Starcraft Graphic Design, Killer Koreans, & Sexy Scandals

Written By Andrew Aviles

Working on Graphic Design for Starcraft II was my first break into working as a full-time Designer. If you are not familiar, Starcraft 2 was a massively popular strategy game where players choose to play as one of three races, build and defend bases, and attack other players doing the same to win matches. Basically think of it as a more interactive and complicated version of chess… in space… hence the name Starcraft.

I had the pleasure of working with some old friends, building with new ones and I was even able to travel for the live events which I really enjoyed. I worked on many design projects but below is just a fraction of the work I was able to save or track down for this period.

It was a wild and exciting time as this was the turning point when E-Sports was becoming a full-fledged industry, but also there was a lot of funny stories, drama, and scandals that came with the territory…

Killer Koreans in California

I worked at a small studio in Southern California where they also hosted the top players from around the world, but to be honest it was mostly kids from South Korea as they dominated the E-Sports scene in the early years.

They were like battle school students from the book Ender’s Game; don’t be fooled by their polite manners and love of American cheeseburgers, these guys are cold blooded killers… at least on Starcraft.

Interesting Travel Stories

I particularly enjoyed traveling to Toronto, Canada and seeing the convention center lined with 30 foot banners I designed as well as seeing the broadcast motion graphics we worked on as a team airing on Twitch.

Some other events we did were hosted in Rancho CA, Long Beach CA, and Las Vegas NV. The weirdest experience from this time, though, was working a 17-hour design crunch at the Toronto Convention Center. At about midnight a janitor got on the speaker system in the empty convention hall and started singing in Arabic at full volume…

There was also a racoon that chewed through some cables on a $25k computer overnight that almost stopped the event from running, but I think being startled by Arabic verses blaring through the empty convention center in the middle of the night beats the racoon story.

Another favorite memory was working at Red Bull Studios in Santa Monica CA. This was for Red Bull Gaming covering some Starcraft 2 events. Image credits for the above to Leafeater who I also remember being a cool and friendly photographer. Sadly I’m not in any of these shots but I was there lurking, working, and getting lit on Red Bulls for these events.

“Scandalous!” - The Ashleys

Aside from Graphic & Broadcast Design, I also worked on a lot of random fun projects like these 16-bit style units for an animation production. I also did a lot of work helping behind the scenes for media productions shot around Legoland and some other fun events like that.

These other graphics are from around when Blizzard left the company I was working with and moved their E-Sports to ESL Gaming. I came back from Christmas break and the studio had disappeared over the break. I literally showed up to work on Monday to an empty office space.

Luckily I was referred to ESL Gaming by some friends who migrated with Blizzard and was able to continue working not too long after. Also some of the UI overlay work I did became a catalyst for my current career as a Lead UIUX Designer.

Also as mentioned, there were a lot of scandals, but I myself am not a scandalous person, so I’ll keep the details brief. Let’s just say getting a bunch of ambitious 20-ish year old’s into a studio, traveling together, and eager to gain prestige probably isn’t the best mix in an industry that was trying to be taken seriously.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS…

It takes bravery to share art and insight, and the book “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon definitely helped! Audible has enabled me to listen to great books like this one while driving, working, and exercising. Click here to try Audible and get your first book for free! Audible is a service I’ve personally been subscribed to and have used for many years and I highly recommend it!

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Andrew Aviles
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