenging, silver - insane and gold - pro. Also the shapes will be put in the middle of the game board, the players can only get their colours and no other (unless you have a card that lets you). There will be a time limit to make these shapes.

Feedback from Peers:

• The tetris game has been done many times, especially how its already a popular well known game. The game play is interesting but you might get copyrighted as the game is already out. 
• The tetris tower, building blocks and 3d pictionary board game are all very similar in its  concept. Try to make the instructions of the game more different and distinctive. But I do find the 3D pictionary the most interesting to play. 
• I like the body pictionary game, its all to due with activity and movement than a regular sit down board game. By creating an strap mechanism that it can attach to any part of the body. Plus the game makes the player challenge themselves, they will have to have good balance and coordination when drawing. 
• Majority preferred the 3D pictionary board game, a lot said it reminds them of Lego and Tetris. But the games could be more altered and adjusted along the way of making the game. 
• The other majority of peers also liked the body pictionary, as it gets people to move around than sitting down. Again it brings activity to the players, challenge and even a laugh of the image they are trying to draw. But it maybe difficult to make or find a big enough board to draw the word. Plus the pen may run out due to the numerous times it get played.
• For the 3D pictionary board game it would be good if everything was themed as 3D like the manual, box that contains the game, maybe the board game or even the cards thats show what to make with the 3D pieces. 

Overall, most of my peers preferred between the 3D Pictionary or the Body Pictionary. The 3D Pictionary will be more challenging to make, depending on the rules of the game. And Body Pictionary would be more easier to make as it is mostly the images of the word cards and the board, pen and strap to hold the pen. But to conclude I would prefer to do the 3D Pictionary game as the majority found the concept of the game really intriguing and engaging. So below are some sketches of the 3D Pictionary game, this includes: 3D pieces, counters, board game, card designs and so on. 

 

 

 

 

D&AD New Blood Awards 2017 | Hasbro Brief - Inspiration design ideas

Other Game Board designs via Pinterest
During my research on Hasbro games, I decided to would be appropriate to also research more game board games created by other perusing game designers. Just in case the ideas that I come up with have already been created, thus I do not want to copyright their idea and creation. 

By looking up more design ideas on game boards, I looked into 'Pinterest'. Within this website, there are many design for their creative board game idea which influences me on the way I would like to design mine. This including, the basic products: dice, rules book, board, icons for the players, pad, pencil, various of cards and so on. 

Below are some images of these types of design and what needs to be included in a game board box: 

D&AD New Blood Awards 2017 | Hasbro Brief - Research

Hasbro Research

Hasbro, Inc. (an abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational toy and board game company. Hasbro acquired the trademarks and products of Kenner, Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley, among others. Among its toy and game products are the iconic Monopoly board game, G.I. Joe figurine, Furby electronic stuffed animal and Transformers mechanical toys. The Hasbro brand also spawned TV shows, such as Family Game Night on the Discovery Family network, to promote its products.

Hasbro is global company committed to Creating the World’s Best Play Experiences by leveraging its beloved brands, including LITTLEST PET SHOP, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, MONOPOLY, MY LITTLE PONY, NERF, PLAY-DOH and TRANSFORMERS, and premier partner brands.

The company’s Hasbro Studios and its lm label, ALLSPARK PICTURES, create entertainment brand-driven storytelling across mediums, including television, lm, digital and more.

Through the company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, including philanthropy, Hasbro is helping to build a safe and sustainable world and to positively impact the lives of millions of children and families.

Hasbro’s 90+ years rich and deep history can be told in a variety of ways – from key milestones, new brand innovations and immersive entertainment experience to storytelling and the insights and memories of millions of consumers worldwide.

Timeline of Hasbro

1923 - Originally known as Hassenfeld Brothers, the company was founded in Providence, Rhode Island, by Henry, Hillel and Herman Hassenfeld. The company rst sells textile remnants and then expands to pencil boxes and school supplies.

1940s - Hasbro expands its product line to include its rst toys – doctor and nurse kits.

1952 - Hasbro introduces MR. POTATO HEAD, the rst toy ever to be advertised on television.

1964 - Hasbro launches the world’s rst action gure with the introduction of G.I. JOE in 1964.

1968 - Hasbro becomes a publically traded company 1968.

1977 - One of the major revolutions in the toy and entertainment industry comes with the rise of STAR WARS and the widespread success of Kenner’s STAR WARS line in 1977.

1983 - The MY LITTLE PONY brand is born.

1984 - Hasbro purchases Milton Bradley and its PLAYSKOOL division. The acquisition pairs the world’s hottest toy company with the strength and stability of one of the world’s most respected game companies.

The TRANSFORMERS brand launches.
The Hasbro Children’s Foundation (now the Hasbro Children’s Fund) is established in 1984, creating an institution that would eventually help millions of children around the world.

1991 - The company acquires the Tonka Corporation, including its Kenner and Parker Brothers divisions. Brands such as MONOPOLY, TONKA, STAR WARS, NERF and PLAY-DOH join Hasbro’s portfolio.

1999 - Hasbro acquires WIZARDS OF THE COAST with brands such as MAGIC: THE GATHERING and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. 

In 1999, the company also launches the Team Hasbro employee volunteer program. Each full-time employee qualities for four hours of paid time-o each month to volunteer for child-focused programs. 

2001 - Hasbro establishes a corporate strategy focused on fully leveraging its brand portfolio.

2006 - Hasbro signs a licensing agreement with MARVEL, converging the rich, dynamic brand heritage of the MARVEL Universe with inspiring new products created by Hasbro.

2007 - TRANSFORMERS movie is released, launching one of the highest-grossing lm series ever.

1990s: Hasbro leads the way in Corporate Social Responsibility and workplace safety, helping to pioneer many industry standards, including the development of the industry’s rst re safety manual. Other milestones include the creation of the comprehensive Hasbro Global Business Ethics Principles.

2008 - Brian Goldner becomes the Chief Executive O cer.

2009 - Hasbro sign strategic alliance with Sesame Workshop to manufacture and market a wide range of toys and co-branded games based on their beloved characters, including Elmo, Big Bird and more.

Hasbro Studios is formed.

2010 - Hub Network, a joint venture with Discovery Communications, launches on 10.10.10.

2011 - The company establishes its Hasbro Gaming Center of Excellence.

2013 - Hasbro strengthens its mobile gaming expertise with the purchase of a majority stake in mobile game studio, Back ip Studios.

2014 - The Hub Network becomes Discovery Family Channel. Hasbro also enters into a new strategic marketing relationship with Disney Consumer Products for Disney PRINCESS brand and FROZEN brand.

Today - Hasbro focuses on innovation and the development of its world- class brand portfolio, including TRANSFORMERS, MONOPOLY, PLAY-DOH, MY LITTLE PONY, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, NERF and LITTLEST PET SHOP.

Hasbro Studios continues to drives entertainment, brand- driven storytelling for Hasbro across television, lm, commercial productions and short-form content. It develops, produces,
and distributes TV shows to leading networks in more than
180 countries globally.

On the lm side, Hasbro Studios has developed and produced a number of features based on the company’s brands. In addition to partnering with leading studios, the Company intends to make movies based on new and existing Hasbro brands for audiences globally through the Allspark Pictures lm label.

Popular Existing Game Boards Created by the Company

Monopoly (game)
Monopoly is a board game that originated in the United States in 1903 as a way to demonstrate that an economy which rewards wealth creation is better than one in which monopolists work under few constraints and to promote the economic theories of Henry George and in particular his ideas about taxation. The current version was first published by Parker Brothers in 1935. Subtitled "The Fast-Dealing Property Trading Game", the game is named after the economic concept of monopoly—the domination of a market by a single entity. It is now owned and produced by the American game and toy company Hasbro. Players move around the game-board buying, trading, or selling properties, developing their properties with houses and hotels, and collecting rent from their opponents, with the goal being to drive them all into bankruptcy, leaving one monopolist in control of the economy. Since the board game was first commercially sold in the 1930s, it has become a part of popular world culture, having been locally licensed in more than 103 countries and printed in more than thirty-seven languages.

Twister (game)

Twister is a game of physical skill produced by Milton Bradley Company and Winning Moves, that has been inducted into the American National Toy Hall of Fame. It is played on a large plastic mat that is spread on the floor or ground. The mat has six rows of large colored circles on it with a different color in each row: red, yellow, blue and green. A spinner is attached to a square board and is used to determine where the player has to put their hand or foot. The spinner is divided into four labeled sections: right foot, left foot, right hand and left hand. Each of those four sections is divided into the four colors (red, yellow, blue and green). After spinning, the combination is called (for example: "right hand yellow") and players must move their matching hand or foot to a circle of the correct color.

In a two-player game, no two people can have a hand or foot on the same circle; the rules are different for more players. Due to the scarcity of colored circles, players will often be required to put themselves in unlikely or precarious positions, eventually causing someone to fall. A person is eliminated when they fall or when their elbow or knee touches the mat. There is no limit to how many can play at once, but more than four is a tight fit.

Cluedo (game)

Cluedo known as Clue in North America—is a murder mystery game for three to six players, devised by Anthony E. Pratt from Birmingham, England. The game was first manufactured by Waddingtons in the UK in 1949. Since then, it has been relaunched and updated several times, and it is currently owned and published by the American game and toy company Hasbro. The object of the game is to determine who murdered the game's victim ("Dr. Black" in the UK version and "Mr. Boddy" in North American versions), where the crime took place, and which weapon was used. Each player assumes the role of one of the six suspects, and attempts to deduce the correct answer by strategically moving around a game board representing the rooms of a mansion and collecting clues about the circumstances of the murder from the other players.

Other Popular Board games

Pictionary

Pictionary is a charades-inspired guessing word game invented by Robert Angelwith graphic design by Gary Everson and first published in 1985 by Angel Games Inc. Hasbro has been the publisher since 1994 after acquiring the games business of Western Publishing. The game is played with teams with players trying to identify specific words from their teammates' drawings. Each team moves a piece on a game board formed by a sequence of squares. Each square has a letter or shape identifying the type of picture to be drawn on it. The objective is to be the first team to reach the last space on the board. To achieve this a player must guess the word or phrase being drawn by their partner, or if the player lands on an "all play" square, one player from each team attempts to illustrate the same concept simultaneously, with the two teams racing to guess first. The first player to land and guess correctly at the finish wins.

By obtaining this research, I have a better understanding on the design of the game, the packaging of the game and how these games include detail on both the design and conceptual aspect. These will become an inspiration for my version of a new game board design which is suitable for young adults and many more.