Frens on every surface

Alien Frens is a community-driven project built around 10,000 unique characters, with a following that gathers both online and in person. For an event at The Academy LA, they hired Backbeat to bring that character universe into a physical room.

The build

The brand’s assets were made for screens measured in inches. The venue’s were measured in feet. Backbeat developed a custom set of animations that translated the Alien Frens visual language, colorful characters and a deliberately whimsical design sensibility, into content built for a nightclub’s visual infrastructure.

The venue’s screens and surfaces became an animated environment in the brand’s own aesthetic. Instead of generic concert loops with a logo dropped on top, the room ran bespoke character animation, so the community spent the night inside the world they had gathered around.

What happened

The visuals ran live through the Los Angeles event. As a portfolio entry it proves a specific range: taking an existing illustrated identity, respecting its tone exactly, and re-engineering it for concert scale and live playback.