At the beginning of this week, I started off by completing some rebranding of my game’s logo and title, I did this in relation to the main idea of my branding toolkit that I completed later this week. However, at this stage of the week, I was aware that I wanted the main ethos of my branding toolkit to be more child friendly since I am aiming towards an ESRB rating of E10+. To start I started by grabbing different font style images from the internet as inspirations and then compiling them into an image to compare them.
An image of different fonts spelling out the word “Kessler”
As you can see most of the fonts, I investigated were heavily based around the space feel/theme of the game however, from asking class members and such I had realize that most of the space-related fonts are too complicated to read, which I thought would also be a lot harder for children to read. Using that knowledge, I investigated different childish fonts and found one that was a type of bubble writing and then worked from there I realized that this design worked and decided to follow the example font image that I had found that had the typography be in different colors to look more childish, so I did this to my design. Furthermore, I also added some brown, grey, and white dots around the wording to look like space debris, whilst keeping that simplistic design that would be easy to understand for children.
Final design for rebrand of Kessler's title - involving bold letters filled with different childish colours on a dark blue background with brown dots of different shades dotted around.
As well as this title design I also wanted to make a unique logo that could be used as advertising material for the game, via social media accounts profile pictures, and posts but also as an Icon for the application when the games running for example when your running Microsoft Word and the blue box with the “W” inside is shown on the taskbar.
Kessler redesigned logo - Red letter K, bold font, covered in flames leaving a trail of smoke behind it.
Before redesigning the logo Kessler's logo was the entire title and on my social media pages the profile picture appeared as just a black K, which after some thinking I thought was not suitable for a child audience like mine as the social media presence and marketing prior was quite dull. This is why I created this logo, using the same font style as the title I made earlier in the week I drew the K as if it was a piece of debris burning up on entry into the earth's atmosphere to not only have a colorful logo that is unique to the game but too also showcase the hidden message/story of space debris in the background of the game's world. With all of that taken into consideration I then created a branding toolkit for my game and created a document highlighting the reasons behind the idea and some rules for the identity of the game moving forward. The link below will allow you to download the file for Yourself.
Most notably when opening the file I started by talking about the reasoning and story behind the brand/game I am creating.
A PowerPoint slide showcasing the first half of the brand/games story
A PowerPoint slide showcasing the second half of the brand/games story
I then wrote up some information about the typography including this snippet of information on the game/brands ethos - “The main ethos of my branding toolkit is to be more child friendly since I am aiming towards an ESRB rating of E10+. To start I started by grabbing different font style images from the internet as inspirations and then compiling them into an image to compare them.”
A PowerPoint slide showcasing the brand/games ethos and why
I then also created a slide that talks through the rules of the typography I created including bits like the title typography always having to be depicted in multiple colors as that is a main part of what makes the typeface look so childish, and the K and R letters being descenders to give the sense of a childish font as it looks uneven like how a child would draw.
screengrab of PowerPoint slide on typography (title)
Screengrab of PowerPoint slide on Iconography (logo)
The iconography that I created is also a huge part of Kessler's brand which I why I also created some rules for it within the branding toolkit my favorite being that whenever possible whether that be in a documentation type that allows for it like the PowerPoint or another form of supporting media the title no matter what font must adhere and replace the K in the word Kessler with the flaming K icon above, this builds link between my logo and the world “Kessler” to create a link in the minds of viewers/players. as well as looking at typography in terms of social presents with the typography of the title and the logo I also started looking into rules for the game itself.
Screengrab of a PowerPoint slide on Typography (Game text)