Case - Pay to Lose
Pay to Lose is an anti-gambling campaign I developed as part of my final exam in graphic design. The aim was to raise awareness of gambling-like elements in popular video games, such as lootboxes, paid skins, and in-game currencies. These features are often designed to look harmless or fun, but they can have a serious influence on how young players think about money, risk, and reward.
This campaign targets gamers between the ages of 15 and 25 and also speaks to parents and adults who may not fully understand how common these systems have become. I wanted to create something that feels relatable and fact-based, with a message that invites conversation rather than creating fear. Everything in this project was developed to inform, engage, and connect with the audience in a clear and meaningful way.
What’s the campaign about?
Many modern games contain mechanics that mirror gambling. Lootboxes, in-game currencies, and paid cosmetic items are designed to encourage players to spend money in the hope of receiving a random or limited-time reward. These systems are often introduced at a young age, before players fully understand the long-term impact.
The Pay to Lose is an anti-gambling campaign that was built to highlight these issues in a way that feels grounded and approachable. It focuses on helping young gamers reflect on their own behavior, while also guiding parents and educators to better understand what is happening behind the screen.
Instead of using fear-based messaging, the tone of the campaign is honest and direct. It emphasizes facts and emotional clarity, with the goal of encouraging smarter, healthier habits when it comes to gaming and spending.
Web Design
Magazine & Editorial Design
Social Media Graphics
Advanced Image Editing
Print Design
Branding & Visual Identity
Visual identity
The visual identity of Pay to Lose combines symbols from both gaming and gambling. The logo includes a red dice and a game controller, showing how blurred the line between entertainment and risk can be.
The color palette features dark blue to build trust and red to signal caution. A clean, modern typeface ensures readability, while gradients inspired by gaming interfaces help the campaign speak to a younger audience. The identity is designed to be bold, easy to understand, and consistent across every platform.
Digital Mockups
To reach the audience where they spend the most time, I created digital mockups for platforms like Twitch and YouTube. These were chosen based on media habits of the target group, particularly young male gamers.
The Twitch banner is designed to appear prominently at the top of the screen. It uses bold color contrast, minimal text, and strong visuals to stand out immediately, without disrupting the user’s experience.
The YouTube masthead ad follows the same visual system but is optimized for widescreen. The layout features a simple, high-contrast message with a headline that invites quick reflection, standing out against other content in the space.
Both ad formats rely on visual hierarchy and speed of communication to deliver the message in just a few seconds.
Printed Mockup
To extend the campaign offline, I also designed a print poster aimed at schools, universities, and youth education programs. These locations are often where the audience and their parents naturally spend time, making them ideal for placing an awareness message.
The poster uses a strong headline, short and clear text, and high contrast to ensure legibility from a distance. The design mirrors the digital identity, creating a consistent and familiar experience across channels. By giving the campaign a physical presence, it also reaches people who may not be active online.
Social Media Video
As part of the campaign, I created a short-form promotional video for TikTok, which can also be used on Instagram Reels and Facebook Stories. These platforms are central to the daily media use of the target group, making them ideal for delivering a fast and memorable message.
The video begins with a humorous, fast-paced montage of gaming moments to catch attention. It then shifts tone and reveals a more serious message about gambling-like features in games. This contrast helps deliver the message without making the content feel like a traditional ad.
All animation and motion graphics were created in After Effects, using 3D camera tools and pre-comps to build layered, dynamic scenes. Final edits, pacing, and sound design were completed in Premiere Pro. The result is a platform-ready video that delivers a complex message in a quick and engaging way.
Website
To support the campaign digitally, I designed and built a responsive landing page using WordPress and Elementor. The site is structured to guide the user through the campaign’s message, with clear sections including a hero banner, key facts, breakdowns of gambling-like mechanics, a message to parents, and a call to action.
The design follows the visual identity closely, using the same colors, typography, and layout system. I made sure the site works well on mobile, tablet, and desktop, with a focus on readability and performance.
To improve speed and accessibility, I used compressed .webp images and followed SEO best practices with the help of Yoast SEO. This included writing clear meta titles and descriptions for each section and optimizing the page for a high score in Google PageSpeed Insights.
Although the live website is no longer online, I kept screenshots of the full page, which you can still view.
Reflection
This campaign was one of the most rewarding and challenging projects I have taken on as a graphic designer. It brought together concept development, strategy, storytelling, motion design, visual identity, and web development into a single concept.
What I appreciated most was learning how to communicate a serious topic in a way that felt approachable and engaging. I wanted this anti-gambling campaign to feel honest and impactful, without overwhelming the viewer.
Pay to Lose was my final exam project and it earned me an A (12). More importantly, it gave me hands-on experience in building a complete anti-gambling campaign from start to finish. It taught me how to keep a consistent voice across platforms and how to connect with a specific audience through meaningful design.