Superheroes seem to be the rage right now, recently we publish Batman v Superman and now Batman: Arkham Knight. Mountain Dew and Doritos teamed up with PlayStation to bring you closer to gaming greatness and give you exclusive rewards. After buying products and receiving codes, you can unlock in-game content and enter weekly sweeps, where you have a chance to win a Limited Edition PlayStation 4 Bundle.

While working at Firstborn they got hired to create a website, which we called PWRUP, that promotes these exclusive rewards and explains how you can unlock them. This website features a new game and rewards each 3 months. I was asked to create the edition for the much-anticipated game Batman: Arkham Knight. Using cinematic effects to display the products and rewards making them look like they came straight out of the game. Another unique feature of this edition was the possibility to enter the weekly sweeps for which I also created the flow and look.

-Alvin Groen

I designed the second edition for this website, so there was already a base to work from. Which actually gave me the chance to purely focus on the look & feel of everything and improve what was already there. We wanted to keep some of the things on the website consistent, like the logo, grid and typography and have freedom with the layout and imagery to match each game. So each edition will have a unique look & feel but still some recognisable elements to create this gaming platform that gets renewed each couple of months.
-Alvin Groen

My inspiration for this project was purely focused on the in-game look & feel of Batman: Arkham Knight. I wanted the user to already sort of experience the game and tease the rewards before the user unlocked anything. I tried to achieve this by mimicking the gritty feel of the textures, smoky environments, dark contrasts, dark blue tints, their way of using light and only popping one or two colours. In almost all the imageries that were available before the game got released, it seemed to have a heavy raining environment which was a big part of the gaming experience, so I included this on the rollover effects of the Mtn Dew and Doritos products. Unfortunately we couldn’t get our hands on any layered game artwork and there also wasn’t a lot of time for this project that I kept all of the animation pretty simple, besides the rollover effects of the Mtn Dew and Doritos products.
-Alvin Groen

Inspiration comes from anything and anywhere. The design all depends on the client, their target group and goal. I do enjoy being outdoors, snapping photos, travelling, watching movies, cooking and checking out galleries and museums. But the projects I like always include some kind of story telling, design with an immersive feel and video or animation. In my personal style, I like combining textures and big imagery with clean UI elements that use motion to help the UI and UX. I always play with contrasts in any possible way.

Never stop learning, it’s the journey that matters the most. Try to surround yourself with people who you look up to and keep challenging yourself with at least one aspect of all the projects you work on.
-Alvin Groen

About Alvin Groen

Alvin Groen is an Interactive Art Director and Designer from the Netherlands. His work is driven by the intersection of story, design and technology. He started his career in Germany, headed back to the Netherlands for a bit and then moved to the US to work for the interactive entertainment industry in Los Angeles. Currently, he's working on digital campaigns for brands at Your Majesty in New York. He's been lucky enough to work with some pretty great clients such as Audible, AMC, Disney, DreamWorks Animation, HBO, Lions Gate, Mountain Dew, Netflix, Pepsi, Pixar, Square Enix and Warner Bros., among many others. See more of his work at Behance or his website.