Gentry is an illustrator and graphic designer based in London, UK. She is currently branding Prime Video while also running an interior design blog and store.
Play! Pokémon is a way for fans to discover the Pokémon TCG and video game community through organized competitions. The Championship Series takes place throughout the entire year starting at local venues and rising to regionals, internationals and world championships.
Branding is created for each of these levels of competitions. For Internationals every competitor is given a gift bag of merchandise that is unique to that year: playmats, pins, hats, lanyards, deck boxes, card sleeves and more.
In 2019 the major marketing theme for the year was focused on teams of two Pokemon. This was a challenge as Pokemon has unique branding guidelines that require they be scaled correctly in size but many of the pairings were vastly different. I skirted this by creating shape lockups to encase each Pokemon so they can be scaled up without restriction. The pops of color are reference to each Pokemon’s energy type while the rest is more muted to fit all ages and genders.
For Internationals a look and feel is created that can be utilized for 3 years. These designs cover every inch of the venue in banners, tablecloths, way-finding signage, backgrounds for the announcers and live matches etc. Additionally a style guide is created for production vendors.
This look was supposed to begin in the 2020 season but due to COVID the 2020–21 seasons were cancelled so it will begin in 2022. I love mod designs and bright colors. I wanted a pattern that is flexible and can be modified to fit all the different things that have to be made and the Pokemon that have to be highlighted. This look allows you to add Pokeballs onto any of the circles, remove sections for more white space, and arrange to fit with each Pokemon pose.
