Attack Mode Activated
The Goal
Drive active viewership for Formula E content while positioning Roku Sports as the premier, go-to destination for comprehensive motorsport streaming.
The Challenge
Introduce a new sports IP to Roku’s massive mainstream audience while creating authentic, culture-first designs that instantly resonate with die-hard Formula E fans.
My Role
Visual Designer (Led creative strategy, concept ideation, and platform asset production)
The Strategic Insight: "Attack Mode"
To bridge the gap between core fans and newcomers, I anchored the primary creative concept around Formula E’s most dynamic racing mechanic: Attack Mode (a temporary track power boost).
The Concept: Designed a high-impact key art frame featuring a Formula E car bursting out of a dimensional chevron arrow.
The Strategy: Paired the visual with an in-race contextual anchor—"Attack Mode Activated"—to signal to die-hard fans that Roku truly understands their sport, while utilizing the high-contrast, aggressive aesthetic to spark visual curiosity for casual viewers.
The Pivot: While this direction was ultimately deemed a strategic risk for corporate brand guidelines, presenting it first established a clear, audience-first design philosophy before moving into the final production run.
The Design Iteration
To find the right balance between fan engagement and brand consistency, I developed multiple visual directions, presenting a choice between a high-reward strategic risk and a highly scalable brand solution.
The "Attack Mode" design was the high-energy, fan-first concept featuring the electric chevron breakout, built specifically to establish cultural authority with core motorsport enthusiasts.
A combination of two alternative "safe" directions. This integrated approach paired clean, premium car imagery with traditional layouts to guarantee wide audience legibility.
The Decision: While the creative risk of ‘Attack Mode’ was highly valued for its strategic thinking, leadership ultimately selected the combined, safer direction. This route ensured maximum brand alignment and provided a highly stable foundation for a massive platform rollout.
Execution & Production
Once the final direction was locked, the focus shifted to executing a high-volume, production lifecycle across a full 11-race season. The challenge was maintaining visual consistency while customizing assets for every international circuit.
Reflection & Takeaways
This project was an incredible masterclass in balancing high-concept creative with large-scale production requirements. While the "Attack Mode" concept didn’t make it to production, the experience provided two invaluable insights for my design practice:
The Power of Audience-First Design: I remain confident that the fan-centric direction would have driven deep affinity with core motorsport enthusiasts. It reinforced my belief that taking calculated creative risks is essential to building authentic brand connections in sports entertainment.
Prototyping for Stakeholder Buy-In: My biggest takeaway was an evolution in my presentation strategy. I realized that to sell a disruptive, high-risk concept to leadership, presenting key art isn't enough. Moving forward, my process now includes building out a comprehensive system prototype to visually demonstrate exactly how a bold concept scales across the entire Roku OS platform, reducing stakeholder ambiguity from day one.
Disclaimer:
This case study was created solely for portfolio purposes to showcase my design process and contributions. All visuals, logos, and assets are the property of Roku and Formula E.
