ABOUT

To launch Borderlands 4, we created two massive, world building visual takeovers in London’s Waterloo Station and Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm shopping district.
Adhering to strict advertising regulations in multiple regions, our design team assembled a premium, dystopian sci-fi world from the ground up, working across miniature to massive structural formats. Creating 140 unique assets across traditional OOH, immersive experiential, and digital integrations, the campaign moved the IP away from its traditionally colourful, comic book heritage and into the new game’s darker, elevated narrative of rebellion, invading the real world and inviting our audience to “Break Free.”

The game’s villain, The Timekeeper, thrives on clinical order, silence and unwritten rules. So, our creative concept ‘Order Is Overrated’ was designed to weaponise the unthinking habits of people on their daily commute or shopping trips, placing them directly into the game’s new narrative conflict.

Visually, the campaign was about acts of defiance, turning the call to action “Break Free” into a physical and metaphorical reality. The art direction explored the tensions between cold, authoritative digital overtones and vibrant, revolutionary ‘hacked’ elements. By subverting traditional advertising spaces in Waterloo and Berlin, we turned standard, passive formats into interactive storytelling opportunities that brought the game’s new backdrop and characters to life

Our graphic executions included:
- The Kairos Departures Board: Europe’s largest indoor digital screen, Waterloo Motion, became a dystopian departures board, with returning beloved character Claptrap hacking in to rearrange letters, unveil gameplay footage, and reveal the launch date.
- Assembly Line Escalators: Waterloo’s escalators became grim, industrial conveyor belts, with commuters stepping and travelling down in perfect unison alongside The Timekeeper’s robotic synth army.
- 115 Meters of Subversion: Waterloo’s travelator was converted into an oppressive corridor of totalitarian commandments, mirrored and bastardised by the new playable vault hunters on the other side, putting commuters in the middle of the conflict.
- Timekeeper Spoof OOH: In Berlin’s luxury shopping district of Kurfürstendamm, we ran satirical spoof ads for luxury fragrances, skincare and watches, all manufactured by The Timekeeper himself.
- Digital Wanted Posters: We turned character profiles into stylised digital wanted posters, introducing the new cast dynamically within the aesthetic of the universe.
- Guerrila Ads: Commuter zones featured spoof ads from the Borderlands universe, including adoption notices for new in-game pets, Lootbox storage spaces, and a health pack in the (legally safe) style of the classic Floradix ad.
- The TfL Compliance Puzzle: Weaponry is the lifeblood of Borderlands but completely prohibited by TfL regulations. Utilising graphic tears, glass smashes, and environmental framing, we implied action without showing a single weapon.
- Interactive Digital Experiences: Custom Snapchat AR mirrors and filters allowed users to interact with the environment to unlock exclusive filters and merch from custom-built Borderlands vending machines.
In total, our team produced 140 unique graphic assets across the London and Berlin sites. Every single piece had bespoke art direction, custom typography and original layout designs that did not exist before this campaign, all signed off by the exacting, premium standards of 2K’s and Gearbox game studios.

The creative trust granted to us by 2K and Gearbox Studio to create and enhance the visual tone of one of their most valuable AAA IPs is a testament to the calibre of our art direction, they even used our assets in their broader marketing of the game. By leaning into the premium, graphic heavy sci-fi aesthetic, we achieved massive commercial and cultural impact:
- 15,000,000+ impressions generated at Waterloo alone
- +6 points lift in prompted brand awareness across both the UK and Germany
- +5 points increase across all major brand health metrics, including premium brand perception, positive emotional connection, purchase intent and cultural buzz

Through graphic craft, we shifted the franchise towards a more mature perception without ever losing its edge.