Background
Guild Wars 2 is a long-running fantasy MMORPG set in the world of Tyria, known for its large-scale world, distinctive races and characters, and a strong community built around the game and its evolving story.
This project was developed as a physical banner for the Guild Wars 2 community, translating the game’s recognizable characters, artwork, and visual identity into a display piece that players could hang and collect. Unlike a conventional printed poster, the design uses layered fabric panels, stitched construction, a wooden hanging rod, and character artwork to give the piece a more dimensional and collectible presentation.
The banner was tied directly to the game and distributed to players before it ever reached regular retail, making it a community-focused collectible rather than a conventional store product.
Challenge
One of the main challenges was keeping every red element consistent across different materials and processes. The red stitching, the felt used for the diamond-shaped graphic, and the felt backing all needed to appear as the same red. Since these components came from different material and production processes, even a small color difference would become noticeable when they were assembled next to each other.
Another challenge was reproducing the dragon logo clearly on felt. The logo contains many fine lines and small gaps, while screen printing on felt has practical limits on minimum line thickness and spacing. If the original artwork were printed directly without adjustment, some of the narrow gaps could fill with ink and merge together, causing details of the dragon to disappear.
What I did
I matched the red felt, backing material, and sewing thread together, comparing them as a complete set rather than approving each component separately. This allowed me to control the overall color consistency before the different parts were assembled.
For the dragon logo, I optimized the artwork specifically for screen printing on felt. I adjusted the spacing between individual strokes and refined some of the smallest details on the computer, while keeping the original appearance of the logo as intact as possible. The goal was not to redesign the artwork, but to give the screen-printing process enough tolerance so that the fine lines and gaps would remain visible on the finished banner.
Outcome
This product was originally created as a limited-edition item tied to the game, with some players receiving it directly through the upgraded / special edition. Once it was announced within the game’s core community, it quickly attracted strong interest and reservations from players.
Ultimately, the entire quantity was claimed before the product ever reached the official store, so it never even entered regular retail sale. The game’s core community alone was enough to take the full quantity, demonstrating the product’s strong appeal among dedicated players.
