Planned Pines
- Brand
- Paul Frank
- Year
- 2010
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Fashion & Beauty
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- MAGNETIC Creative
Objective
Paul Frank wanted its fan base to interact with the brand's characters directly rather than just shop for them — a way to turn Julius the monkey and friends from a print motif into a living cast the audience could visit and play with. The site was built to hold the attention of the brand's whole fan base at once, from kids to adult collectors, through play and personalization rather than a product showcase.
Solution
The visitor lands in Planned Pines, a small illustrated town, and first builds a personal Julius avatar to explore it as. From there they wander between town locations, meeting the resident cast of Paul Frank characters along the way. One stop is an arts-and-crafts room where visitors make their own artwork and post it to a public gallery to browse what others made. Another is an arcade stocked with a handful of old-school mini-games — a whack-a-mole-style challenge and Breakout and Pong-style clones among them — playable in short arcade bursts. A jukebox area lets visitors put on a playlist of Julius's favorite tunes while they wander, and a session simply ends whenever the visitor is done poking around the town.
- 1
The player opens paulfrank.com/plannedpines into a Flash-built fictional town rather than a brand storefront, populated by mascot Julius and his friends, with a custom soundtrack playing on arrival.
- 2
The player picks a starter version of Julius as an avatar, then builds out and customizes their own Julius as one of the site's central activities.
- 3
The player moves between the town's sections through simple animated navigation, exploring areas to meet the different Planned Pines characters.
- 4
In the arts & crafts section, the player completes a hands-on creative activity distinct from the games on offer.
- 5
The player browses a separate art gallery section to view artwork.
- 6
The player visits the town arcade, which houses several arcade-style mini-games: Miss a Monkey, Breakout, Ping, and a reflex-based Whack-A-Mole where the player hits targets as they pop up.
- 7
The player can switch on a standalone music section, "Julius' favorite tunes," a curated playlist separate from the rest of the site.
