Pokémon London Toy Fair

Since 2016 Pokémon has been the headliner for the London Toy Fair. The Toy Fair is the UK’s largest dedicated toy, game and hobby trade show taking place annually at the end of January at Olympia London. Everyone who comes to the event passes through the Pokémon sponsored registration area and connected grand foyer before entering into the main hall where the booths are set up.

The foyer is built from the ground up meaning I have to work with a production vendor and their structural designers in London to take my concepts from 2D to 3D. The registration hall focuses on our licensing department while the foyer features our trading card game and showcases new mechanics for that year. Additionally I design merchandise to be given out to all who enter.

2019 Trading Card Game Showcase

In January of 2019 Pokémon released the Trading Card Game expansion “Team Up” which announced a brand new mechanic called GX and a unique series for the year where Pokémon are paired together. The UK Marketing team was using the idea of “teams” all year, including a special collaboration with European football leagues, and wanted the foyer to have that sporty feel.

A major part of Pokémon are the battles, that combined with professional sports teams branding, served as my main inspiration. I made a piece of stadium art for the base of the walls. On top were banners focusing on a specific team with their names and Pokédex numbers splashed across like star athletes and their jersey numbers. I used the GX logo to make a scoreboard with teams facing off and their health listed to mimic points. At each corner were the special frames from the “Team Up” expansion art.

2020 TCG Showcase

I had very limited info on the new video game, Sword & Shield, which the Trading Card Game would align with. I knew the two main Pokémon, color palette, and logos. The game was based around London, had castles, and the two characters and logos had a medieval feel to them. I wanted to use castle style banners in the room along with the red, blue, and gold colors.

The two featured Pokémon were all I could use but they are considered “Legendary” and therefore very powerful. So I wanted to show this off by using their stats in a way a sports channel might cover a pro athlete.