Creative Director | Director

Need For Speed: Shift

Identity Concept and Development

The thirteenth installment and second reboot of the racing video game franchise Need for Speed; published by Electronic Arts.

Objective

I was tasked with helping develop and concept the look and feel for Need For Speed: Shift. Early on the team communicated to me they wanted to convey a sense of acceleration and velocity.

Process

I went through a very iterative process communicating with each team and multiple art directors. Each team contributed and collaborated to the overall feel. Once we knew the emotional sense we were trying to achieve, I started my research and discovery phase.

We took inspiration from long exposure photography.

We honed in the colours and amount of streams to keep it clean.

I wanted to explore the complimentary motifs first. So I started with a variance in visual target options, playing with the stream, the energy, colour and motion.

Quick logo sketches, I tried to mimic organic long exposure lines.

I then simplified and defined the one I thought gave us the best sense of speed and acceleration. Now that I had a base I could get to the bigger visual blocks.

I played with angles trying to create a sense of speed.

Game footage of the post race screen. I designed the motion language and layout of the screen as well as the driver progression badges.

When I create motion demos I find it paramount to use storyboards to flush out ideas and present to other teams. Below is how I envisioned the in-game title screen to come up.

Logo storyboard for in-game or advertising purposes.

After storyboarding I animated and tested out timing and effects for what the final animation concept will look like.

The logo gets more refined from the initial concept.

We start to layer on textures and effects.

Working with the video editorial team, we workshopped footage and audio with the logo reveal.

Development

I conceptualized different looks for multiple use cases so that everyone could translate the visual target with clarity. I was happy to have worked on this title and I love how the team built on my concept.