House of the Dragon: Season 2 Campaign

Following King Aegon II’s coronation and the death of Queen Rhaenyra’s son, House Targaryen is divided in two. These dueling factions became primary elements of our design and were spread across a substantial number of the deliverables we turned in.

The House of the Dragon sigil and logo were foundational elements of the campaign, and where we spent a lot of time designing early on in the project. We explored 3D effects and how they looked baked into the sigil. A melting effect really made the logo sizzle and visually referenced the dragons who anchor the show.

We tried a frieze-inspired design direction that would encapsulate both the history and storytelling aspect the series brings to George R.R Martin’s novels. Our 3D team also workshopped some of the finer details of the HOTD storyline and incorporated them into the sigil and added motion as we explored looks for the edits.

With that intense focus on authenticity, the dragons and all of their various components were of highest priority to our design team. We honed in on scales and movement to capture the magnificence of the beasts, and for our own purposes could also dynamically reflect the hue we needed at the time - green, red or black.

Combined all together, these designs were flush with elements that could be used independently or in combination to create the HOTD visuals used as the foundation of the promotional campaign.

With the logo lockup and sigil secured, we were able to begin exploring design elements branching from these foundational logos and designs.

The linear toolkit we designed for the package was really the bread and butter of our work on the second season of House of the Dragon. Creating a comprehensive toolkit that could be used by our client and applied across multiple deliverables was our key priority ahead of delivery.

We created a separate sub-campaign built around picking your side to showcase the civil war looming as both sides seek support from the great houses of Westeros. Our design incorporated bumpers, lower thirds, and other visual markers created in both green and black versions to delineate which house the design was supporting.

This deliverable included a step by step guide for how to use the logo toolkit across different applications. Brian Landisman created both the system and the instructions for how to take the assets from after effects into real actual applications so that our clients would be able to manipulate the logo themselves. This allowed the HBO team to translate the logo into different languages and configurations necessary for the far-reaching campaign.

We designed a set of IPMs for the marketing team at HBO to use across advertising campaigns ahead of the launch. These visually engaging layovers could be seen throughout the leadup to the season premiere of HOTD season 2 as they would catch viewers’ eye while enjoying other programming.

The House That Dragons Built is a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the second season of the blockbuster HBO series. We designed a custom show open for this documentary-style spinoff of the series, taking a look at the logistics, set design and special effects used in the second season of HOTD.

The digital Out of Home toolkit gave the HBO team a lot of flexibility to develop assets for use across multiple platforms. We delivered assets in multiple ratios to fulfill any potential need that could arise— backgrounds, dragons, type, the sigil and more. These assets were then used by the HBO team to create whatever OOH elements needed for the campaign - including the Samsung Times Square billboard.

We turned the 3D elements into a larger-than-life edit to be displayed in Times Square as part of the Samsung billboard, advertising the second season and the technology giant’s partnership. It was critical that in addition to the scenes from the show, we featured the dragon’s in a grand, over-the-top way to match their significance to the storyline in the newest season.

For the Brazil digital Out-of-home package, we translated the text into a different language and created a visualizer on our end for the HBO team to use when designing. This streamlined their efforts in utilizing the toolkit and developing a package for an entirely different audience.

BGSTR led the art and technical direction for the spots, integrating the VFX we designed into the commercial edit produced by our partners at HBO.

A campaign featuring the Empire State Building and a cascading dragon shadow was used in conjunction with other larger-than-life promotional elements for the campaign. The shadows campaign preceded experiential activations by the network like a blow-up Vhaegar perched on top of the building ahead of the season premiere and AI banners denoting green vs black on various Manhattan bridges.

Our clients brought a similar AI stunt campaign to Australia with the streaming platform Binge. After hanging AI banners across major metropolitan landmarks throughout the country, we incorporated our design to torch a billboard displaying the HOTD premiere date. The result was a fun collaboration that fused imagination and reality to build excitement ahead of the premiere.

The MAX platform needed a little something extra to ramp up the excitement ahead of the season and what better way to accomplish that than add more dragons? We designed a product video to engage with the full screen when landing on the MAX platform hub— a dragon circles in the background, seemingly biding time until it comes forward with a fiery burst.

Demonstrating the strength of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ empire, the network renewed ‘House of the Dragon’ for Season 3 in advance of the Season 2 premiere on June 16. We designed a fiery short for the announcement, bringing together our toolkit and 3D fire elements in an explosive edit.

Thank-you as always to our partners at HBO for the opportunity to work on this already legendary series. Working on this series allows us to flex our capabilities in all the best ways and push our design until we render results worthy of the hit show. Until next season!