One of my first major design tasks working in residential life at Michigan Tech was when a fellow student approached me to help with designs for a League of Legends tournament that was being planned on campus.
I knew nothing about League of Legends, but was excited to help with the project, and the tournament was officially recognized by Riot Games!
I planned the marketing campaign for the tournament in two phases. Phase 1 was the “Teaser” phase – the image to the right is from this. I developed six teaser flyers (three “light” and three “dark”) and four PowerPoint slides for the residence hall desk TVs that featured characters from the game, and unique phrases suggesting something upcoming, with only a date.
The flyers generated so much excitement on campus that students stopped by my dorm after realizing I had designed them to ask if I had certain characters. They were trying to “collect them all” and taking them from the walls because they were so excited for what was coming!
In phase two, a consistent “team” image was used across all designs, with the slogan “It’s Here”. These items contained details of the event after the initial teaser hype, and used consistent branding to ensure recognizability across forms, such as table tents and bulletin postings.
After this two-phase campaign being the major marketing medium for the event, the initial tournament saw approximately 170 attendees. Our university had approximately 5,000 undergraduate students at that time – so this was a significant turn out for a first event of this kind, especially one that was competitive , required a registration fee, and had no existing club on campus! (The club later formed as a result of these tournaments).
After the success of the initial campaign, I was asked to return to assist in design for another two tournaments.
Our second spring tournament was a bit more subdued, but our fall tournament was one of the first weeks students were back on campus, and we wanted to make it a bit special.
I used the metal band “Pentakill” from the game as my inspiration this time with the tagline “Let’s Start a Riot” for a Warped Tour, punk-summer style aesthetic.
We held a graffiti contest to match the marketing as a side event, and staff and participant t-shirts were not only color-coded, but tie-dyed to match. I developed a large mural of the four poster designs that were created as a photo op for participants as well.
Working on Michigan Tech’s League of Legends tournaments was my first opportunity to plan a marketing campaign and see it realized. I learned a lot and gained a lot of confidence by wanting to see these events succeed.
My skills may have grown quite a bit since then, but I’m still quite proud of what I accomplished!