A bright yellow shade is probably the first thing to cross your mind when thinking about Cyberpunk 2077, and there's a good reason for that. According to a CD Projekt Red artist, the studio tried to achieve a memorable brand identity for the game and was inspired by the simplistic design of the Coca-Cola glass bottle.
Cyberpunk 2077 lead environment artist Michał Janiszewski broke down the iconic yellow shade when speaking at the recent Polish games conference Digital Dragons (thanks, IGN). When CD Projekt Red discussed how their most ambitious project might stand out from the crowd, the team spoke about the Coca-Cola bottle as a key piece of industrial design.
"The yellow colour is pretty much the same thing. It is conveying the information, it is simple to remember," Janiszewski said. And it's hard to argue; just take a look at a collage of some random modern games, and you'll probably notice Cyberpunk 2077 standing out due to its colour and the striking font.
However, for the studio, it was about far more than just grabbing your attention. The developers strived with Cyberpunk 2077 to make it feel really different from the already existing icons in the genre, like Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell. So different, in fact, that Neuromancer author William Gibson called it a "GTA skinned over with a generic 80s retro-future" the first time he saw the trailer. But it was intentional, as the studio didn't want the game to associate itself with all those red, blue, and purple neon colours you most likely imagine when thinking about cyberpunk.
"Cyberpunk yellow became a part of that effort on the branding side," said Michał Janiszewski. "We wanted to have something new, something fresh; that's why we picked the yellow colour. It is new, it is like 'California style'", he said.
Another CDPR artist, Kacper Niepokólczycki, added that there was a "very long conversation" about creating the iconic looks for Cyberpunk 2077. And the art team found that they had succeeded even before the game came out. The developer remarked that many other companies have started to use yellow in marketing all across Poland, including food adverts and video commercials. "They literally used the colour because they noticed how powerful it can be; people just [stole] the colour and used it for their own sake."
This just goes to show how important a distinctive visual style can be, and how logos and branding can have a long reach in popular culture.
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