We would release Riot’s artwork through four executions:

The Art of League of Legends fine art book

This was a statement piece, printed in multiple languages, along with a Collector’s Edition. It explored the backstories of the game’s characters, letting fans immerse themselves in both the lore of the game.

The Digital Art Book

This brought the same storytelling of our physical art book to players worldwide. Important because 99% of League players could never afford the physical piece.

The League of Legends Screensaver

Yes, a screensaver. But not like you’ve seen before. This brought next-gen technology to an old gamer favorite. With our innovative build, Riot could push new art releases to fans across the world, in perpetuity.

The Nexus Blog

At long last, fans got access to the game’s creative minds. We paired interviews and Q&As with releases of the latest art to create a beautiful, community-focused experience.

Our first step: an exhaustive curation process, including spelunking through hard drives, thumb drives, sketchbooks and more. We organized our discoveries into compelling stories of character evolution. Then it was time to design.

Inspired by the game, we developed an intricate, yet restrained design language that allowed the artwork to take center stage. In only a few cases, the design itself came to the forefront to help explain complex character relationships, or to display sheet music for one character’s theme.

Online, we kept user interactions strikingly simple and elegant. Again, the artwork was the star.

Fans and critics agreed: Riot looked like a different company. Where they had once seemed guarded, they were now one of the most accessible game companies in the world.

This new reputation gave fans the permission to further immerse themselves in League of Legends.

Art book sales far exceeded Riot’s expectations. The Collector’s Edition sold out in 11 hours.

The digital art book received 1 million views within days of launch and received an unprecedented average user rating of “10/10”.

The screen saver received 2 million downloads in one week.

The Nexus blog was picked up by Mashable within 2 hours. It has since overtaken all other League of Legends sites for traffic, a significant win in the gaming world where users tend to stick to their community homes.

Perhaps the finest compliment for our work—Riot canonized our design language as their official style guide for League of Legends.