Awesome PlayStation Promo Is Awesome

The guys down at Fluid in Birmingham know their stuff, and so when faced with a designer’s dream – building up a concept promo portfolio for the PlayStation brand – they went above and beyond the sort of things we’ve seen thrown around from other design studios. They sent us one of the utterly gorgeous, glossy, coffee-top affairs and we just had to find out more.

So we did. We asked them questions, like, and here’s the results. In the following you’ll find responses from James Glover (JG), Fluid’s Creative Director and Paul Whitaker (PW), the Senior Designer there. At the very bottom you’ll find some photos of the promo itself. And no, you can’t have ours, not for all the tea in China.

TheSixthAxis: So, how did the deal with PlayStation come about?

James Glover: We started our relationship with Sony way back in about 1996.

Up until that point we’d been mainly working in the music industry, then we were approached by a local games publisher to do a full campaign for a music style videogame called ”Johnny Bazookatone”. So after completing this we thought we’d try our luck with some of the other games publishers.

We sent a Fluid promo pack to the head of marketing and design at Sony Computer Entertainment. We were then invited in to present the portfolio and about 5 months later we got our first job off them!

The first PlayStation (PS1) had just been released and they were trying to figure out what they were doing with the brand so I suppose our music heritage kind of tied in to the lifestyle audience they were trying to target.

Final Fantasy VII was our first major title for them and then we started working on the hardware branding and press Kits. From then on right up until now we’ve worked on a real mix of projects right across their portfolio. This includes, inFamous, God of War, Resistance, Killzone etc.

TSA: What was the brief from PlayStation, and what was the scope of the project?

Paul Whitaker: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe send out regular media kits to print and online media to publicise their products, but this was to be probably their largest press-kit to date – a media-kit that spanned hardware and software across PSP, PS3 and PlayStation Network.

They were looking for creative ideas that differed from what had been done in the past; ensuring the kit would both surprise and engage the recipients, whilst also informing them about SCEE’s new key titles, latest hardware, the possibilities of PlayStation Network and their key marketing message of ‘open-ended play’. The design, materials and techniques were to be tactile and high quality, whilst also reflective of the PlayStation tone of voice and brand guidelines.

We took inspiration from the statement “PlayStation offers surprising and unexpected experiences, rich experiences with open-ended potential and a tone of voice which is entertaining, playful and direct” to create our ‘interactive tactile book’; creating a platform for engagement that signified the fun of gaming. Our only restrictions being the budget, the 2800 quantity (across 5 language versions) and the kit needing (easy) European postal distribution…

TSA: What do you think of the ‘Starts…’ European branding for PlayStation?

JG: I think its perfect! They’ve got it spot on by positioning themselves between Nintendo and Xbox who are the opposite extremes of mainstream family fun and hardcore gamers. PlayStation has really captured that valuable middle ground.
Previously the brand was quite dark and a bit obscure with almost a David Lynch feel, but now it’s much more fun and accessible.

TSA: What’s the intended audience for the main PlayStation press pack, and how has it been received?

JB: It’s a real cross mix of the media. It’s hard to gauge a reception because of course we never really hear direct from the press, they’re there to review the games or consoles , not our design! Some of the press kits get in to the publics hands and cause a real stir. There was a big debate around the God of War III press kit as fans felt that they should be able to buy it as a special edition.

TSA: Was it fun working on the God of War III press kit, then?

JG: Yes, it was great be involved with such a big title as we knew it was going to be a massive hit. Press kits always present a interesting challenge as it’s about creating something really special that will capture the Press’s imagination, but also doing that within budget. Getting the balance right is always key to a successful press kit.

TSA: There was obviously no financial limit to the development and printing of the press pack with transparent pages, cut out sections and some lovely stock – what were your favourite bits to work on?

PW: Actually, there were quite tight financial and time constraints to working on the project, and we did have to revise aspects of the original concept and drop some of the intended print finishes to fit all of the final content within the allocated budget, but creatively it was quite an open brief and proved both interesting and challenging to bring all the disparate elements of the PlayStation world into one cohesive creative entity. Getting to see/play the titles during development (for research obviously) was also pretty good though!

TSA: Was there anything you had to leave out of the pack?

JG: Obviously there are limitations to any job because budget needs to be taken into consideration. For example, instead of having tracing paper we would’ve preferred acetate, however there’s always got to be a point in the design where you pull the creative back in a bit.

TSA: Are any of the guys at Fluid gamers?

JG: Yes of course! Videogames are a huge part of our business – some of the staff are hardcore gamers and then some like myself are more pick up and play. It’s real mix.

TSA: Have you worked with any other major game publishers?

JG: Yes, pretty much all of them in our 15 year history. Brands like Sony and SEGA we have really long standing relationships with and they’ll use us as brand guardians on their titles. At the moment we’re working on a quite a few AAA titles, which you’ll see up on the website when they’re released

TSA: Do you have any plans to work with Sony again in the future?

JG: Yes we’re working on about three jobs with them at the moment. It’s a great working relationship that goes from strength to strength over time

We thank the guys at Fluid for their time and patience with our questions, and wish them all the luck in the future. Anyone wanting to find out more about the project, there’s notes and a case study page below.

• http://www.fluidesign.co.uk/#/project/?projid=153
• http://www.fluidesign.co.uk/#/casestudy/?projid=41