Scope of Work
Polygraphic Design
Graphic Design
Photography
Polygraphic Design
Graphic Design
Photography
Part 1. Armageddon
As part of the DesignWorkout program, we joined a collaborative sprint focused on developing a cohesive visual system for the Armageddon Championship Series — a global blitz-format chess tournament built on speed, pressure, and spectacle.
Our task was to shape the visual voice of the tournament and its home base — World Chess Club Berlin — by creating dynamic, modular tools for both physical space and digital platforms: posters, player graphics, typographic studies, and adaptable templates for tournament communications.
Our task was to shape the visual voice of the tournament and its home base — World Chess Club Berlin — by creating dynamic, modular tools for both physical space and digital platforms: posters, player graphics, typographic studies, and adaptable templates for tournament communications.
Visual System
Using the modular design system provided by DesignWorkout, we produced a series of visual artefacts: posters for club interiors, promotional online and offline graphics for players, and a suite of typographic experiments that explored both digital and analog executions. These included custom hand-letterings and modular typography, experimenting with forms and functions and providing more materials for DW. The forms reflect the urgency and structure of blitz chess: bold, fast, and deliberately tense.
Armageddon Series Context
Armageddon is not just another chess tournament — it’s a high-stakes global blitz series built around speed, tension, and spectacle. Held in a dedicated studio in Berlin, it features a hybrid broadcast format with cinematic lighting, live commentary, and real-time performance metrics. The format itself is designed for drama: players face off in rapid [3+2] blitz games, followed by a decisive "Armageddon" tiebreaker where time odds intensify the pressure.
The championship brings together grandmasters and online qualifiers from around the world — placing grassroots talent and elite professionals on the same board. The result is a format where visual language, stage design, and media performance are as integral as the moves on the board.
The championship brings together grandmasters and online qualifiers from around the world — placing grassroots talent and elite professionals on the same board. The result is a format where visual language, stage design, and media performance are as integral as the moves on the board.
Armageddon — Championship Series 2023
Typography
In parallel with poster and system development, we conducted a series of typographic explorations: both digitally generated and manually drawn. This typographic direction was critical in mirroring the speed and edge of the Armageddon format — where urgency, countdowns, and tactical improvisation define the tone. The resulting forms combine rigid, modular components with expressive, gestural elements, reflecting the structure-intuition duality that defines blitz chess.
Armageddon — Sam Shankland Poster
Armageddon — Magnus Carlsen Poster
Design Objectives
The overall goal was to create a graphic voice that resonates with multiple audiences: club visitors, international chess fans, digital viewers, and participants in the global chess ecosystem. The visual language had to accommodate in-club communication, digital streaming assets, and print materials — while aligning with the adrenaline-fueled ethos of Armageddon.
Part 2. World Chess Club Berlin
When someone says they’re opening a chess club in Berlin, you probably picture a dusty room where old men argue about the Sicilian Defense. But World Chess had something else in mind: make chess sexy again. And where better than Berlin — a city that turned techno into high art and ruins into culture?
They built a space where a Goldman Sachs banker can lose to a Kreuzberg artist, where tourists learn the rules and locals debate openings over cocktails. It also hosts 350-person corporate events — because chess is now team building.
World Chess Club Berlin sits at the city’s centre like a well-placed knight — strategic, surprising, and hard to ignore. It’s more than a club: it’s a bar, cafe, shop, and venue all at once. The kind of place where a model explains the Queen’s Gambit to a startup founder while a journalist live-tweets a blitz match.
That’s Berlin: making the old feel new again. Our task with Designworkout was to capture that energy — and turn 1,500 years of chess into a visual language fit for the 21st century.
They built a space where a Goldman Sachs banker can lose to a Kreuzberg artist, where tourists learn the rules and locals debate openings over cocktails. It also hosts 350-person corporate events — because chess is now team building.
World Chess Club Berlin sits at the city’s centre like a well-placed knight — strategic, surprising, and hard to ignore. It’s more than a club: it’s a bar, cafe, shop, and venue all at once. The kind of place where a model explains the Queen’s Gambit to a startup founder while a journalist live-tweets a blitz match.
That’s Berlin: making the old feel new again. Our task with Designworkout was to capture that energy — and turn 1,500 years of chess into a visual language fit for the 21st century.
Why This Game Refuses to Die
Here’s what you need to understand about chess: it’s the most successful game ever invented. Not because it’s easy — it’s brutally hard. Not because it’s fun — it can be maddening. It endures because it’s perfect. Like the wheel, it reached a state of completeness that resists improvement.
Chess began in 6th-century India as Chaturanga — "four divisions of the military." A strategic war game long before strategy games had names. It spread through Persia and the Islamic world, evolving with each culture. By the 10th century, it reached Europe — and was transformed. The queen was empowered, the rules were codified, and chess became a metaphor for politics, romance, even divine order.
In the 20th century, it became theatre for national identity. When Fischer played Spassky in 1972, it wasn’t just a match — it was the Cold War, compressed into 64 squares.
But chess doesn’t care about ideology or income. The board stays the same. The best move is still the best move — no matter who plays it.
That quiet equality is what makes chess timeless — and what makes it resonate in Berlin, a city built on questioning power structures. For us, this wasn’t just history — it was the foundation. We weren’t branding a game. We were contributing to a living system — one with 1,500 years of momentum behind it.
Chess began in 6th-century India as Chaturanga — "four divisions of the military." A strategic war game long before strategy games had names. It spread through Persia and the Islamic world, evolving with each culture. By the 10th century, it reached Europe — and was transformed. The queen was empowered, the rules were codified, and chess became a metaphor for politics, romance, even divine order.
In the 20th century, it became theatre for national identity. When Fischer played Spassky in 1972, it wasn’t just a match — it was the Cold War, compressed into 64 squares.
But chess doesn’t care about ideology or income. The board stays the same. The best move is still the best move — no matter who plays it.
That quiet equality is what makes chess timeless — and what makes it resonate in Berlin, a city built on questioning power structures. For us, this wasn’t just history — it was the foundation. We weren’t branding a game. We were contributing to a living system — one with 1,500 years of momentum behind it.
Design Approach
Most chess design looks like it belongs in a medieval banquet hall — ornate pieces, faux gold, and fonts that scream "serious intellectual pursuit." But chess isn’t about decoration — it’s about structure, relationships, and the elegance of logic.
We approached the identity for World Chess Club Berlin like architects, not decorators. The board itself is perfect design: 32 light squares, 32 dark, infinite potential. Our task wasn’t to embellish it — but to translate its logic into a modern visual language.
In our research, we dug into historical manuscripts, 1970s tournament photography, and the minimalist poetry of chess notation. We explored how chess appears in film, literature, and how Berlin’s cultural institutions balance legacy with experimentation.
The breakthrough came when we stopped treating chess as a game — and started seeing it as a language. Notation is a near-perfect system: precise, efficient, universally understood. It doesn’t want decoration — it demands clarity.
Our typography had to reflect that. It needed to be clear and functional for tournament data, but also warm enough for social media. The letterforms had to feel grounded, like a pawn — but with the range and flexibility of a good knight.
We approached the identity for World Chess Club Berlin like architects, not decorators. The board itself is perfect design: 32 light squares, 32 dark, infinite potential. Our task wasn’t to embellish it — but to translate its logic into a modern visual language.
In our research, we dug into historical manuscripts, 1970s tournament photography, and the minimalist poetry of chess notation. We explored how chess appears in film, literature, and how Berlin’s cultural institutions balance legacy with experimentation.
The breakthrough came when we stopped treating chess as a game — and started seeing it as a language. Notation is a near-perfect system: precise, efficient, universally understood. It doesn’t want decoration — it demands clarity.
Our typography had to reflect that. It needed to be clear and functional for tournament data, but also warm enough for social media. The letterforms had to feel grounded, like a pawn — but with the range and flexibility of a good knight.
Visual System
The visual identity created by DW works like a strong chess opening — it claims the center while keeping options open. Every element serves a strategic purpose. Every decision reinforces the overall position. The system holds up across formats — from tournament posters to cocktail napkins.
Iconography moved beyond literal piece illustrations. Instead of tiny rooks and bishops, we designed symbols that reflect chess thinking itself: spatial relationships, calculated decisions, and long-range planning. These icons speak to grandmasters and total beginners alike — because they communicate ideas, not just shapes.
Typography became our sharpest tool. The typefaces had to balance the precision of chess notation with the warmth needed for digital content. They had to support multiple languages [this is Berlin, after all] and maintain legibility at every size — from business cards to building signage.
The layout system, rooted in mathematical phi proportions, treats white space like a chessboard treats empty squares — not as void, but as opportunity. Every element is placed with intention. Every relationship is deliberate. The result: a visual rhythm that mirrors the game itself.
And, like good chess, good design disappears when it’s right. It feels inevitable — as if no other move would have made sense.
Iconography moved beyond literal piece illustrations. Instead of tiny rooks and bishops, we designed symbols that reflect chess thinking itself: spatial relationships, calculated decisions, and long-range planning. These icons speak to grandmasters and total beginners alike — because they communicate ideas, not just shapes.
Typography became our sharpest tool. The typefaces had to balance the precision of chess notation with the warmth needed for digital content. They had to support multiple languages [this is Berlin, after all] and maintain legibility at every size — from business cards to building signage.
The layout system, rooted in mathematical phi proportions, treats white space like a chessboard treats empty squares — not as void, but as opportunity. Every element is placed with intention. Every relationship is deliberate. The result: a visual rhythm that mirrors the game itself.
And, like good chess, good design disappears when it’s right. It feels inevitable — as if no other move would have made sense.
Implementation
The real test of any design system isn’t how it looks in a deck — it’s how it performs in the wild. World Chess Club Berlin operates on multiple levels: casual hangout, serious tournament venue, corporate event space, and retail hub. Our visual language had to flex across all these — without losing its core character.
Thursday nights are the club’s heartbeat — part social mixer, part rapid tournament. The visuals had to strike a delicate balance: too serious, and you intimidate newcomers; too casual, and you lose credibility with seasoned players.
Every second Wednesday, the tone shifts again — aimed at professionals wanting more than standard networking. These materials needed to evoke ease and intellectual curiosity — an atmosphere of discovery with the right amount of edge.
Digitally, clarity was non-negotiable. Berlin is inherently international, so the system had to speak across languages and cultures. Iconography proved essential — universal, readable, and instantly functional.
In the physical space, visuals had to harmonise with architecture — scaling from intimate games to 350-person events. The signage system adapts fluidly, ensuring legibility, flow, and presence, no matter the layout.
Success isn’t just visual coherence — it’s cultural integration. Our identity helped make the club feel open yet elevated, social yet smart. No memberships. No velvet rope. Just a place where strategy meets community — and where the design, like the game, is easy to enter but endlessly deep.
Thursday nights are the club’s heartbeat — part social mixer, part rapid tournament. The visuals had to strike a delicate balance: too serious, and you intimidate newcomers; too casual, and you lose credibility with seasoned players.
Every second Wednesday, the tone shifts again — aimed at professionals wanting more than standard networking. These materials needed to evoke ease and intellectual curiosity — an atmosphere of discovery with the right amount of edge.
Digitally, clarity was non-negotiable. Berlin is inherently international, so the system had to speak across languages and cultures. Iconography proved essential — universal, readable, and instantly functional.
In the physical space, visuals had to harmonise with architecture — scaling from intimate games to 350-person events. The signage system adapts fluidly, ensuring legibility, flow, and presence, no matter the layout.
Success isn’t just visual coherence — it’s cultural integration. Our identity helped make the club feel open yet elevated, social yet smart. No memberships. No velvet rope. Just a place where strategy meets community — and where the design, like the game, is easy to enter but endlessly deep.
Contacts
Social
Typeface
Copyright
All rights reserved
© 2025 ARKA
