The Potential of Tetris as Cool Design Art

In February 2016, Dentsu Inc . signed a licensing agreement with Tetris Company for the merchandising and advertising use of "TETRIS" in Japan. This led to the formation of the Dentsu Inc. Tetris Project Team. This time, we introduce the design appeal of Tetris, illustrated with examples.

Tetris, one of the world's best-selling games. As the original "falling block game," many of us Japanese likely got hooked on it at least once. Developed in 1984 by Moscow-born scientist Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris was discovered by American game designer Henk Rogers. Rogers was immediately hooked by its fun, and despite the US-Soviet Cold War era, passionate negotiations led to a friendship blossoming between the two men. They jointly owned the rights to Tetris. To this day, the friendship and joint ownership between Henk and Alexey continues.

 

In 1989, Mr. Henk acquired the sales rights for the Nintendo Game Boy. Following negotiations between Mr. Henk and Nintendo, the Game Boy was sold overseas bundled with Tetris. This Game Boy Tetris took Japan by storm, achieving mega-hit sales of over 35 million units.

While Tetris is known primarily as a game in Japan, overseas its design aesthetic has led to active utilization as art and in non-gaming contexts. This is precisely what surprised us and made us feel Tetris's potential. We want to leverage its high recognition to brand "Tetris" as new design art in Japan too.

Now, let's introduce some examples of Tetris as design art overseas.

▶︎Louis Vuitton Technical Case Web Commercial

▶︎Chevrolet Commercial

 

 

 

In this way, Tetris-themed apparel, interior items, beverages, and food products are sold, establishing it as a lifestyle. Furthermore, due to its high artistic value, it has numerous promotional tie-ups with high-end brands.

While Tetris is strongly associated with gaming for Japanese people, globally, people from youth to adults incorporate Tetris design into their daily lives. I believe that as the use of Tetris art and concepts expands, many Japanese people will surely be surprised.

[Behind the Scenes]

I once asked Maya Rogers, the current CEO of Blue Planet, the company managing Tetris copyrights (and daughter of HenkRO), why they hadn't pursued non-game ventures in Japan until now. Her answer was: "Because Tetris and Japan share such deep history, finding the right partner was incredibly important. It took time to find a partner like Dentsu Inc.'s Tetris Project Team, who could brand Tetris based on its core concepts and design aesthetic."