This project involved creating the full visual package for the JudgeCast Level 1 Essentials video series, as well as the YouTube channel banner. The goal was to give the series a consistent, recognizable identity while still being flexible enough to accommodate different topics and guest speakers. Since this is an educational series, the visuals needed to be engaging without being distracting. A lot of judge content can feel pretty dry, so the intention was to add personality and warmth through illustration while still keeping everything clear and functional.

The initial concept was a generic background and three character portraits for the hosts of the JudgeCast. The character portraits would have semi-transparent outlines that could easily be made to move along with the audio of the speaker. This is a fairly automated feature in the software being used to create the videos, and it was a low-effort way to add a bit of movement without going crazy into animation. The first task would be deciding on a style for the characters. There are a lot of different looks human characters can have and I had a feeling they wouldn't want something too "cutesy". I sent over a sketch with a few different styles of faces, noses and eyes.

After a bit of feedback on the elements of each that the client liked, I cleaned up a version of the three characters to serve as the "template" for the style.

After they were happy with that style I worked on a background. The client wanted something reminiscent of a game store, with a bunch of gaming paraphenalia on the table. The individual objects on the table needed to each be their own image so the client could move them around. They also had an idea of swapping out the objects every now and again to give the videos some visual diversity.

This was enough to get them going on the project and boy did they hit the ground running. After the first few videos they requested that I work on a youtube banner for their channel. This was a little tricky because Youtube banners need to look good at many different screen sizes, as they're very dynamic and display differently depending on the user's screen size. To make this more challenging the client wanted a bunch of different small elements that referenced various Magic: the Gathering cards, which wouldn't look good if they were cut off.

Later on they asked me for some poses for the main cast to keep the thumnails visually interesting.

In addition to the core cast, I also created custom avatars for guest speakers. Each of these needed to be recognizable and respectful to the individual, which meant going through an approval process before finalizing anything. That added an extra layer of iteration, since I wasn’t just designing for style—I also had to make sure each person felt accurately represented.

This project was a good exercise in consistency and volume. It’s one thing to design a single illustration, but another to build a whole system that holds up across multiple videos. The approval process for guest avatars added some complexity, but it was worth it. It made sure people felt good about how they were represented, which matters a lot more than just getting something done quickly. Overall I had a great time working with the JudgeCast crew and continue to create assets for them whenever needed.