Freelance pro-bono Creative Direction for alumni-run Survivor: Michigan tv series on Youtube. Survivor: Michigan is a collection of 5 seasons and a total of 50+ hour-long episodes in which University of Michigan students vie for the title of "Sole Survivor" in a format parallel to the popular CBS show.
For this All Stars season, of 21 returning players, I delivered the below creative strategy with the intent of stretching content across a full year, slowly releasing content while alluding to the intensity & "revenge" of what was at stake for those deemed worthy of the title "All Stars."
To build anticipation, the above logo was released prior to the cast list. Never before had human figures been used in Survivor: Michigan logos and this created a fan-based uproar (as intended). With no additional information provided, the logo release alone resulted in an hour-long fan-made video analyzing and predicting the cast based on the silhouettes and their wishlist for the upcoming season.
Listed from left to right, these fans numbered the cast from 1-21.
The use of silhouettes successfully created an air of mystery while nodding to popular culture references fitting for the target audience such as video games with "locked" characters, appraisals in Pokémon, the logo of Codename Kids Next Door, among other references to various player skillsets and statistics.
Locked Characters
Locked Character Silhouettes
Silhouettes
Pokemon Gallery
Code Name: Kids Next Door
Pokemon Cards
Card with Rankings
SSX Tricky Character Rankings
Later in the campaign, we released the cast as individual "player cards" featuring statistics from past game play, tribes and other accolades. These posts also featured the casts' application videos.
The intent here was to showcase the range of skills and gameplay - suggesting that perhaps there might be a perfect formula to win while also acknowledging personality, luck, lying, and bias as key factors.
The intent here was to showcase the range of skills and gameplay - suggesting that perhaps there might be a perfect formula to win while also acknowledging personality, luck, lying, and bias as key factors.
Our audience loves to analyze, as proven by one fan's ranking of over 400+ cast members from all college survivor seasons. We figured this format would create a field day by providing sleek, visualized statistics to compare skillsets.
Further, the cast of this season had already played for many weeks in their original seasons. Because of their length of play, I found it appropriate to reference the movie Castaway by leaning on the essential tick marks of life used by the main character to keep track of passed time while stranded. As the fifth season of Survivor: Michigan, the tick marks also intentionally exist as a symbol of season "5."
Lastly, we'd hoped to add intensity to this logo without losing the core of U-M branding. Often red is used to capture revenge, but we'd hoped to steer clear of referencing rival school colors. To do this, the primary colors used were black and blues while restricting the use of red to the logo. Intentionally removing green created an unnatural feeling. The blue-heavy visual identity counteract the use of red and gold in the glow of the logo while also adding a coldness akin to the season's cutthroat nature and the weight of players' impending losses. In short the ominous beach was intended to feel as though it was comprised of the ash from former players' fires being snuffed. Look closely at the above image and you'll find all else is washed away aside from a single line of footprints.
One of the last, and perhaps most subtle, details of the logo is that the fire on the bottom half of the logo is created from the shadows of the cast. This allusion reflects that their revenge and perhaps their destiny is tied to their shadow. Their chaos is self-inflicted - as much defined by their agency as by their ability to remain standing. Only in the presence of such fire–from which these shadows protrude–is their legacy defined.
Take a closer look below!
Take a closer look below!
Cast - Shadows Only
Cast - Cast Silhouettes Shown
Full Logo
Click below to visit the Official Revenge Tour website.
Further below are branded applications from our campaign as well as a guerilla marketing plan.
