PSYCHE for Atari 2600
Mary Pyrdol
Major: Graphic Design
Genre/Medium: Graphic Design/Adobe Illustrator/Procreate/Sticker Print
About the work: Whether it be by human or by machine, the concept of space exploration has always felt like a miraculous fantasy to me. Psyche’s “Journey to a Metal World” slogan captures this feeling perfectly: venturing off into the unknown, anticipating groundbreaking discoveries. This fantastical concept reminds me of how entire worlds can be generated by video games, more specifically, Atari games. The intricately detailed art on Atari 2600 cartridges inspire the player to fantasize the computer graphics into dynamic, visual realities beyond the pixels. For my project, I aimed to capture this concept into my own version of an Atari game titled “PSYCHE”. The visual on the cartridge box depicts Psyche bursting out of the frame, followed by an angular shot of the spacecraft on its orbital mission to study the asteroid. The cartridge label features this same visual, accompanied by an original Atari-style typeface describing how to play the game. Just as the original Star Wars movie posters of the 1970s and 80s, all Atari 2600 cartridge art was painted by hand. My cartridge label is designed in this motif, mimicking paint brush strokes in the background and utilizing realistic shading techniques on the spacecraft and in the asteroid’s texture. The color palette I chose was inspired by bold tones found in 80s New Wave art, driving the idea of futurism into my interpretation of Psyche as an illusory experience.
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