Close Knit — Sonja Wise

Art director and designer with a restless curiosity, a love for bold ideas, and a drive to create work that connects.

Lemme Break Campaign
Kendra Scott
Close Knit Board Game
Nomad Travel Magazine
McKinley Health Center
The Message On The Walls

Close Knit
Board Game Design

Champaign, Illinois

Spring 2025

The Big Picture
CloseKnit is a board game that helps young adults build and sustain meaningful friendships through conversation and play. Created as my senior capstone, the project moved from research and strategy into branding, prototyping, and testing. The game utilizes prompts and action cards to foster connections in a screen-free, low-pressure environment.

The Brand
CloseKnit is a conceptual brand created for this project. Its mission is to offer young adults a playful yet intentional way to connect more deeply. The identity emphasizes warmth, approachability, and shared experience.

Who It’s For
Young adults aged 18–30 navigating transitional life stages—graduating, relocating, or starting new jobs—who want intentional ways to strengthen friendships or meet new people.

The Ask
Design a research-based board game experience including brand identity, gameplay, card systems, and packaging. Both primary and secondary research guided the strategic and visual decisions.

How I Built It
Adobe Illustrator · Adobe Photoshop · Adobe InDesign · Miro

Primary Research

I conducted a 123-person survey of individuals aged 18–30, focusing on how they form and maintain friendships. The questions explored communication habits, values, and common challenges in relationships.

Key Stats

87% prefer in-person connection, but 65% rely on texting

74% said shared hobbies are key to their friendships

Top qualities: communication, humor, and trust

Most met close friends through structured settings (e.g., school or work)

Insights

People want vulnerability and closeness in a format that feels light and playful

Friendships often fade due to distance during life transitions or a lack of effort

Young Adults crave intentional spaces to meet people after college

Secondary Research

I conducted database research on adult friendships, communication, and digital behavior, alongside a competitive analysis of existing board games that focus on connection and conversation.

Insights

Adults prioritize behavioral trust over emotional vulnerability (Nunes-Harwitt, 2024)

Positive anticipation increases willingness to share (Baek & Parkinson, 2022)

Young adults report increased loneliness post-graduation due to fewer built-in social spaces (Steinsbekk & Bjørklund, 2024)

Existing games often lack depth, balance, or aesthetic appeal, revealing a gap for something both meaningful and visually engaging

Audience & Framing

Audience:
Young adults (18–30) are in social transition phases such as moving, graduating, or starting remote jobs. They are seeking meaningful but low-pressure ways to connect.

Needs:
A playful, low-pressure format for connection
Opportunities to share, listen, and laugh
A space to reconnect or make new connections

Problem Statements:

Young adults need better tools for communication and reciprocity because friendships often fade due to conflict, distance, or lack of effort.
In transitional life stages, people lose access to built-in social structures and need accessible ways to initiate and maintain connections.

Brand Guidelines

The CloseKnit brand is warm, playful, and easy to connect with. The visual identity uses bold geometric shapes and a bright color palette to reflect themes of connection, energy, and trust.

Prototyping Questions

To shape meaningful gameplay, I developed multiple rounds of prototype questions that were tested in both group and one-on-one settings. Players responded most positively to prompts that felt open-ended but specific enough to spark real stories. Humor and nostalgia often led to the most engaging conversations.

SONJA WISE DESIGN

Index Next →

Lemme Break Campaign Kendra Scott Close Knit Board Game Nomad Travel Magazine McKinley Health Center The Message On The Walls