Vanessa Shimon is a designer and illustrator driven by a passion for storytelling. Her interdisciplinary practice spans printed matter, brand identities, packaging, motion design, and more
League of Legends Series 4 Packaging Redesign
Packaging Design
© Riot Games
As a Visual Design Intern at Riot Games’s Consumer Products and Expressions Team, I was tasked with a packaging redesign for the League of Legends Series 4 action figures.
This project focuses on refreshing the design, improve its reproducability, and advance it to a more eco-friendly space. These design and eco considerations were factored in while still maintaining the fantastical themes players associate with the IP.
The final design applied to 3 characters: Yuumi (Heartseeker skin), Lillia (Spirit Blossom skin), Sylas (normal)
While the current design is a cleaner take on the previous iteration, it needs to feel more modern. The mirrored splash art on the box is also a pain point for the designer to reproduce. From an eco perspective, the gold foiling also makes the boxes harder to recycle. These are the problems that must be tackled.
Current and previous iterations of the S4 packaging
How would I modernize and improve the packaging to be more eco-friendly, all while maintaining a premium feel for League of Legends players?
A bold creative decision was to make the shift into a hexagonal box shape.
A famous implementation of this shape (also known as the “Sushi Roll”) is the Patagonia Baseslayer. The shape is easy to open and requires no adhesive. When stacked on a shelf, the hexagonal boxes make up an attractive honeycomb shape, which eases navigation. This consideration would be helpful in the future, should Riot Games have a physical merch store.
The hex shape is also on brand for League of Legends and its Emmy-award winning show Arcane. In this world, "hextech" is a technology that democratizes magic for non-magic users. This concept has been translated to the design of the League client, becoming a tool for users to interact with the magic of the game.
My initial sketches explore more radical approaches, playing with typography and custom hand-drawn elements that work alongside the 3D renders of the figure.
The project gained its footing once the focus was shifted to Hextech brand fundamentals. Circles, diamonds, and squares took precedence in the sketches.
The final redesign is based on the pill-like, rounded rectangle shape. This is a shape that is not used as much in the game client, and therefore doesn’t feel like a repeat of what players are accustomed to.
The design elements are also simplified, opting for gradients to fill up spaces. The splash character art is used for a profile shot and to fill up two faces of the hex. The box also shows an alternate view of the figurine, allowing the players to get a better understanding of the product.