Twitch is a video livestreaming service that runs promotional events known as "MegaComs" to boost engagement with its over 15 million viewers and streamers. The "Hindsight 2020" MegaCom offered unlockable emotes — icons and emojis used in live stream chats — as rewards for engaging on the platform during a limited time. My role was to design and illustrate a selection of those emotes.
Twitch's brief asked for a batch of emotes that balanced a broad holiday appeal with tongue-in-cheek nods to the year's events while offering some relevancy beyond the holiday season.
Making the right amount of reference to the events of the year without being insensitive to the struggles faced by many was key. Cultural diversity of the holidays as well as social media and gaming trends of the year would serve as the basis for striking that balance.
Emotes pose the unique challenge of having to be legible at small sizes while including enough detail to communicate a specific emotion or expression. Testing within Twitch's chat panel dimensions was big for selling stakeholders on final designs.
Twitch's marketing campaign for the MegaCom regularly featured the limited-edition emotes alongside other limited-time giveaways and incentives to attract users.
In total, I contributed 8 of the 20 emotes in the limited edition set that helped drive engagement with existing users as well as entice new users to join and explore the platform.
