Black Dragons Esports
Industry
Gaming
Client
Black Dragons
Service
Art Direction
Date
2024
Black Dragons is one of Brazil's most traditional esports organizations — founded in 1997, with over 221 tournament appearances and a deeply loyal fanbase. As Art Director, I led the creative strategy for two parallel projects: the campaign for BD's run in Rainbow Six Siege Brasileirão, the national championship; and the design of the full BD×BENSA apparel collection, in collaboration with digital creator Tonyboy.
Esports is one of the fastest-growing entertainment categories in Brazil — and Black Dragons has been at the center of it since before it was cool. With 205K followers on Instagram, a legacy in Rainbow Six Siege, and a community that lives and breathes every match, the creative challenge wasn't visibility. It was identity: making sure that every post, every graphic, every piece of merch felt unmistakably BD.
THE PROBLEM
A national tournament campaign needs to sustain momentum across an entire competitive season — through wins, losses, map announcements, MVP highlights, and brand partnerships — without ever losing visual coherence or emotional punch.
THE SOLUTION
A campaign system built on a strong Key Visual, then unfolded into every touchpoint: social posts, stories, reels, MVP cards, Gameday graphics, and brand activations with Bauducco — all speaking the same visual language while adapting to each format's rhythm.
Moodboard: Transition
Moodboard: Legacy
The Brasileirão campaign was built from the ground up — starting with internal creative brainstorming with the BD team, developing the visual concept, and producing the Key Visual that would anchor every piece of content throughout the season. From there, I unfolded the system into the full match experience: Gameday hype posts, Win celebrations, Map graphics, MVP spotlights, and all the in-between moments that keep a fanbase engaged across a competitive run.
Running alongside the tournament content was a brand activation partnership with Bauducco — one of Brazil's most recognized food brands, with 561K Instagram followers. The activation centered on Instagram Stories and Reels, requiring creative pieces that felt native to both the BD world and Bauducco's identity. The challenge was integration without dilution: the content had to serve the partnership without breaking the campaign's visual continuity.
Beyond the tournament campaign, I designed the full BD×BENSA apparel collection — a collaboration between Black Dragons and BENSA, the digital influencer sub-brand anchored by Tonyboy, a creator with over 632K YouTube subscribers and 508K on Instagram. The collection spanned shirts, jerseys, hoodies, and accessories, with a design language that had to speak to two audiences simultaneously: the competitive esports community and the lifestyle-oriented digital creator space. Every piece was designed to live both on-screen and in real life.
The work reached audiences across a high-engagement ecosystem — touching BD's dedicated fanbase, Bauducco's established consumer community, and BENSA's creator-led following built around Tonyboy.
Data from Q1 2026
Creative direction for esports is a discipline that lives at the intersection of sports branding, streetwear culture, and digital-first storytelling. At Black Dragons, I learned to think in systems — not just individual posts, but entire visual ecosystems that had to hold up across a full competitive season, multiple brand partnerships, and a physical product line. The result was work that felt cohesive, intentional, and deeply rooted in the BD community's identity.
