The Story of Stories.
This year, 2011 is the 25th Anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series – spanning 18 games and 11 consoles – and it doesn't look like it's going to be finished anytime soon. It's a series that's seen a lot of change in the gaming industry, and the world at large, but remains in the heart of many gamers, as the ultimate adventure – a story of stories.
The Concept
We wanted to portray the series and story as somehow bigger than the sum of its parts - more than just the 18 games, the pixels, and the Hylian aesthetic we've come to see from so much Zelda art. We felt this should be somehow more universal, in that these games have affected so many people, over such a long period of time. We set out to create a series of universal icons that could re-tell this story in more ways than one.
Arranging The Story
How to arrange these icons though? Should they be strictly linear, telling the story from left to right, or could the story be told across many different axis? Should we refer to the wisdom of the Otl Aicher (the man behind the wonderful 1972 Münich Olympic pictograms and identity) – a major inspiration and influence to us)?
After much deliberation we found the sweet spot; an arrangement of icons in the shape of the shield, enabling us to order icons both horizontally, and vertically. Into this shield we laid the stories that were to form the icons, and set a heart shaped arrangment of icons key to the heart of the series.
Friends, Enemies, Items, Weapons and Locations
Once we had a rough outline of the required icons, we set about we set about getting them down on paper, aiming to get the essence of each object down to as few lines as possible. There are few things so satisfying in design as tearing away the unnecessary elements and refining the work, until on the vital parts remain.
Digitising
Re-drawing these sketches in Illustrator required some intense grids, and a system of line weights and basic shapes that helped us keep each icon relative and unified with the others. We were aiming for a bold overall effect, with individual details, and we pushed each icon to create a 'story within a story'. There were eureka moments; such as when we solved the pig icon – four lines and four dots – down from our sketch of a full pig.
Printing
Sending any design to print can be a nervous moment; the fear that you may have missed something along the way, a glaring error that was staring you in the face. Often once it's gone, it's gone, and your mistakes live on into print, so sending a design of 112 icons to print was more than a little unnerving.
Putting the finished T-shirt on was truly a great moment, months of work now safely on our chests, a fitting anniversary tribute we feel.
