Our Borderlands 4 creator collective is not playing games (except when they are!).
Tongal partnered with video game giants 2K to build and coordinate a collective of some of the world's most talented and high-profile creators. 2K handpicked the artists, and gave them freedom to produce wildly creative content in their individual styles to connect with their unique audiences. The collective were given a platform to showcase their skills and a pathway for creative expression, while building hype for the blockbuster game.
Our bench of 22 creators based across five continents — with social followings from 100k to 3m+ — created original shorts, maker content, AR filters, official animated ads, and more.
Here, six of the world's finest animation, gaming, and design creators share their experience of collaborating on this epic global project.
Rupert Gruber, from Copenhagen, Denmark, started his career in the world of music — doing graphic design work for Sony and Universal. Now his grungy illustration style is in high demand with clients including Marvel, DC, and Disney. He's also developing his own IP, called Demöns.
"I wanted to do this project because the brief was just to bring my own style. It's actually pretty rare to get projects like this, where the client doesn't want to tell you what to do.
"And I feel like the tone of the game — the sarcasm and dark humor — is pretty spot-on with my style.
"When I started out, my biggest inspiration was old movie posters, like Vertigo and things like that. My work is all quite grungy, and never glossy — as that's what I personally find aesthetically pleasing.
"I've created my own IP, called Demöns, to balance out all the commercial work. It's about a militia that gets resurrected by the devil to avenge their cause of death. That's a lot of fun to work on — when I have time!"
INSTAGRAM: @rupert.gruber
SirDushon was homeless until a call from Nike last year helped turn his passion for creating into a profitable business. Then working for 2K on this Borderlands project took this passionate gamer’s career to the next level.
"I would make dance videos at High School, and as I had learned how to edit, I could collaborate with other dancers without being in the same room. They would shoot their part, I would shoot mine, and I’d edit it together. This helped me to start to think more like a director too.
"After school, my following was growing, but I wasn’t making any money. And at the end of 2023, I ended up sleeping in my car. But I was still making videos. Then out of nowhere, I got an email from Nike, and it was an opportunity to work on a campaign for their new Nike Air Max DN.
"Having an experience like that, when I was literally at the bottom of the food chain, was insane. They said they’d been watching my channels for a while. It just shows, as a creator, you never know who is watching your work. After that, I got an opportunity to work with Converse. The work spiraled from there.
"I’m a mad gaming nerd, so this Borderlands project was super-fun. It's such an expressive and creative game, and the energy was great match for me. My work is eclectic, using mixed media, flushed through the frontal lobe into an explosion we call a piece."
INSTAGRAM: @sirdushon
TIKTOK: @sirdushon
Jonathan Burton is the Canadian artist behind Carbot Animations, a YouTube Channel which specializes in video game-themed shorts. He launched the channel in 2012, and now has a team of four collaborators — including his two brothers — and 2.3 million followers.
"I started out doing StarCraft parody videos back in 2012. Blizzard Entertainment picked up on what I was doing quite quickly, and flew me down to California, and I quickly built some friendships there.
"I was studying animation at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada, at the time. It was a four-year program, but I quit after the second year to do my own thing, as juggling this work with my studies was too much.
"I talked to one of the teachers there, and said, "What should I do?" He said, "School will always be here, this opportunity might not be." That was good advice, and I took it. And I've been parodying games with animation ever since.
"We use simple, strong shapes and try to convey the gameplay experience without using too many words — so it can be understood worldwide.
"I enjoyed this Borderlands project. They just wanted authentic video from us. The mentality was, 'You do you — and if we need to filter something we'll let you know.'"
YOUTUBE: @CarbotAnimations
Fesq is an independent digital creator from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He has previously worked on concert visuals for acts including Calvin Harris and Snoop Dogg, and recently designed digital stage assets for the Esports World Cup.
"It was sick to have such an open brief and so much creative freedom. I sent a deck, and the response was, 'Amazing. Let's do it!' They told me they loved my natural style — that glitchy, super-digital, cyberpunkish, surreal feel.
"I've been doing digital art for about eight years, but art is not my background. I was in college for Nanotechnology Engineering initially, but midway through I swapped for Software Engineering, which I loved. Then I started fiddling around with a program called Cinema 4D, which is an animation software, and I got consumed by that stuff.
"I'm completely self-taught, and basically learn something new every day through YouTube. I started posting my work on socials in 2017, but at the time I didn't really think of it as art — they were more experiments as I tried to understand the program. But then it started to become a career.
"I've been playing the Borderlands games since they first launched. I was playing the new one a little on my second computer whenever I had a break on this project. But now I've delivered the video, I can really dig in!"
INSTAGRAM: @iamfesq
TIKTOK: @iamfesq
Mehar Lalvani has worked with clients including Lando Norris and Skrillex, and has now fulfilled a lifelong ambition of working in the video game space. Alongside his in-demand graphic design work, he also has his own clothing brand and underground creative community, called Ghost Hardware.
"I first picked up Cinema 4D in middle school, and it spawned this beast in me that I just need to keep creating things. And at the same time, I was developing this love for video games. I’ve always loved the art style of Borderlands — which is an interesting blend of 2.5D.
"My family moved to Switzerland when I was growing up, so I was surrounded by Swiss design. I brought those influences to my design work, combined with dark fantasy, video games, and 3D elements. And then I use audio design to create powerful visual and audio pieces.
"I joined the Artcenter College of Design in California in 2017, but after two years I had some great job offers and ended up dropping out of school.
"My first job was an internship and Mad Decent, which is Diplo’s record label. From there, I got more work for EDM artists. My goal was to work for Skrillex, and fast-forward a couple of years and I worked on his Ultra Music Festival set in Miami in March.
"My passions have always been design, EDM and video games. But I hadn’t done any video game work before now. So when Borderlands hit me up, I was like, 'Yes! Finally!' And we were given complete creative freedom, which was amazing.
"I love the work that Tongal is doing to bring together independent artists — like myself and a lot of my friends — and putting us on the same playing field with really big companies."
INSTAGRAM: @safehaven_hq
TIKTOK: @safehaven_hq
Eric Kwon is the animator behind the Hyun's Dojo Community, which has more than 3m followers across social platforms, and an active hub of animators who develop their skills together and collaborate on projects.
"My first major gig was for Riot Games. They liked a stick figure animation I did about League of Legends, and I ended up making some animations and advertisements for them. After that, I built a community of animators, and we have slowly and consistently grown over the last ten years or so.
"We do collaborative projects with these independent animators, and also try to help and teach younger kids who are trying to get into the animation business.
"That's why we focus on stick figures, because it's an easy place to get started. And over the years, a lot of people from our community have gone on to work in the anime industry and for big animation studios, so that's very cool.
"The Borderlands animation was more of a personal project. I was already a big fan of the franchise. I just like making ads enjoyable. Just because it's an advertisement doesn't meaning it should be boring."
YOUTUBE: @hyunsdojo
Creators are working with the world's biggest brands on Tongal.
