Consumer · Design-led
Closer
Closer, the game where you win each other.
Closer is a card game, but it’s faaaar from the competition we’re so programmed to stretch for nowadays, against each other. This is a game that’s played with and for each other. The grand prize? Quality candid connection and a colorful stamp on your passport for “going there”: that place behind closed doors we shy away from owning or venting, or laughing, or laugh-crying, or hey crying about. It’s all healthy. And human.
- Creative Direction
- Branding
- Web Design
- iOS Design
- Photography
- Campaign Creative
A hundred ways
to open up.
Scroll →
The challenge
To create a platform, both in print and digital, that brings people together to share vulnerable, “I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this before”, nervous-then-relieved personal stories about love, curiosity, joy, pet peeves, guilty pleasures, sad times, and our good ol’ frenemy: failure.
Branding: the truth might not be pretty. But the identity will.
How do you make people comfortable getting closer with uncomfortable questions? How do you make it all universally identifiable, warm, and welcoming?
With cozy colors, a logo that adds extra closeness with its backwards “e” that hugs into the “c”, playful illustrations, and really really good questions.
We were set to create something beautiful to hold, play, and share when asked “what would you do if you’d lose everything?” Are you thinking about it now? Are you answering the question in your mind? Great.
Illustration: candid, conceptual, collectible
We designed 100 uniquely illustrated cards, to make each question its own kind of unforgettable and self-discoverable.
Animation: life, brought to more life
Closer cards are all about interacting with each other, and feeling alive. So, fun animations made all the sense.
Technology: diving deep? There’s an app for that.
“Cool, but who carries a box of cards with them at all times?” Fair. So we made an app to open up with absolutely anyone, absolutely anywhere.
Social media: keeping it clean and colorful
Closer’s social presence runs on fun, colorful, simple and soothing photography that shows off the world we created.
The website
The website is beautifully animated, with unexpected transitions and product demonstration that plays with perspective.
It was featured on Slanted, ranked #4 Product of the Day on ProductHunt, and named website of the day on Awwwards and Mindsparkle magazine, which totally made our day. 365 of them.
The merch
The merch was meant to bring people closer as well. Hence, T-shirts that bring people together. Literally.
We also took it to the streets with posters, and threw it back to postcards that we all should admit more that we’d love to receive in the mail.
Events: Listen Bar
Listen Bar, a booze-free bar in NYC, first opened its doors as a 5-day proof-of-concept, taking over an empty bar space in South Williamsburg. Its roaring success proved the time was right! In November, Listen Bar celebrated its first party on tour: a night for sharing secrets, drama and laughter.
Listen Bar invited local comedians, authors, and public speakers to give their juiciest tales of modern dating. With every alcohol-free drink purchase, you got a Closer Card.