Matchstic | Activate | Leveling up the world’s best live-action games.

Year:: 2026
Industry:: Media & Entertainment

(Services)

Intro

Founded in 2019, Activate was the first of its kind: a live-action arcade where players competed in addictive games of wits, speed, and endurance. It was a game, a workout, and a party all in one.

The success was immediate. Within five years, Activate had grown into a global brand with players, and copycat competitors, all over the world. The startup suddenly needed to move from entertainment pioneer to category leader.

The first job was defining the category Activate had created. What is Activate? How is it different from every other gaming experience? The full experience is hard to grasp, so we kept it simple. Activate: the world’s best live-action games.

The line builds on what makes the experience great (heart-pumping, in-real-life action) and champions the games.

Next, we evolved and defined the brand identity so it would show up consistently and distinctly, like the global leader it is.

Borrowing the visual and verbal language of the games themselves, we built a design system and voice that scale with the brand while staying simple and intuitive for newcomers.

Colors glow, morph, and transform like the games. Text expands, stretches, and moves like the players. Everything from the visuals to the verbals is playful and inventive. The brand is designed to resemble the games, so the experience can speak for itself.

Space frames and space windows are key elements in the system. These simple graphic dividers create a wide variety of layouts, organizing content on everything from pricing screens to social posts. The visual language extends into room icons, game modes, player rankings, and sub-brands, like the Global League and the annual Tournament of Champions.

Nothing explains the Activate experience like showing it. We partnered with Relato to level up Activate's photo and video bank with a custom shoot, art-directing the action, selecting talent, and styling the wardrobe.

We redesigned everything from employee uniforms to player score checkers to a new website, overhauling the visual and verbal brand so Activate looks more distinct and clearer.

Training the Activate team to implement the new brand across their global footprint was a critical part of our work. Brand guidelines, a digital asset manager, training sessions, site visits, and workshops all helped make the transition smooth and clear.

The results have validated the approach. Since the refresh, Activate has kept growing, opening new locations and new markets around the world.

With its category defined and brand more distinct, Activate has kept pushing the envelope and secured its position at the forefront.

Credits:

Design by Reid Parsekian, Stephanie Kim, Michael Martino, Sara Pepper
Strategy by Mitchell Ditto
Messaging by Clay Notestine
Creative Direction by Blake Howard
Project Management by Lexi Joseph
Brand Video by Relato
Animation by Max Prince

Special thanks to Jeremiah Sizemore, Rachel Smith at Activate, and James Bernier

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