Indie Artist Struggles with Branding So You Don’t Have To

This is a really interesting glimpse into the ethereal world of marketing and art direction, but I'm not sure if I agree with the conclusions. If anything, it points to the fact that every branding decision comes with a set of tradeoffs; for example, while the new logo might be more symbolically representative of the game and more cohesive in terms of the angles, the 2nd logo's unboundedness makes the game seem less corporate and more playful. Logo #3 just screams "Hearthstone wannabe" to me, while logo #2 is much more like something I'd want to play. (Thumbs up for the European Aero mockup, though, that made me chuckle!)

(Incidentally, branding aside, this article piqued my interest in the game. Is it worth a play?)

EDIT: For more excellent graphic-design-related content like this, check out Valve's DotA2 art guide: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2Chara...

I'm a bit lost. I enjoyed the coke and Apple discussions and their clear emphasis on experience and clarity of product, but he (she?) then just ignores it and goes for a mess of a cube that represents a hex grid where you push monsters into water and ...

I read 1/3 of the article and still do not know what the darn game is nor why they have three really similar logos, nor how the logos seem to be at odds with the in-game designs and themes themselves. and the German version?

so, branding is hard. that's my take away.

edit: so I reread it a bit more carefully... much better.

the confusion is, well if not intentional then at least faithful to his learning curve. one thing that stands out is that the name and brand must convey the mechanics of a game. which I had not thought of before but does seem accurate. angry birds is always with a catapult.

I am wondering if that applies outside of gaming - and if so what?

My second takeaway - no surprises. get what you expect.

my third takeaway - much much better with characters in it. waaaay better

>You know what? They’re absolutely 100% right... The end result turned out to be kind of a mess in terms of a unified palette.

Kudos to them for listening to the feedback. It's too easy to ignore such complaints and instead rationalize away why you're not going to make any changes. I imagine a rework is going to be a lot of work.

I'm not totally convinced that the new logo is a grand improvement, but the "official palette" is quite sweet. Really makes me want to pick up the game.

this is some pepsi logo level of rationalization here.

Unsolicited feedback:

At first glance, I read the logo as AURD rather than AURO, and I still had a bit of cognitive effort to remember that it's an O after finishing the article and scrolling back to the top.

Could be because I saw the old logos first, which seem far closer to D's than O's and so I was anchored to AURD, but might be worth testing with new players?

Hey, this is the pixel art renouncing guy. A large part of your brand is that you're obsessive over high quality artwork. You didn't rebrand either - you created new artwork, actually furthering the current brand. Most of what you're discussing is about creating a cohesive art style.

is this like a sup'd up version of Hoplite?

because I'm into that.

dunno if the brand stuff matters that much tbh, but I'm all for more Hoplite.