The first small step we took was slightly updating the Lionel logo since it was clearly designed for print and it wasn't great for display or when placed as a smaller mark. Small tweaks to the type and spacing of the elements helped with legibility and allowed us a bit more freedom on how to place the mark.

Next we developed a new brand voice to be used in all digital communications. Despite having a website Lionel had never considered on a larger level if their brand needed a voice; our work would then be adopted as the general voice for the larger brand.

With a slightly updated mark and with a new voice we needed to take our new content strategy and give a place where we could apply it so we created Lionel Tracks a destination designed to make Lionel the authority on all train related content, expanding from just the product and celebrating train content from anywhere and everywhere.

RAIL RACE

With step one in place and having Lionel own the conversation around trains, we could not forget that they are selling a physical product. To remind people of the fun of collecting and running your own train dioramas we also created a multi-user game where up to four players would compete to build the longest railroad. Each victory would bring more status and currency which you could use to buy more trains or customizations, all of them also available in real life to buy from the store.

The map would also feature various stations based on the content categories of the site. Where you could stop and browse articles in exchange for more resources. The execution of a game of this scale required some clever engineering and a lot of art. Hundreds of sprites and lines of code were written to ensure we could generate the maps and keep the experience fresh.

Christian Kowalchuck
3D Artist/ Technical Director

Paul Valenzano
Producer