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International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is is the world’s largest nonprofit membership organization serving all individuals who create games. They advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating for the interests of game developers worldwide.
Under their Austin chapter, I was brought on as their official graphic designer, digital artist, and secretary, where I designed the official IGDA ATX logo, designed event posters, wrote copy for event announcements, and ensured formatting of event posters/illustrations was applicable across all social media.
LOGO DESIGN
PHASE 1
IGDA Corporate gave specific parameters for each chapter's personal logos:
- Had to maintain IGDA's core classic shapes from the official logo
- Had to include the classic IGDA "yellow" and "red" from the official logo
Working on the logo itself presented multiple challenges:
- Needed to include elements that would make it instantly identifiable as an ATX branch, not a "Texas" branch, as there were other chapters in other Texas cities
- Needed to be scalable
- Had to be recognizable as any solid color mark logo
- Be pleasing to both head co-chairs of IGDA ATX
The "shapes" as shown in the original logo were two different shapes entirely, with the "arcs" being just slightly off from one another.
In order to achieve the exact shapes, I brought the logo into Adobe Illustrator and free-handed an outline of the arcs.
PHASE 2
It was also requested to incorporate bluebonnets into the design as well.
Bluebonnets are especially tricky, as there are so many petals and colors involved. Make the design too simplified, and it wouldn't be recognizable as a bluebonnet anymore, but make it too detailed, and it would be too complex for a logo.
One of the co-chairs drew a sketch of the bluebonnet, following along the angle the IGDA logo curve, which I then polished, color blocked, and simplified
This simplified and color-blocked bluebonnet was added to the design with the bats, which resulted in a completed logo that achieved all the goals and requirements as listed above.
ACCESSIBILITY DESIGN
While acting in my role at IGDA ATX as a secretary, I started to notice members would arrive at some events, then turn around and leave pretty quickly. This resulted in IGDA's networking aspect hurting, and the board brainstorming ways to promote more community engagement.
THE ISSUE
I went around to the community and asked what was de-incentivizing their in-person attendance, along with what made them leave prematurely when they did show up. The biggest complaint was that they had no way of knowing what to expect at each monthly event — IGDA ATX had events that ranged from panels, roundtable discussions, study sessions, and classic networking at all types of locations in the surrounding Austin area. This led to confusion and feelings of overwhelm by members who were tired from a day of working, or incorrect assumptions about what would be asked of them at certain events.
IDENTIFY
THE
CAUSE
This led me to create a miniature infographic that might better communicate what event spaces would be like in order to promote accessibility within the IGDA community, and bring more people to events. Not only would this solve the issue at hand, but it would also enhance IGDA's larger goal of community-building and networking within the local area, as new members who were unfamiliar with our events and event spaces would not be as intimidated at attending.
THE
SOLUTION
I simplified the community's overall complaints down to three key points:
AUDIO
How loud an event space was expected to be (both for public and private spaces)
BRIGHTNESS
The brightness-level of any space — it is common for brighter spaces that use lots of industrial overhead lighting to be overstimulating for people
SOCIALIZING
For newcomers in the networking space, the socialization aspect can be massively intimidating. This can include people who are tired from work, shy, and/or introverted
With this information, I created these sliding bars to be utilized on all event promotion, including posters and social media announcements.
"The addition of expected light, noise, and socialization levels for IGDA events is a huge accessibility win. It allows potential attendees to determine their capacity for attending at a glance. This has been especially helpful for neurodivergent community members who may not otherwise attend due to unfamiliarity with the upcoming event structure or venue. Adding this information is a low lift way to make events more inclusive and is a boon to attending IGDA events."
Almost immediately, the community responded extremely positively, with other game dev networking nonprofits adding their praise to the design implementation.
Coby West
Games Y'all Chair
2024
AS SEEN HERE —
All designs by Lily Perkins
Disclaimer: All visual assets in this design belong to Nintendo. Poster composition and character design by Lily Perkins, but all visuals are property of their original creators. Poster designed for fun, no profit was earned via this work.
