Sickdesigner

This Sunday I played a very fun and insightful game of Contagion with Brian Purkiss, a young, Texas based, designer. Our game was different than the other two, but if you’re curious why & what our collaboration yielded, then click that Readme link.

The theme of this game was design itself which, at first, I thought it was kind of silly. But after a while I realized it’s probably one of the toughest topics we could have chosen. Practically what we were saying was “design for the sake of design” which may sound childish and pointless but as the game itself pointed out, is a very good exercise in design control.

Design control?

It’s often that we find ourselves working somewhat mechanically or instinctively, rather than logically, which is all fine and dandy if you’re going for art, but design is not art. Design has to trigger more than just an emotional response and for that you need to be able to control your creative output like a frackin’ Jedi.

This game was a bit different from the previous two in respect to the control that both I and Brian had with our respective waves. As a result of applying ourselves and not letting things get out of hand, design wise, we stopped at the 8th wave because we both agreed that any more tinkering would be pointless. Brian also decided to remove previous elements from one of his waves because they didn’t fit. With this kind of self control and objective thinking we were able to have not only a very enjoyable and satisfying game but also a truly kick ass design.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the screenshots.

01

As always, the first wave belongs to yours truly. Playing on a slight pun, I put together a simple backbone for the design. I was a bit reluctant of using color in the first wave, but I soon found out that Brian was a Jedi master and he wasn’t going to leave a tiny thing like that get in his way.

02

And BOOM! When I opened this my face just lit up. It’s amazing how with just a few basic techniques, Brian managed to steer the direction of the design so radically. Whereas the first wave looked peaceful and soft, in this second wave it became clear that we were taking the path of destruction.

03

I’m a big fan of doodles so I doodled my way out of this wave, unbalancing the two halfs of the design for a more dramatic scene, as well as a bit of tinkering with the text.

04

Brian saw a movie poster in the design so he decided an explanatory, trailer style type would steer the game further in that direction. The pictures he added further emphasized the movie poster style, but a few minutes after passing the wave to me, we both decided the design would be better off without them.

05

A movie poster wasn’t my initial idea and I wasn’t going to go down that road at this point, but a vintage poster, now that’s more like it. A few color adjustments and repositioning the left type and I was ready to pass the ball to Brian again.

06

Now that we had a clear direction with the design, Brian added some rather subtle light streaks, basically nudging me to take the design into a more explosive state.

07

And boy, was I nudged. I love explosions and pretty much anything that makes a big ball of light, so it was no surprise that I over-burned the central area a bit. It’s an explosion, of course it’s burned.

08

Brian decided to balance the design out more by adding a slight gradient to the left side gap which, I think, works very well. And after about 15 minute of debating the issue, we both agreed that taking this design any further would be pointless.

We ended up with a design that surprised us both in it’s apparent simplicity and it’s hidden complexity. It’s dichotomous, it’s uncompromising and it just plainly rocks your Jedi boots off.

There’s a strange beauty about the unknown of playing a game of Contagion and that makes it fun as well as formative. Oh, yeah, and I decided to call this design Bauhaus axe murderer. What do you think? Cool? You betcha!

by Radu Chelariu