Hello! I’m Jiye Choi, a BX Designer from the Branding Cell at OP.GG🙋🏻♀️
If you’ve had the chance to participate in any OP.GG events before, chances are you’ve received some goodies. Each year, OP.GG selects a theme and creates apparel merch! These items aren’t for sale; they’re usually custom-made merch used as employee uniforms or giveaways. They embody the culture that considers both OP.GG members and fans as brand ambassadors. As every employee serves as a walking billboard, contributing to advertising our brand, it’s crucial to design with both style and comfort in mind, ensuring wearer satisfaction.
Balancing OP.GG’s philosophy and the message of the year while maintaining high quality and satisfaction is a big challenge that the Branding Cell faces annually 🧐
In 2022, to celebrate OP.GG’s founding and the Year of the Tiger, we created high quality hoodies and t-shirts utilizing OP.GG’s graphic motif. After bidding farewell to the merch for the Year of the Tiger, which was used for various OP.GG events until 2023, I’d like to share the process of how the new merch for 2024 came to be!
Themes for the future
While the previous merch was a fusion of OP.GG’s founding anniversary and the Year of the Tiger, we put a lot of thoughts on future themes to bring us closer to the essence of OP.GG.
How can we encapsulate the essence of OP.GG while exploring diverse themes and, most importantly, connecting with our gamers? 🤔 The answer was quite simple. “Games” are at the core of what OP.GG is all about. Therefore, games are an inseparable part of OP.GG! And so we aimed to reflect this identity in our merch.
We decided to convey this year’s game industry trends, issues, culture, and major events in OP.GG’s own fun, unique way. Establishing the direction of designing our merch, and we hoped it would provide gamers with something to commemorate and enjoy, while also appealing to non-gamers.
If we were to ask what was the hottest game of this year, it would undoubtedly be “Palworld.” How fun would it be if OP.GG became a Pal? 🤭 Perhaps a character with a blue body and a headset on its ears!
Esports and Faker
What was the biggest topic in the gaming industry in ’23 you ask? 2023 was the year esports was officially adopted as a formal event at the Hangzhou Asian Games. This marked the incredibly meaningful beginning of breaking down the boundaries between traditional sports and digital sports! It’s safe to say that it brought esports one step closer to popularization. It garnered attention even from generations who hadn’t experienced online gaming before.
As a result, interest in one of the flagship games of esports, “League of Legends,” was particularly high this year. Especially with the announcement that the 2023 LoL World Championship (officially abbreviated as Worlds) would be held in Korea, the excitement was remarkable ❤️🔥 OP.GG also joined the excitement by hosting viewing parties with T1 to cheer on the teams.
OP.GG’s partnership with T1 has been ongoing since 2021, and this viewing party was particularly meaningful as it allowed us to support and enjoy the games with fans!
At this year’s Worlds, T1’s victory against LPL teams captured even more attention. For Faker, this marked his fourth Worlds trophy, seven years after winning Worlds in 2016! 🏆 It’s safe to say that his stories were causing quite a stir everywhere.
’23 was a year when esports received even more attention and love from people. Considering that all roads lead through him… 🍁 We’ve decided to make Faker, the central figure of Worlds ’23 and an indispensable figure in esports, the keyword for OP.GG’s 2024 merch!
Hide on Bush
If you’ve played League of Legends, you’ve probably heard Faker’s Summoner name at least once. Thanks to Riot’s policy change allowing duplicate IDs, a whopping 18,046 (check it out! 🔍) “Hide on Bush” accounts were created worldwide 🤗 (as of 2024/2/22 blog post).
And voila! Inspired by Faker’s Summoner name, “Hide on Bush,” a retro-themed character was born! 🌳🍃 We didn’t want it to be just Faker’s Summoner name; we wanted to incorporate a meaning that many could relate to.
Hiding my powers for now, I’m gonna get you soon.
While the character may seem simple and harmless on the outside, nobody knows what’s hidden in the bush. I wanted to convey a positive message that although we might be hiding our powers now, the opportunity to show our true worth will come around.
Here at OP.GG, we have a culture of not giving up on challenging goals and enjoying the process. Failure is also seen as a hidden asset for future success! This mentality gives us the courage to take on challenges without fear of failure. In that sense, Hide on Bush’s message also reflects OP.GG’s identity 🤗
I hope everyone’s hidden powers finally shine and make a difference in the coming year! 🌞✨
Hide on Bush, coming to life
Based on the newly created Hide on Bush character, we’ve now moved on to the actual production of t-shirts and hoodies! We’ve put meticulous attention into them, down to the smallest details like the labels, to ensure that people who receive them can enjoy wearing them in their daily lives. After several rounds of sample production and quality checks, the merch is finally complete 🌝 This is how it usually goes for the process of creating merch.
The partnership with T1 made it possible for us to create such fantastic merch 🌷 It’s the first step in a new direction, and we hope it will help energize esports and establish it as a culture that many people can enjoy even more than they do now.
You’ll soon get to see the Hide on Bush merch. We’ll work hard to introduce various merch other than t-shirts and hoodies! 🏃🏻♀️🏃🏻
Wrapping up
Starting with the Hide on Bush merch, the Branding Cell plans to make various attempts to make OP.GG into a trendy and unique brand through broadening our communication. Thank you! 💕
