FORTNITE CREATIVE DIRECTION EPIC PICKS
ADIDAS HYPERCHASE
A persistant gaming world where adidas doesn’t just sponsor the sport, it owns it.
What if adidas owned a sport?
THE BRIEF
Hypertag: A hyper-mobile first-person parkour tag game built around adidas's Predator franchise. The concept pitched to adidas was not just as a brand presence in gaming, but as the owner of an entirely new sport. The sport would be complete with seasons, player ranks, NPC commentators, Superstar Athletes and a spectator-ready arena that could refresh visually alongside each campaign.
Whilst adidas ultimately focused the activation on the Predator shoe launch rather than the broader seasonal concept, the Hypertag world demonstrated how a brand could move from sponsoring games to owning one.
MY ROLE
As Art Director on the adidas Hypertag project,
my involvement spanned from
initial concept pitch through to live production.In the pitch phase, I developed the visual language and world concept for Hypertag in collaboration with the graphic designer, using AI concept art to bring the arena to life and designing the full pitch deck to communicate the Game Design Director's vision.
When Karta partnered with The Midnight Club for live production, I travelled to London to evaluate their three world design concepts for Goru City, building a structured creative response that steered the direction and proposing distinct city districts for wayfinding and championing the arena moodboard's approach to verticality, colour and contextual signage.
Throughout production I led the 3D art and UI teams, overseeing the visual development of the world from concept through to delivery.
As a brand heavily rooted in progressive street culture, I wanted to design the arena and the spaces within it as a space where the ordinary can rise to become Superstars. The warehouse like environment, mixed in with athleticism of the brand graphics, collide with bold colour to inspire raw energy and immediacy.
THE MIDNIGHT CLUB PARTNERSHIP
When Karta partnered with The Midnight Club, adidas’s marketing agency, to develop the live experience, I travelled to London for a creative workshop where TMC presented their vision for the game to based in the fictional world of Goru City; where Superstar athletes own factions within the world. Their three concepts for the framing of the world included a neo-Tokyo Y2K world, a brutalist concrete arena, and a surreal organic environment.
My role was to evaluate each concept against the platform's gameplay requirements, adidas's brand positioning, and production feasibility. I then built a structured creative response that would steer the direction forward.
When Karta partnered with The Midnight Club, adidas’s marketing agency, to develop the live experience, I travelled to London for a creative workshop where TMC presented their vision for the game to based in the fictional world of Goru City; where Superstar athletes own factions within the world. Their three concepts for the framing of the world included a neo-Tokyo Y2K world, a brutalist concrete arena, and a surreal organic environment.
My role was to evaluate each concept against the platform's gameplay requirements, adidas's brand positioning, and production feasibility. I then built a structured creative response that would steer the direction forward.
CREATIVE RESPONSE
My response proposed merging the spatial and gameplay clarity of the brutalist concept with the cultural energy of the Y2K aesthetic.
I felt that the city needed to build in distinct city districts (financial, shopping, residential) that would serve two purposes, creating both a richer narrative world and a natural wayfinding system for players navigating the parkour space.
adidas responded strongly to the distinct districts idea and the arena moodboard. In particular the verticality it created for parkour gameplay, combined with bold colour coding tying in with their collections colours and contextual signage, all of this providing players an immediate sense of place without interrupting the flow of the game.
As a result, I worked in partnership with TMC to incorporate the branding that they provided for each district, whilst managing the art direction and layout of the experience through to launch.
My response proposed merging the spatial and gameplay clarity of the brutalist concept with the cultural energy of the Y2K aesthetic.
I felt that the city needed to build in distinct city districts (financial, shopping, residential) that would serve two purposes, creating both a richer narrative world and a natural wayfinding system for players navigating the parkour space.
adidas responded strongly to the distinct districts idea and the arena moodboard. In particular the verticality it created for parkour gameplay, combined with bold colour coding tying in with their collections colours and contextual signage, all of this providing players an immediate sense of place without interrupting the flow of the game.
As a result, I worked in partnership with TMC to incorporate the branding that they provided for each district, whilst managing the art direction and layout of the experience through to launch.
RESULTS