RIOT Games + WAR
Another deliciously outlandish brief from RIOT Games graced the desks of the homies at We Are Royale with an assignment that could not be missed:
Teaming up with producer Liz Lipka, exec creative director Loren Judah (who handled the ARG mission) plus ACD Mike Arcangelli (who led the project after I dipped for another project) alongside an extremely talented team of metalhead banshees at Royale, we undertook a phased approach to the job beginning with the refresh of the brand kit for the band.
- perform a brand refresh for fully-digi-metal outfit, Pentakill
- build a massive, multi-modal visual campaign in preparation for the launch of their sweeping concept album, III
- and while we’re at it: throw in an ARG component designed to gamify the experience for super-fans to dig deeper into the coming release
Teaming up with producer Liz Lipka, exec creative director Loren Judah (who handled the ARG mission) plus ACD Mike Arcangelli (who led the project after I dipped for another project) alongside an extremely talented team of metalhead banshees at Royale, we undertook a phased approach to the job beginning with the refresh of the brand kit for the band.
︎︎︎ Design
Assembling an all-time crew of mark-making specialists who live and breathe all things metal, we jumped into a frenzy of wordmark/logomark creation, uncovering a massive amount of wordmarks and symbols hellbent on transmitting the carnage of the upcoming record. A few of those tasty morsels here:Assembling an all-time crew of mark-making specialists who live and breathe all things metal, we jumped into a frenzy of wordmark/logomark creation, uncovering a massive amount of wordmarks and symbols hellbent on transmitting the carnage of the upcoming record. A few of those tasty morsels here:
As the brand kit came together, our team began designing the rich illustrative hallmarks that would feed one of the main campaign thrusts: an animated video detailing the genesis of all metal music and the rise of Pentakill. Several illustration approaches began to emerge that would drive the character designs and environments...
In tandem with the character designs came a highly prized piece of business: the cover artwork for the record. We merged a few players from the brand team + illustration team to channel decades of metal visual language into a succinct and unique expression of all things Pentakill.
︎︎︎ Animation
Armed to the teeth with the visual tools needed to embark on our next phase of the project, we jumped headfirst into crafting “Metal is Born,” the campaign kickoff, a primer for the band’s formation, and a scene-setting piece designed to drive audiences to the massive interactive show/album release...
Further describing the individual band members was crucial, especially to new fans coming to the scene for the first time. We constructed the “Vanguard of Metal,” a dark, tarot-inspired piece describing each member’s journey to Pentakill...plus the introduction of world-class schmanglord and, honestly, shredded bad-guy: Viego.
Happening concurrently with our brand & animation work was a complex ARG campaign, spearheaded by WAR ECD Loren Judah + team. That work is thoughtfully detailed here. Fingers crossed PK makes IV so we can run this whole thing back...and big thanks to the team at RIOT for trusting our dark souls with such an incredible project.
We Are Royale
CEO: Jennifer Lucero
CCO: Brien Holman
Executive Producer: Rhys Demery
Digital Executive Producer: Beck Henderer-Pena
Head of Production: Eric Zapakin
Creative Director (Brand/Animation): Eric Del Greco
Associate Creative Director (Brand/Animation): Mike Arcangeli
Executive Creative Director (ARG): Loren Judah
Senior Producer: Liz Lipka
Production Coordinator: Esther Hwang
Brand: Jason Carne, Hydro74, Justin Fines
Design: Angelica Baini, Elleyce Pahang, Yea Eun Jung, Justin Fines
Senior Illustrator/Designer: Mariia Menshikova
Lead Illustrator: Anthony Jones
Illustration Team: Ayran Oberto, Maxim Kostin, Frankell Baramdyka, Yaaseen Longden, Marco Espinosa, Max Steksov, Elleyce Pahang, Vladimir Matyukhin, Ilya Tulyakov, Justin Kamerer
Animation Team: Jared Norby, Dylan Casano, Ben Hurand, Bruno Cohen, Matt Barretto, Mark Feldman, Damien Cho, Eric Ramin, Esther Kim, Doug Curley, Jeremy Cartwright, Stephen Villari, Taylor Peters
Editor: Ryan Frey
UI Design Team: Daniel Beaton, Yoyo Hwang, Yea Eun Jung
Microsite Development Team: John Almazan, Ryan Hovland, Jack Woolridge
Storyboard Artist: Frankell Baramdyka
Game Specialist: Matthew Hope
© 2025 respective studios + clients.
with ︎ from LA