Manga Production

Manga Productions, a subsidiary company of Mohammed bin Salman's "MiSK" Foundation, focuses on producing animations and developing video games and comics with creative and positive content targeting Saudi and international groups of society to inspire the heroes of tomorrow.

"Mercury Girl" is a comic story developed by the Manga Productions team. The comic theme follows Gekiga manga genre, which focuses on 'Dramatic pictures', targets adults, and features complex narratives and cinematographic effects. Drawing is idealized, with emotions conveyed through large, expressive eyes and symbols such as flowers.

The story takes place in a fantasy world where every firstborn girl gets infected with a mutation caused by red Mercury, and the affected girls are called (mercury girls). 

In this story, the heroine mom (Yamamah) tries to find a cure for her child (Mai), who has the mutation, instead of killing her or abandoning her, as is common among people, to deal with their daughters of Mercury.

Yamama embarks on an adventure in which she encounters many characters, dangers, and surprises to save her daughter›s life and give her a happy life as a sane child.

The story

boldbrands team created a visual identity, from the logo to the design system, that reflects the story, showcases the characters, and helps publish and promote the story throughout different mediums. The logo features a typographic interpretation of the name with a Mercury-Like effect and an embedded emblem of a mercury illustration provided by the Manga Production team.

The layout system is a composite of shapes, patterns, typography, and colors that combine with the illustrated characters and scenes provided by the Manga Production team to create a fluid and flexible yet systematic design.

After creating the brand's assets, the boldbrands team helped develop the brand's expression to make the story magazine cover, the communication templates, and a collection of merchandise products that help promote this comic story.

Brand's expression

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Mercury Girl 

boldBrands

National Events Center (NEC)

The National Events Center (NEC) was created with the purpose of creating events with international standards that serve society and enhance their well-being, through developing the Kingdom’s events sector to its full potential.

Creating a joyful user experience, that spotlights the brand essence, with an accessible responsive design that encourages user interaction to spotlight NEC’s services and initiatives.

We’re privileged to be partnering with the National Events Center (NEC), the governmental entity that is leading the events and entertainment sector in Saudi Arabia. 

NEC's role in shaping the cultural landscape made their website a crucial tool to communicate their brand, both verbally and visually, while adhering to Digital Government Authority (DGA) accessibility requirements.

Background

The main challenge lay in creating a website that catered to everyone, representing a governmental entity, while also possessing a unique personality to complement the NEC brand.  

Expanding their visual identity and devising a comprehensive design system that brought their brand to life, ensuring a captivating and consistent experience with each user interaction.

SOLUTION

Focusing on three key elements:

Positioning NEC as a facilitator for private sectors, enabling them to host large-scale events that adhere to international standards.
Accentuating NEC's achievements and expertise through compelling case studies and impressive statistical data.
Emphasizing the user-friendly online platforms provided by NEC, streamlining event discovery and organizing throughout the Kingdom.

the experience

We crafted captivating content, including interactive greeting cards, to deliver an enriching user experience that entices visitors to return to the website.

Throughout our design and development process, we remained committed to making accessibility a priority while adhering to DGA (Digital Government Authority) guidelines. Our approach focuses on inclusivity, and we've seamlessly integrated features such as audio narration, customizable text size, and high-contrast design into the National Events Center's website to provide a user-friendly experience for all. Our dedication to accessibility reflects our belief that every visitor, regardless of their abilities, should have equal access to NEC's valuable information and services.

Customizable text size

High-contrast Design

Audio Narration

accessibility

Furthermore, Bold equipped NEC with a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that empowered them to easily manage their content. By optimizing for discoverability through robust SEO strategies, we ensured that NEC's events, services, and resources could be easily found and accessed by their audience

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A governmental entity  with a unique perspective

boldExperiences

AlWaleed Philanthropies x The World Scout Foundation

The META Forest was crafted for the JOTA-JOTI day, an annual global gathering of scouts providing an opportunity for young people to learn about different cultures, engage in educational activities, and promote global friendship and understanding.

Partnering with two NGOs to bring the vital initiative of forest conservation into the the virtual realm.

AP and the Scouts presented us with the exciting opportunity to craft an immersive experience for the JOTA-JOTI event, designed to educate children about the crucial significance of preserving our forests.

challenge

The core concept is to lead children through a brief yet informative and enjoyable journey, enlightening them about the threats endangering our forests and emphasizing their vital role in maintaining the balance of life on our planet. This interactive experience involves the enjoyable task of planting a virtual tree, sharing it with the world, and even having the chance to win a limited edition NFT.

Solution

Our experience is intricately crafted with the user's journey in mind. Ensuring they pass through all the important info panels first to learn about the problem, explore real-world solutions and receive instructions for planting the tree. All that before reaching the seeds area to collect their seeds and then easily teleport to the forest to plant their first tree.

The experience

The 3D wireframes and how we transformed it into an engaging metaverse experience.

behind the scenes

We've implemented a moderation feature empowering moderators to swiftly block suspicious users and maintain a disturbance-free experience within the space.

Kids safety features

To enhance the richness and educational value for kids, we integrated "Info Boxes" throughout the space. These serve the purpose of providing users with random fun facts about trees and their impact on our environment.

Additional features

Our design philosophy for the floating panels aligns with the concept of open space. Opting for a separated sections design, we aimed to unveil the area behind each panel while maintaining a visually vibrant and playful atmosphere for the kids.

Visual designs

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Interactive environmental awareness experience in our META Forest

Polished

In 2015 three ambitious Saudi females decided to uplift the standards of beauty practice in the Saudi market by establishing Polished. A licensed beauty house that delivers comprehensive on-demand beauty services & products in Riyadh, Dammam, Dhahran, and Khobar. 

Polished vision is to lead the beauty & wellness service providers industry in Saudi Arabia by uplifting the practice standards in the market and investing in creativity.
The brand's mission is to conveniently meet its valued clients’ needs by facilitating access to premium beauty & wellness services and products.

The identity emphasizes the value of the “Polished” brand on their customer’s charm and beauty by matching the beauty of women’s curves (hair, eyebrows, skin, mouth..). “Polished” logo is a written handwritten signature using a brush texture, which shows passion, and colored with a red color which shows charm and confidence.

Identity

Polished visual language and packaging connect with the master brand with a minimal yet powerful look, communicating passion and confidence. 
Along with the signature Polished red, the packaging and communication look and feel combine color, texture, and layout. In their work, our designers have looked for ways to introduce the wordmark as a graphical element to expand the brand’s visual language and make it more flexible and experimental.

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Charm in each and every curve

King Abdulaziz Foundation For Research And Archives (DARAH)

DARAH, a governmental organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Saudi Arabia's rich history, approached us with a unique challenge.   

They sought to engage the Saudi youth in a meaningful way, bringing them closer to their heritage while making history more accessible and engaging.

The goal was to create a web-based experience that blended modern technology with traditional storytelling, fostering a sense of pride and connection among the younger generation.

The challenge was to design and build an interactive storytelling web-based experience that would resonate with the Saudi youth. The approach needed to be innovative, avoiding the conventional wireframing process and instead focusing on a narrative-driven design. The objective was to make the user an active participant in history, allowing them to take micro-actions symbolizing their connection to the past.

Our design process departed from the traditional web design approach. Instead of wireframing, we embraced the concept of storytelling. We began by crafting a compelling narrative, outlining the key moments in Saudi history that would resonate with the target audience. This narrative served as the foundation for our design, guiding us through the creation of storyboards that visually depicted the user's journey.

With the storyboards in place, we transitioned to a 3D design approach. Drawing inspiration from the branding of Saudi Arabia's founding day, we created a visually stunning 3D space that would serve as the backdrop for the interactive experience. The color palette, typography, and overall aesthetic were carefully chosen to evoke a modern yet historically rooted ambiance.

storyboard

Progressing through the story by scrolling.

Providing the user with additional information along the journey.

Mixing interactive tasks with automatic camera movements.

The next step involved the integration of webGL to bring the 3D space to life. Animation was a key element, allowing us to dynamically showcase historical events and create an immersive experience. The interactive elements were carefully woven into the narrative, enabling users to take micro-actions that symbolized their participation in historical moments.

development

Narrative-Driven Design

The entire experience was built around a captivating narrative, ensuring that users felt connected to the historical events unfolding before them.

Key Features

The visual appeal of the web-based experience was heightened by a 3D space designed to reflect the aesthetics of the founding day branding.

3D Space Inspired by Branding

Users were given the opportunity to actively engage with the history by taking micro-actions, symbolizing their participation in key events.

Interactive Micro-Actions

The use of WebGL brought the 3D space to life, allowing for seamless and visually stunning animations that enhanced the storytelling experience.

WebGL Animation

This case study showcases the power of innovative design thinking in creating meaningful and engaging web-based experiences. By departing from the traditional design process and embracing storytelling, 3D design, and interactive elements, we were able to bridge the gap between the past and the present, making history not just a lesson but an experience for the Saudi youth.

Conclusion

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Reviving Saudi History Through Interactive Storytelling

Misk Art Institute

“We could picture their lines animating in and out of the screen, breathing life to the pages as the user navigates through the art week’s activations”

Creating a website to navigate the different touchpoints of a week long art event

Every year, Misk Art Institute hosts a week-long event with a variety of activities from talks and panel discussions to exhibits, performances and education sessions. This year was no different, and for it, they asked us to create a new website to act as a hub for all the information, and a portal through which users can register for the variety of happenings that week. 

The concept was to create a space within their current website that felt like its own site, taking a different approach to their branding but keeping it consistent and familiar with the general feel in the rest of the pages. After being given instructions to create a non-scroll landing page, and the limitations of working within their existing grid structure, top navigation and footer.

We tackled the layout and design of this website mobile first, identifying the necessary content flow for the user to complete the various tasks at different stages of their journey. Firstly, in order to establish a clear distinction from the rest of the website, we decided on a look and feel that inverted their colors, using white, purple and yellow over a black background. Additionally, instead of extending their main menu to show the internal tabs, we created a static hovering menu for easy navigation and access to the registration form.


We also wanted to re-imagine the use of their shapes on the page, so we injected them primarily as little animated details at the headers and as separators. So we chose a few of them and created SVG animations to ensure they remained responsive. We also used their custom Art Week icons in the custom sticky menu to reinforce them as visual cues.

The Outcome

For the home page, we decided to storyboard and animate a quick video that showed all the key information from the first impression of the site. The rest of the pages use a clear and simple grid structure that enables the user to view and filter through the different available activities with ease. 

The final outcome was also adapted for mobile, in both English and Arabic

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Crafting the Misk Art Week Website

Alwaleed Philantrophies

Crafting an experience in the metaverse that works towards a bigger cause of tolerance and understanding between cultures.

We wanted to test the limits of an intangible space like the metaverse, and its ability to bring a deeper meaning and a sense of tangibility to a philanthropic organization with a big cause

Alwaleed Philanthropies is a non-profit organization that works on projects and campaigns with the sole purpose of creating a positive impact on humanity worldwide. With one of their key areas of impact being “Bridging Cultures”, they wanted to take advantage of World Tolerance Day to reach a wider audience by being the first Philanthropy to exist in the metaverse. 

On November 16, we launched their curated space, titled A Boundless Journey, on Decentraland. The end result is a journey through an 8 floor space, which takes users through an interactive exhibit of cultural and artistic projects from a variety of their partners.

AlWaleed Philanthropies’ mission is to create impact beyond borders, irrespective of gender, race or religion. With that in mind, we felt that the Metaverse, a decentralized place that is designed to reach a public beyond reach, was the perfect place to host a virtual exhibit that would reflect the power of art and culture as a tool of empowerment and integration. 

We started by identifying the core drivers of the brand being in the metaverse, and the key messages they wanted to communicate. With that we crafted a manifesto as a guiding pillar for the experiences they want to host in their Decentraland space. We then curated 8 pieces inspired by Islamic cultures from all around the world, from woodwork crafted by local Saudi artisans, to unique sound pieces inspired by the patterns on Islamic carpets.

The idea

With their partners on board, providing us the content necessary for each project piece, we moved onto curating the space and planning the user’s experience. After a lot of research into the Do’s and Don'ts of Decentraland (heads up, stairs are a no-go), and spending a lot of time experiencing other event spaces on the platform, we began with planning our own.

With the help of an architectural designer, we were inspired by the concept of interwoven pieces, the pieces being brought together through curved ramps as if they are weavings. We knew the elements we had to incorporate -including the main floor where the users need to be introduced to the brand and purpose of the experience- and with the help of an architect, we sketched multiple iterations of the space, ultimately choosing one and developing it to the final version. 

The Process

We then tackled each room separately, after laying out the available content and any additional content we could produce for each - we asked to produce interviews and photoshoots for a few of the rooms. 
We wanted to take advantage of the physics-defying aspects of Decentraland, so we decided to bring the pieces to life by augmenting and animating them, creating a unique feel in each room, complemented by specific audio tracks for each.

This project was truly a challenge, and its process took a lot of back and forth. Although we had known the limitations of the space, calculating the amount of textures, materials and usable triangles we could work with, we still needed to figure out how to work to optimize them. We also needed to adjust the space to be user friendly, and create intrigue through a quest-like game that pushed the users to explore the entire space, collecting Value Words in order to unlock a custom POAP - an incentive we knew would work on many visitors.

The Obstacles

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Boundless Journey (Metaverse)

the bold group

Progress and tradition don’t contradict. We wanted to prove that culture and identity can thrive even on an abstract and futuristic concept like the Metaverse

Early in 2022, the world was so busy talking about the Metaverse. A new concept that is promising to change the way we use the internet and interact with each other.
As a creative technology hub, we couldn’t sit still and be passive. We wanted to actively participate in all the buzz, going beyond the boundaries of what we’re comfortable crafting, taking it as an opportunity to learn and experiment with this new medium. Our ultimate goal was to gain a better understanding of how the Metaverse can serve our client brands and be a touchpoint in their holistic experience.

Our idea was to bring a sense of familiarity to an unfamiliar place. The Saudi national day celebrations are all about uniquely cultural and traditional activities, and we wanted to mirror these festivities that take place in the real world, in the virtual one, in the most authentic and playful way possible.

The Idea

The entire experience is meant to represent us as people and culture, so we aimed to reflect our hospitality and traditions.

The national day is a day of unity. We wanted to symbolize that with a big palm tree, which represents our nation, placed at the center of the space, acting like an anchor, with the functionality of being an elevator to the top floors. Around it, a dancing squad (Orda) can be seen performing as car parades blasting Saudi music circled the main centerpiece, users could hop-on to these cars for a joy ride, or launch fireworks into the sky.


We wanted to seize the opportunity to create the first Saudi traditional attire on the metaverse and display them as collectable NFTs for visitors to collect and wear to celebrate the Saudi cultural identity in this virtual space.

The space also featured a photo gallery to give our international audience a glimpse into our culture, people and nature.

We wanted our participation to leave a lasting print in this virtual space, so we published the Saudi attire as wearables in Decentraland for free so our audience could enjoy them wherever they go.

Leaving a permanent mark

What started with a simple press release and microsite to promote the space, turned out to be a massive success.

Our event was positively received in Saudi and all over the world, with thousands of people talking about it and creating content to spread the news even further.


Manga Production _

Mercury Girl

Manga Production _

Mercury Girl

National Events Center (NEC) _

A governmental entity  with a unique perspective

National Events Center (NEC) _

A governmental entity  with a unique perspective

AlWaleed Philanthropies x The World Scout Foundation _

Interactive environmental awareness experience in our META Forest

AlWaleed Philanthropies x The World Scout Foundation _

Interactive environmental awareness experience in our META Forest

Polished _

Charm in each and every curve

Polished _

Charm in each and every curve

King Abdulaziz Foundation For Research And Archives (DARAH) _

Reviving Saudi History Through Interactive Storytelling

King Abdulaziz Foundation For Research And Archives (DARAH) _

Reviving Saudi History Through Interactive Storytelling

Misk Art Institute _

Crafting the Misk Art Week Website

Misk Art Institute _

Crafting the Misk Art Week Website

Alwaleed Philantrophies _

Boundless Journey (Metaverse)

Alwaleed Philantrophies _

Boundless Journey (Metaverse)

the bold group _

Saudi National Day on the Metaverse

the bold group _

Saudi National Day on the Metaverse

Manga Production _

Mercury Girl

Manga Production _

Mercury Girl

National Events Center (NEC) _

A governmental entity with a unique perspective

National Events Center (NEC) _

A governmental entity with a unique perspective

AlWaleed Philanthropies x The World Scout Foundation _

Interactive environmental awareness experience in our META Forest

AlWaleed Philanthropies x The World Scout Foundation _

Interactive environmental awareness experience in our META Forest

Polished _

Charm in each and every curve

Polished _

Charm in each and every curve

King Abdulaziz Foundation For Research And Archives (DARAH) _

Reviving Saudi History Through Interactive Storytelling

King Abdulaziz Foundation For Research And Archives (DARAH) _

Reviving Saudi History Through Interactive Storytelling

Misk Art Institute _

Crafting the Misk Art Week Website

Misk Art Institute _

Crafting the Misk Art Week Website

Alwaleed Philantrophies _

Boundless Journey (Metaverse)

Alwaleed Philantrophies _

Boundless Journey (Metaverse)

the bold group _

Saudi National Day on the Metaverse

the bold group _

Saudi National Day on the Metaverse

A governmental entity  with a unique perspective

A governmental entity  with a unique perspective