Niantic

2021

“Let’s make Niantic famous!” You’ve heard of Pokemon Go, but maybe you haven't caught wind of the megastar AR app’s developer, Niantic. They wanted the Niantic brand to have the rock ‘n roll status of their flagship creation, so we stepped in to help boost their profile with an ident, a unique design system, and some custom graphics for a brand film.

Let the Logo do the Talking

Niantic’s ARship logo was our starting point—the foundation upon which we built the identity and story. We refined everything down from that symbol, using it as a visual cue to instill brand familiarity.

The three core elements of the logo represented the unique and ownable aspects of the Niantic brand:

Ship → Discovery
Balloon → Creativity
Rings → Energy

Designed for Adventure

Our mission was to inspire people to explore—to see the cities and environments as a game board and a space to discover and play.

Our design system embraced this idea, bringing spaces to life through game-inspired graphics that look and feel uniquely Niantic—while making everything feel like an adventure.

Brand Film

A major moment for the campaign was the brand film. Directed by Julien and Quentin from Pulse Films and finalized by MPC, we played a key role in all the visuals and animation to make sure they were communicating with the rest of the campaign and expressing the Niantic brand.

We created and animated the character introduction moments, connecting real life with the gamer’s profile by utilizing their gamer handles and gorgeous design. We were also responsible for adding the now iconic and recognisable Niantic markers and directional arrows to break the wall between real life and AR, just like Niantic does.

Credits

BUCK

Executive Creative Director

Vincent Lammers

Executive Producer

Chance Woodward

Creative Director

Richard Gray

Senior Producer

Carolina Brandão

Animation Director

Joe Brooks

Art Director

Fabrizio Lenci

3D Lead

João Rema

Design

Fabrizio Lenci

Mijke Coebergh

Yana Abramova

3D Animation

Manon Sailly

Sonal Jodhav

Animation

Andreas Maris

Dries Van Broeck

Joe Brooks

Mathieu Smorto

Nicolas Grandry