newhire

Behind the Scenes — Game Branding & Logo Exploration

Added 2023-01-12 17:49:34 +0000 UTC

Hey y’all! this month’s BTS post is about the game’s branding and logo.

Original Logo Ideas

Drawing from other dating sims, I wanted the logo for New Hire to feel inviting and positive. The game’s tone and story are tranquil and romantic, so I wanted the logo to feel this way — the first version above was a good start, but ultimately looked too busy and wasn’t as legible as I was hoping for social and mobile. This version was implemented in-game up until three months before game launch.

I found my next exploration for the game’s logo a lot more successful. This version was a lot more legible at small sizes and heightened the exciting, inviting feeling.

This version worked especially well for things like the game’s shortcut/dock icon, discord server icon, and other small-size applications.

Creating a Color Library

Another big part of branding New Hire was creating a color library to use in-game and for social media. My two main priorities with the color library were to have a color matched with each major character and a set of colors necessary for in-game UI and social posts. These 18 colors are the basis for essentially every color choice in New Hire and on related pages!

Distinguishing Cade’s Corner

For Cade’s Corner, I was originally going to go with a variation on the primary branding for New Hire. However, I wanted Cade’s Corner to feel more like a regular blog post from Cade, so it having New Hire branding felt off.

I wanted his blog’s branding to be simpler and more like something he could make himself, something that could even just be modified text in a text box on an old blog posting site. So, with that in mind, I did some simpler versions and landed on a much more basic, effective word mark.