In this blog I’ll be giving you a quick tour through the Machinations league design. Will Hungerford came up with an amazing concept for this year’s league, and I was the lucky designer chosen to do it justice. The Machinations league covers totally new design territory, so we had the opportunity to create all the imagery from the ground up. It was really fun finding ways to extend and tie together the unique look of the league throughout so many different items.

The posters show a giant machine with six rotating facets. Designing the machine itself was a challenge because it didn’t just need to look awesome, it also needed to consist of moving parts. As the season progresses, the machine’s parts turn clockwise. The individual facets also spin in place. Their lenses and arms move, and their inner workings and gears turn. All these small details you might not notice initially, but they help subtly illustrate the movement and complexity behind this device.

We wanted the medals to look like a key piece that could be inserted into the machine. Other aspects of the machine were borrowed to make the key piece, like the spinning lenses, clock arms, and gear protection plates.

The patches were designed to work in any arrangements. However you lay them out, they connect together. In addition, each patch’s design ties into the season theme as a whole. For example, season one, Umbra, shows lenses playing with light and shadow.

Machinations: Umbra starts February 25, so sign up for your local league and build the machine!