Twitch X Landyachtz

Industry

Entertainment, Sports

Company Size

2000+

Summary

Gaming and skate culture collide

Project Scope

Board graphics
merchandising strategy
Logo design
Promotional Assets
Strategy
Social Content
Field Marketing

Credits:

Ken Leigh-Smith

For Twitchcon 2017, we decided to push the Twitch merchandise selection past their typical offering offering of logo wear. We created a line of items that reflected the culture of the event location, Long Beach, California. After identifying a heavy correlation between skate and gaming cultures, we decided to design two Twitch longboards with the premier longboard manufacture, Landyachtz.

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Test new merchandise ideas

Demonstrate that Twitch can successfully build merchandise that isn’t logo heavy, yet still reflects the brand and desires of the community.

Merge communities

Create boards that are inviting and appeal to the larger Twitch audience rather than a “traditional” skate audience.

Graphics that resonate

Create graphics that embody the surf, skate, and Twitch communities while helping move both brands forward.

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Long Beach, California

Leaning into the location of Twitchcon 2017, we brought the surf and skate culture directly to the Twitchcon visitors. Throughout the weekend, you could see people skating around the exterior of the event space. With so much walking visitors were thrilled to have an alternative mode of transportation.

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Traditional Twitchcon merchandise

Historically Twitch Merchandise felt very “swaggy”. Meaning that most of the items being sold felt like items that you could get handed for free at conferences or recruiting events. This feeling didn’t add any brand value to consumers. The “swag” feeling doesn’t express the care and consideration that Twitch was looking to give their community. We leveraged the Twitch Longboards as an opportunity to test the waters on more narrative based creative that was executed at a very high quality bar.

Partnering with Landyachtz Longboards

Quality and performance are incredibly important when thinking of new items to bring to Twitch customers. We knew Twitch wouldn't be able to create their own boards at the level of quality and performance that their customers expect from them, so we partnered with Landyachtz Longboards. Landyachtz is one of the top manufactures of longboards in the world, and has been producing some of the worlds best boards since 1997.

In this partnership we wanted to design a board that would also fit in with the Landyachtz lineup. Based off trends we saw at the 2016-2018 Agenda Tradeshows in Long Beach, CA and after deep diving into the Landyachtz 2017 and 2018 lineups, we fully understood the market and how which direction to take the board graphics. We embraced two directions on the organic and free-flowing graphic concepts after seeing a dominate trend in the Landyachtz lineup with the same aesthetic.

Longboard shapes and riding styles

Over the span of 20 years Landyachtz has researched and developed a wide range of longboards, offering everything from beginner boards all the way up to some of the most technical racing boards on the market. They developed a wide range of boards to appeal to different riding styles and experience levels. They divide their range of boards into three categories; cruisers, hybrids, and downhill boards. The breakdown of the categories and the audience skill level is as follows:

Cruisers

Cruisers are the most beginner friendly range from Landyachtz. These boards typically have a bit of flex and a more surfy riding style. These boards are very inviting for new skaters with their large standing platforms.

Hybrids

The Hybrid range has a stiffer deck and typically one to two kick tails on the boards. It allows for a versatile riding style over all terrain types. These boards are a great intermediate riding option.

Downhill/ Freeride

The downhill/ freeride range, is a much stiffer board meant for higher speed skating. These boards are meant for a more aggressive riding style. The riders of these boards are typically more advanced.

Board shapes for our audience skill levels

Knowing that the majority of our customers will be inexperienced in skating or longboarding, we decided to use two different entry level board shapes. We chose to use the Battle Axe 40 and the Dinghy, due to each board having different riding styles, unique features, and beginner friendly riding styles.

Battle Axe 40

This 40 inch board features a long stable platform for the rider. The 5-plys of bamboo Featuring a Rocker concave provides a small amount of flex creating a very surfy, carvy, and flowy riding style. The bamboo construction of the Battle Axe, gives the board a feeling very similar to surfing. This surfy riding style is perfect for the Long Beach location which features long winding sidewalks along the water.

Dinghy

Made from Canadian Maple, the deck is stiff and features wheel flares and a small kick tail. This small lightweight board is great for commuting and/or for playing. The Dinghy is shaped and rides very similar to how a traditional street deck rides. The addition of larger, softer wheels provides a smooth and fast ride, making it ideal for sidewalks and paths. The kicktail on the back of the board can be used to ollie or kickflip in order to clear large obstacles.

Understanding the Landyachtz Graphics

The next step in creating these board graphics was identifying trends and patterns in the 2017 Landyachtz Longboards cruiser graphics. This was a crucial step in ensuring that our graphics are following trend research and not alienating the core skate audience that would already be familiar with the Landyachtz lineup. We collaborated closely with Landyachtz to ensure our board could sit next to any of their boards and it not feel out of place.

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Dissecting trends in the board graphics

Landyachtz categorizes the Battle Axe 40 in the Cruiser category and the Dinghy in the Mini Cruiser category. After studying their board graphics we recognized a distinction between the graphics in each category. Landyachtz masterfully shows their experience identifying graphics that resonate with their audiences. They provide a versatile graphic range while each graphic still retains the board’s riding style and attitude.

Cruiser board graphics

In total there were 34 boards in this year’s cruiser category from Landyachtz. If we strip out repeating graphics and different color options we have 26 unique graphics. We chose to categorize each graphic into the categories of organic and inorganic. Organic being a more natural style, where the artwork reflects nature more, is less abstract and doesn't feel as "man-made”. The inorganic category features art that may be abstract, unnatural linework, neo-traditional tattoo style graphics, and big bold linework.

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Cruiser board graphics

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Cursive Script Logos

We leveraged the Landyachtz cursive scipt logo as the basis for creating the Twitch script logo which designated the collaboration. We built out the letter forms from the original Landyachtz logo, into a new alphabet, that we used to create the Twitch badge. The curves and carefree lines of the logo really captured the carving and flow of pushing around on skateboards.

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Twitch Battle Axe 40

We leveraged a full print of leaves with Twitch purple flowers to reinforce the surfy, flowy nature of the Battle Axe 40. Adorning the top middle of the board sits the cursive Twitch logo.

Twitch Dinghy

For the Dinghy we chose to asymmetrically print the floral pattern on the kicktail to accentuate the feature. The simple clean white stained wood becomes the perfect backdrop for the cursive logo, while the wood texture shines through, gently reinforcing the materiality of the board. Landyachtz often choses to reveal veneer with their graphics as a demonstration of the quality of their skateboards. High quality face veneers cost more and it's cheap and easy to cover up defects with a graphic or paint.

Cruising the convention hall

Throughout the weekend the boards were flying off the shelves, and into the hands of eager riders. As seen in the youtube video earlier in the case study, we had several of the Landyachtz team attend the event to help educate potential buyers and get footage for the youtube video.

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Skate corner

We created a Landyachtz take over as part of the Twitch booth layout. The booth was wrapped in 16 bit graphics with some iconic Landyachtz elements sprinkled throughout.

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Industry

Entertainment, Sports

Company Size

2000+

Summary

Gaming and skate culture collide

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