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After winning the Brody award for "Best Graphics 2026" we decided that a little blog post explaining the design choices behind our visual artsyle was needed!
So sit up, get those glasses on, and enjoy this over-explanation of why we made some art desecration that no one notices... unless they're art/design nerds 🤓
Also, unfortunately, it has to be said...
NO AI IS USED IN NEXT DAY!!!!!!
Setup
Setup
Firstly, let's talk setup!
We use Affinity for all our graphics in-game & all assets are made in a 1024 x 1024 px canvas using CMYK.
Why?
consistency (important), and also our factory uses CMYK!
Colour
Colour
Colour palette
Colour palette
Let's talk colour palette!
Choosing a good palette is important. It defines the emotions the game will visually invoke and allows people to visually identify the game's branding at a glance.
#e2eec2 - Light Green
#c8eaf5 - Light Blue
#fce3ee - Light Pink
You may notice the light green, pink and blue are the colours we use on our website, company background and component background for the cards!
This is intentional, as not only are they easy on the eyes and are "happy" colours, but they are also slightly different shades monochromaticly.
This makes it slightly easier to differentiate them for colour-blind people.
Cards have different primary colours to differentiate them
Making sure to use the signature colours, as they will not end up in any illustrations!
The map
The map
We also never use our signature colours in other art assets, only as backgrounds of elements!
The map of Next Day! (Called Barmy) is a chaotic nightmare... on purpose!
And colour has an important role!
You can see that the background consists of 6 different colours, representing the city, suburbs, mafia, cartel, industrial and farming zones. This helps players break down the map into something more digestible!
But grouping them allows us to do something else, using colour to aid the players.
Buildings in different areas use certain accent colours; this means that when players draw a new package and look for the new address, their eyes will automatically go towards the area where that colour appears the most.
Most people won't notice this, but it can shave a couple seconds off searching! (or add a couple seconds if we want a place to be hard to find!)
Blue roof for Mafia area!
Yellow building for suburbs!
Grey base for industrial zone!
Bright red for city centre!
Green for the farm land!
The map is visually chaotic in order to invoke urgency when players are searching for an address! This creates a moment where all players lean in and start pointing at the board, making the game feel like a team effort! But it also allows players to complete D.I.Ks that require others to be distracted!
Illustrations
Illustrations
Outlines
Outlines
As mentioned before, everything is done on a 1024 x 1024 px canvas using CMYK! (Except for D.I.Ks as they are longer 😉 – 1024 x 787.7 px)
But every address, package and DIK must also have a 10 px black outline!
Why?
Because it creates a silhouette that is easy on the eyes and recognisable!
Despite each of these drawings being for different elements, they follow the same colour scheme and have the same outline weight, meaning they are visually consistent with each other!
Edges
Edges
Something to keep in mind is what emotions you want an illustration to invoke. If you want something to be seen as dangerous, use harsh edges, if you want something to be seen as cute, use rounded edges!
This can be seen in the likes of the baby kangaroo and the holy water bomb.
Why is this important? because it changes the mood the players have towards the package! They're going to care more for the kangaroo because it looks harmless compared to the sharper bomb.
Mean side
Friendly side
Now does this actually do anything... barely, but it's important to visually communicate with the player what an illustration is, and a way to do that is with sharp or rounded edges!
UX
UX
I will preface this section by saying, 99% of artistic and visual decisions were made in the name of UX! Whether that was to make things simpler for the players to understand or to declutter spaces for more efficient player engagement.
Packages
Packages
Packages have unique designs on the back to signify difficulty!
The backgrounds have elements that represent the chaotic nature of the difficulties: easy having little chaos, normal being more complex, yet straight forward, and hard being an absolute mess!
Contasting to this, the shapes surrounding the points' value get less complex; this is to not overstimulate players with visual clutter.
You may also notice the points in the corners are on the left-hand side. This is because most players, when counting cards, hold them vertically and hold them in their left hand while placing counted cards on the table with the right hand. The numbers here allow them to be the first things players see when dealing and make it slightly quicker. If they count by fanning the cards, it also works. This is why playing cards put the values and suits in the same location.
On the flip side, we have the card itself! the important stuff!
The background of the card consists of a few packages; this is to break up the card and make it look more visually interesting and diverse!
The title and text are kept separate to make sure reading isn't obstructed. This helps people with visual and reading impairments.
The illustrations are big and kept to the right side. This breaks the cards into 2 sections: the text, and the visual sections (left and right)
For the visual side, we have the address, which is surrounded by a whitish stamp. This was necessary to make it stand out and show the player where it needs to be delivered!
But it also covers the illustration slightly; this is purposefully done to show that it's not important to gameplay and serves to be just visual.
The other element on packages that are made to stand out is the time slots! This is where players place time tokens to spend on actions.
They are purposeful on the card edges so that players can place time tokens on them without covering the card text, address and illustration!
They are rounded to match the rounded tokens. and are colour / icon coloured!
Green + time icon = Start
Blue = Normal
Yellow + star = Event
Red = End
Arrow = direction to place next time token in.
The event Icon can sometimes be the last time slot, so it has a vesion that mixes the two visually!
Events
Events
Events are unique in that they are the only card designed to be both horizontal and vertical!
Why?
Because players need to find a numbered event without spoiling themselves. So we made the number be in the top left (like playing cards) so that players can go through them without being able to easily read the text!
We also colour-coded the ends to match the packages' difficulty and kept the backgrounds similar to the packages, using icons instead of packages as the background graphics!
For the options, I made three shapes, changing only the corners and rounding the top left corner. This was to create a space for the option number and to make each option visually distinct. Again, the three colours are slightly different shades when monochrome, making it a bit easier to differentiate at a glance!
The star in the corner is used to show which side is to be read first; the packages have the matching icon on the time slot!
The background follows the same shapes and order as the font!
Icons are used where possible (only really used for mini games and prize scenarios), and the scenario repercussions are always consistently at the bottom with clear '+' and '-' signs to make it consistent between events. Eventually players will just glance at the outcomes to apply them!
Visual consistency for text-heavy elements allows players to grow accustomed to them and deal with them "quicker".
D.I.Ks
D.I.Ks
The simplest card, designed to be held vertically in your hand! This is so players can keep them close to their chest!
Illustrations have a landscape feel to them to make them feel more cinematic and more like scenes rather than objects!
Also, text is notably bigger to make them easier to read at a glance!
Title
|
Illustration
|
Challenge
|
Keywords
Characters also use template face features and people to keep things consistent between cards! This allows us to brand them and use them as recognisable characters!
Text is at the bottom as keywords; it's small so it does not encourage players to be too picky with wording and be more chill when players are D.I.K Blocking!
The board
The board
The board around the map is made to aid the players, by showcasing information
Its designed to visually indicate the amount of packages the van can hold, and how much damage the van has taken.
Here you can see the package slots; they have package icons and are the same size as packages to make them visually stand out!
As well, they have rounded corners to look welcoming and look approachable!
Underneath is info on icons; they are visually distinct from one another and have unique silhouettes so that players can learn them!
The engine icons are greyed out to show that the tokens are placed on top of the slots
This side is flipped to showcase the chaos theme and allow players facing the other way to read and partake in the game!
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