Aug 1, 2009

Spyborgs Conceptual Box Art

I think a lot of us take a games’ box art for granted, myself especially. We might appreciate a good example and berate a bad one but on the whole we probably don’t spend a lot of time wondering about the conceptual process.

In the modern age of advertisement the idea (or should I shay the basis for box art) has changed drastically. Gone are the days where box art was used as a primary source of enticement and thanks to TV and Radio, their exposure can increase ten fold. Now, in the age of the Internet every conceivable commodity is advertised months before it’s actual release date giving even the most tech illiterate a head ups on what to expect.

As a result sales are dominated by brand recognition and their intellectual properties, there are off course exceptions with products like the Wii but overall sales are made in return for promises. Promises that in exchange for your money your purchase will do as advertised. All this makes the box art somewhat redundant and especially so for digital purchases, but it is nice to see that even in the digital age people still make the effort.

Take for example Capcom’s latest effort for the Wii called Spyborgs, where on Capcom’s community site you can see a collection of box art concepts. Which just goes to show you that even though I and maybe even you, our fair readers take box art for granted. That even the most seemingly mundane of branding requires a great deal of thought and execution.

If you wish to see some of the thought processes involved in creating box art be sure to head over to Capcom-unity