"Endure and survive"
Decades after the collapse of society caused by a mass fungal infection, The Last of Us is a two-part series that follows Joel and Ellie as they travel across a ravaged United States. With over 300 Game of the Year awards, The Last of Us was the most awarded franchise in video game history. Its success spawned an HBO adaption, a Halloween Horror Nights attraction, and much more.
I joined Naughty Dog to develop branding material for the franchise's refresh: The Last of Us Part I and Part II were being rebuilt from the ground up and needed a fresh, new look.
"We're doing this together, right?"
My work on The Last of Us extends far beyond graphic design. Whether I'm designing scalable systems, directing vendors and partners, or collaborating across disciplines, I'm always pushing myself - and the brand - to new heights.
Yet, this project would have been impossible without the hundreds of developers at Naughty Dog. There are too many people to thank. Key contributors have been credited at the bottom of this page.
"This is bigger than any of us"
How do you approach a refresh of one of gaming's most coveted franchises? I found the answer in identifying what makes The Last of Us unique: its story telling.
The Last of Us is not about bombastic set pieces, scoring points, and leveling up — it's about people. It's about adult relationships and their heartbreaking conclusions. This outlook defined every design decision. From typography to vendors to compositions, everything was framed with a grounded, mature tone.
"how'd you put it? Tiny Pieces?"
When building a fandom as diehard as that of The Last of Us, not everything should be a large marketing campaign. Our social channels needed to be filled with smaller, bite-sized content that would keep fans engaged between game releases, television seasons, etc.
These smaller beats include celebrating actors' birthdays, game sales, community events, and more. Yet, to create this mountain of content, we needed to design thoughtfully. Assets couldn't always be bespoke and entirely unique — we needed a series of templates that could be modified and adapted for each instance, yet still feels connected to the whole.
"it grows all over the brain"
What started as a shower thought has snowballed into one of the franchise's defining looks: "what if we grew a mold that looks like Cordyceps and scanned it?"
Over the past year, I've grown dozens of petri dishes of Physarum Polycephalum and created a library of assets that are each compelling, unique, and ready to be used. Whether it's a banner for social media or the cover of Pearl Jam's latest album, these fungal assets have found countless use cases.
This project has even given me a nickname: the mold man.
Special Thanks
Megan Mehran
Joshua Bradley
David Blatt
Matt Owca
Colin Stevens
Graphic Designer
Branding Designer
Concept Artist
Director of Creative
Social Media Manager
"I would do it all over again"
Joel Miller