“In this blog post, I want to discuss a franchise I’ve consistently used in my graphic design projects since the beginning of my journey.”

That franchise is called Yakuza. Yakuza is a franchise created by the video game company, SEGA. They are also responsible for creating Sonic the Hedgehog, but they are vastly different in gameplay and story. Yakuza follows Kazuma Kiryu, who tries to leave his gang life for a normal one, but his past continues to haunt him. Each game has such an encapsulating story as well as engaging gameplay and beautiful music that always seems to fit whatever is going on in the current situation. I fell in love with this franchise in the year 2020 when we all had time to kill inside the house. Once I got into my first graphic design class in 2021, I knew that I needed to include aspects of these games in my art projects!

                When I first started these projects, I was not very skilled in anything related to Adobe! So, whatever I did create, I would just add Yakuza related easter eggs and cameos. The greatest example of this is one time I was creating a mockup business card, and I added the main character’s name, Kazuma Kiryu as the owner of the business. After that, if I can remember correctly, I think that the next project was a pattern project. The first pattern had simple silhouettes of the two main characters, Kazuma Kiryu, and Goro Majima. It also had a popular healing item in it called a Stamina Royale as well as the glowing triangle icon that shows up when Kiryu can do a special attack called a heat move. It also has the gold pin commonly worn by members of the Tojo Clan. The second pattern that I created was a tan one using the Stamina Royales and the Tojo Clan pins aligned in a diagonal pattern. When I did a mockup for that pattern, I decided to use it as a wrapping paper with a gold foil background and, I have got to say, it looked absolutely beautiful. For quite some time, I had used that pattern as my phone’s wallpaper just because of how much I liked it. As for the final pattern, I took the glowing triangle with the heat symbol above it and made a pattern using just that. I had a bunch of then vary in sizes and had them aligned vertically. I did not like that one as much as I liked the other ones, but it works in its own special way.
               

                Once I started to perfect my craft, I made something that I found to be worthy of putting up on my wall. I made a poster of one of my favorite antagonists in the Yakuza series. His name is Kuze and he is such a well written character that I made something all about him. Basically, what I did was take my favorite quote from him, and use the words to craft a colored silhouette of him. The quote was, “The man who gets beaten up isn’t the loser. The one who can’t tough it out to the end, he is the one who loses.” That quote has helped me through some tough times, and seeing it on my wall gives me that extra push to keep going and keep growing. I have so much love for this franchise, and hopefully I can make even more projects dedicated to it.