Figure 1 - True damage Qiyana LV Skin (Nicolas, 2019)
Introduction
I want to frame the elements that surround the collaboration between two great designers and their intellectual and material products. This is an intangible skin (ed. Which is the garment on the character) from the League of Legends designed by Louis Vuitton's design team. This bundle-pack of two objects was released for the World Cup on November 10, 2019, and has since then already been heavily debated on several media platforms. Back then it appeared to create a tremendous curiosity as to what the purpose of such collaboration cold means for the future industry? and how it might reform the future of fashion?
There will be an analytical examination of the design the True Damage Qiyana Prestige Edition skin while focusing on the essential information regarding the meaning and cultural value rather than the step by step production of the concept. Then I will inform you about the material design of the physical suitcase but again, I will not go into depth with its development as this trophy case cannot be purchased by a regular consumer.
Subsequently, there will be a brief summary of how Tony Fry's concepts, encoding, decoding, and recording can be used in parallel with intangible design objects (Fry, 1988).
First part
Firstly, the design object itself. When I refer to the design as intangible, it is in fact, since it is only a binary code that appears as interactively within the computer game Leauge of legends (red. LOL). The skin is therefore not a physical object and therefore requires a visualized explanation to understand. Skinning is the term for a way of a coating or dressing an object, much much like a cover for your phone, but without having the abilities like a cover to enhance the protection, a skin is just a visual topcoat for an object, so the object gets more personalised, a bit like paint. The outfit design here is: the prestige skin, is a flat two-dimensional object, and this object is experienced on a screen. furthermore, the two companies involved in the collaboration will later be set up parallel to each other as the product is influenced by both companies: identity, branding, visions and design taste. This section has four subheadings for the reader to navigate around. The next piece will tackle the task of the concept and information regarding the process.
Figure 2 - Logo for the company (Riot games, u.d.)
Riot
Riot Games are both the founder and proprietor of the game League of Legends, also called LOL. Riot was founded in 2006 and released LOL in 2009, which today is registered as one of the most played PC games (Riot games, u.d.). Riot has five basic values implemented as their company DNA (Diversity, inclusion, education, opportunities and a riot culture) and describes that their consumers should experience their visions as:
“Diversity, inclusion and the Riot culture are the focus, with goals in education, citizenship and opportunities” (Riot games, u.d.).
Focusing on Riot's other products in November 2019, it appears that their range of characters extends to 147 different characters with Qiyana as the second newest addition just before Senna (Fandom.com, 2019). Each of these characters has different skins and today there are currently 995 different skins, besides Chrome skins which [MS9] include that you can choose the same outfits but wearing a different part of the colour palette (fandom.com, 2019). In addition, LOL can look at their segment and customer behaviour in dealing with product and design choices. Since they can easily measurer: which skins are most sold, which ones are used in matches, and when are they used for, such as statements or as personal taste reflectors. This assignment provides both gamers and non-gamers some knowledge of Riot's historical development and creates a framework for curiosity, regarding what LOL's future aspirations is, since creating products as True Damage Qiyana Prestige Edition skin, what cold their vision and mission with that product lead to?
Figure 3 - Cup Cases (Louis Vuitton, 2019)
Louis Vuitton
The company Louis Vuitton (red. LV), was founded in 1854 by the 33-year-old proprietor. The travel suitcase was the original product focus, and prior to founding the company LV, the founder designed personalized suitcases for customers precious belongings (Louis Vuitton, ed.). At the LV 100th anniversary event in 1996, the brand identity was celebrated through products that symbolized “Innovation and collaboration to fashion lovers across the globe” and thereby selected partners for future products (Louis Vuitton, u.d.).
Figure 4 - LV's fun suitcase (Chantelle, 2019)
LV has had many partners over time and has created a number of alternative suitcases, including trophy cases for the FIFA World cup, Rugby World Cup, and now this pentagonal suitcase with built-in effects (as seen in the pic 4). When the suitcase is opened from the top, all sides with built-in LED light will fall to the ground and reveal the trophy, while activating a built-in smoke machine for some extra effekts (Chantelle, 2019).
Figur 5 - The Skin Designer (Louis Vuitton, 2019)
Designer Nicolas Ghesquiére
The Designer Nicolas Ghesquiére (Red. NG) is recognized as the brain behind the visual expression given by Qiyana (the character to the left in the picture above). He is the head of the "Capsule Collection of champion skins" (Louis Vuitton, 2019). NG is the artistic director of LV's female collections and has integrated LV's icons into (among other things) Qiyana's weapon, which is the ring where she sits in (Picturer 1). NG started his career as an 18-year-old by rejecting a seat/place at an art school, in favour of working as an assistant to Jean-Paul Gaultier. Subsequently, he worked for the Balenciaga fashion house and since 2013 he has been employed by LV (Jo Ellison, 2015). The "Prestige Edition skins" series is part of the Maison series and is intended to represent a small fictional pop group formed by the characters, Qiyana, Senna, Akali, Ekko, and Yasuo (Surender @ 20 & Aznbeat, 2019).
After the release of the rest of these skins, it would in the future be interesting to compare them against each other, to see the red thread, and whether the designer's personal style shines through, compared to his previous material collections, such as the included accessories "the Dauphine bag" and "Laureate Deserter boots", that are both created in real life (Red. IRL) (pic 7) and incorporated into the prestige shine (Louis Vuitton, 2019). In addition to this design series, LV will also launch a physical series inspired by these intangible Prestige skins, in which customers can later acquire IRL from LV's own stores (Chantelle, 2019).
Figur 6 – Qiyana’s design (Webster, 2019)
True Damage Qiyana Prestige Edition Skin
Qiyana Yun Tai is known as "The Empress Of The Elements" and belongs to the Ixtal Jungle people. Her ability is to use and manipulate elements to keep a distance from other living creatures (Fandom.com, u.d.). Qiyana was released on June 28, 2019, and had at this point in time only 3 skins. The character Quiyana (without a skin) costs 6.000 Blue Essence or 975 Riot points (around 9 US$) but the prestige edition skin design will further cost 2.000 tokens that can only be acquired by playing and winning in the LOL game, during the World Cup 2019. To put this in a normal currency context, this means, that you must buy the figure for approx 975 riot points and subsequently invest in a world pass for at cost of 1650 RP, that comes in a bundle with 200 Worlds 2019 Tokens and 4 Worlds 2019 Orbs. The game LOL must then be played from the 200 tokens up to 2.000, and with 15 tokens daily as a prize at every first game won per. That means logging in and winning only once a day, will take approximately 120 days before you would have saved up for the prestige edition skin. But during this period of the 2019 tournament, the timeframe to save enough value in the game is also limited to the date of availability on the skin, which is set for November 25, 2019. This meant, that you only had 55 days to earn tokens through playing and winning, from September 27, 2019, at 4:00 a.m. SGT, to November 20, 2019, at 3:00 a.m. SGT, to collets enough tokens and save enough IG value before the limited purchase would be un-obtainable. (League Of Legends, 2018). If you wanted to put on Qiyanas clothing IRL, Invenglobal.com has tried to illustrate this with LV's own products, which can be seen in Figure 7.
Figur 7 - LV-produkter (Lunardi, 2019).
Part two
The data collected is only a small part of what you can analyze, but I think this is enough to set up an understanding framework and thereby read the meaning field for the prestige edition skin. One can therefore look at what contextual meaning arises and whether it changes. If Fry's concept is used to analyze these objects, it can be understood as coded steps in the process of product development and application. This means I will work with the terms encoding, decoding and recoding, to reveal some of the meanings and immaterial values that are coded to the Prestige Edition skin (Fry, 1988).
Encoding occurs in the design process where price, taste, message, and interests are stored in the product. As described earlier, the product can be seen as a treasure trove of meaningful formations. Here it is important to look for, whomever it is addressing as the boyer and whether this aligns with the companies' otherwise primary customer group. Encoding is the signal that companies expect to communicate with the general public. It includes their common image desire, visualizing their value set through a visual interpretation.
Decoding, on the other hand, is the recipient's interpretation of what expressions and trends are read/perceived in the product. When encoding, the messenger expects the receiver to understand the system, much like designing a padlock, and expecting the customers to be, or become the key to unlock meanings. This design "prestige edition skin" is the proven padlocks that are applied to messages in the game, and the recipient is then expected to have the necessary knowledge to read or unlock the values encoded into this product.
This knowledge is often understood as cultural, economic, and social codes engraved into a person, much like a key. The gamer here then has to prove, that he knows the code before he can show off as a great decoder in the game. The receiver or gamer can then base its decoding skills to the object, and whether the obtaining of the skin is done with an understanding of that product being accepted as either a marker/symbol for good taste, kitsch, waist of life, bad taste, or pro skills, is rooted in the individual gamers personalised "taste buds" and this "taste" can vary and be seen as a developing curve withing different cultures.
The product can be read differently depending on who, where, when, and how often the recipient is exposed to the cultural, economic, and social codes that are built knowingly or unknowingly into the object. Though the uncontrollable basis of acquired codes/keys that the company has provided into the object, this will be valued unproven differently depending on the gamers taste and decoding skills/keys. Meaning is therefore difficult to read as uniform, since people of all types of recipients, is thought to play this game, and people come from various culture's, economic background, and have different social approaches all over the world (the LOL world in-game has in real life gamers located all over the globe).
Recoding is the last and most enterprise-driven place in product mediation/branding. This is Wher the coding focus, is on how to control new external value and apply the positive new meanings of the product.
Eg. The design can be handled as a gift when purchased in the, and by knowing that this item can be received as a gift, will either be perceived as lessening or enhancing its value. Imagen that you could show off having all the skills and in-game knowhow, without having to earn it, that is a valuable gift to give others but is also an item for deceiving others perception of another gamer. Luckily you cant ship/pass on the product again as second hand, and it is therefore unlikely that someone would give their hard-earned limited objects away, before ever getting to own it themself.
The encoding must therefore here be considered from a mediational/digital approach, as to how other media platforms interpret the product, and how articles express the product as being perceived as either good or bad taste (Fry, 1988). The recording aspect is not so much about what the product is intended to signal, but more about how others reproduce their perception of the product's signalized value, as to how to do others acknowledge the relationship between the padlock and the key.
summary
An intangible product is interesting to analyze. Not only becurse of the recipient message (whether or not, the gamer is fully aware of the signalized value) but also from the recipient's un-aware perspectives, and lastly how the sender and receivers work coherently together to create the acknowledge value of the game's immaterial goods. However, the data presented in the assignment here provides a framework for how corporate messages work, not what the full message is, since that would require a much bigger holistis examination, both through their own LOL platform, but also the "recoded" behaviour of secondary and external sources and other factual data from the real-life (not online).
Lastly, This leaves one, with an outlined understanding of, how much the immaterial design position itself as a high-end product in the game, with a high-value prize tag that is not earned by solemnly enough money in your bank account but also the player's skill set as a value since the skin, will reflect the gamers loyalty regarding playing LOL and how developed their skillset in-game, by having obtained this skin in the short amount of time.
Figure List:
1 - True damage Qiyana LV Skin (Nicolas, 2019)
2 - Logo for the company (Riot games, ed.)
3 - Cup trunks (Louis Vuitton, 2019)
4 - LV's lol case (Chantelle, 2019)
5 - The Skin Designer (Louis Vuitton, 2019)
6 - Qiyana's design (Webster, 2019)
7 - LV products (Lunardi, 2019)
Bibliografi
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