Marathon Art Style Breakdown

This is the definitive break down of the new Marathon art style from what we have seen so far. This would not have been possible without Michael Veselovsky who took my mish-mash idea of talking about Marathon's new art and turned it into a cohesive piece that speaks with a level of authority that is only possible because of his intimate knowledge of graphic design and art. Everything you see and hear is directly from his genius mind and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to share it with you all on this platform. His script writing and editing are incredible and it is honor to get to work with such a professional dude. Thank you Michael, you rock. I seriously hope you guys enjoy the video and I know it conveys what I think makes this upcoming game so visually special.

If your art appeared in the video but you aren't happy with how you are credited reach out to me and I can put the appropriate links to your stuff in the description. We were not able to find the creator for every piece we used but do not intend to infringe upon anyone's intellectual property!

-Jake

Video Editing/Scripting by Michael Veselovsky

A lot of inspiration for this video came from a thread made by Marathon's art director, Joseph Cross. Link below

The clear stop sign at 02:04 was created by @Stanisslayer. Check out his stuff in the links below!

Brutalist work at 11:45

Road sign on the right side at 02:04

[vslvsk]

It was a heck of a lot of work, hope you guys enjoy it!

[King-Kyle]

Marathon & The Finals have some of the best art direction I've seen in video games.

[Fius]

oh! the music from The Finals so awesome! I love it!

[Augors]

Damn, this takes me back to Art/Design School. I used to made my designs like this throughout my college career, There’s a good amount of designers that kind of set the fundamentals of “Graphic Realism”. I think this will be pushed forward and be define in the design era of the 2020s

[RoccoDipoppa]

Hey Jake! Rocco here, I'm the author of the design series you feature from 11:45 – that's a super cool video and love to be quoted among the influences in a massively, insanely cool design scene.. But also, the coincidence is that my projects directly quotes Marathon (one of my favourite games when I was a kid) with the cover of the playlist Street Fighting Mechs, where I used the 90s Marathon logo as the icon for that mix (all the playlist from that project feature an animated cover artwork and a small custom icon!). Awesome work love this kind of "full circle" moments :)

[saltylemon]

I love the way you kept to marathons artstyle with the editing, I can tell you spent HOURS searching the web for the very limited information we have on this whole project

[Dan_Tasty]

Looked into your channel expecting it to be more video essays on design & artistry in media but it's all Marathon lmao. Obviously this game is a passion of yours and you've had plenty of time exploring this world and the context of how it was put together, but I'd love to see more videos with this level of depth discussing design philosophies involved in other games and media! Subbed regardless, maybe I'll check out Marathon at some point

[wangD]

This video is incredible. The writing, editing, design, pacing, research is all incredibly well done. I hope you see this and really consider making more "Art Style Breakdown" videos on other games, movies and art.

[dyl]

Such a beautiful video, the editing and visuals are absolute eye candy. This channel is very underrated and will probably blow up after this video. I hope all YouTube videos can be like this!

[thee_master]

I can't believe the coolest looking game ever is in dev hell

[TheSourcealpha]

Another work that I was immediately reminded of when I saw the Marathon trailer and especially it's take on Bio-robots are the "Introducing the David 8" commercials that were released as part of the promotion of Prometheus

[CashKingD]

the first time I saw the Marathon trailer I was literally speechless from how gorgeous it looked. I think you're right, it really feels like an evolution of the "abstract and surreal yet grounded" look the trilogy had.

[arnoldmerlot]

I'm so grateful this channel exists, these videos are so niche yet so interesting, thanks for the insane work buddy, keep it up !

[tiagoloureiro]

I must say this is phenomenally put together.
The editing is great & engaging.
The actual argument of the video is thorough & comprehensive. Just great.

As a concept artist & art director, building my own world & accompanying aesthetic (called Soul Atlas Universe), I salute you.

PS. You should have more views

[bafy]

SHOUTOUT "THE FINALS" very interesting game that's super underrated in the multiplayer fps landscape right now

[Ares_gaming_]

Wow, that may have been the most visually satisfying/interesting video I have seen on YouTube, not to mention informative and entertaining! There are not enough compliments I can give to you and the editor! Really makes me hype for the game and graphic design in general! Makes me wonder if we are going to have our own "roaring twenties" as it seems we're starting to buck corporate sterilism in favor of more stylized aesthetics, even if they incorporate sterility artistically. It makes me feel like we're in our own 90's/Y2K renaissance with all the interesting aesthetics emerging or returning, even though I wasn't able to experience the 90's.

The graphical realism is a great term which describes how I've felt about bungies halo games for a long time, specifically their later ones. Halo 3, ODST and Reach all have really cool graphical concepts, with fun and punchy colors, especially 3, which is almost "cartoon-like", but with some hi-fi textures that give it a grounded realism look; like it *could be* real, hypothetically. Their art direction was always my favorite. Super hyped for Marathon to be going back to Bungie's roots and updating it for the modern day. Sounds like a true spiritual successor. Hoping for the best!

[saintxrage]

The last images are some of my favorite of Marathon. The very last one with the Security Officer holding up what looks like a spine like design is my screen saver on my phone.

[Jef_Laenen]

Another example of this is the product design in the recent movie "Substance" (the drug branding and packaging). The see through-plastic, neon colours and functionalism similar to the Aphex twin album. Great vid!

[jasonfields]

I’ve been hyped for Marathon just because of its visual identity! I haven’t seen such a striking design style since Wipeout, Control or Cyberpunk 2077. Absolutely stunning work by the design team. Great video Jake!

[RadioDavidly]

The Finals has the BEST soundtrack. So goated.