Branding Identities: SoCal Retro Gaming Expo
C Studio IV — Project 1
Project Overview
The following is a documentation of my process for a branding project. This was completed as part of the class Communications Studio IV (51–330) at Carnegie Mellon University in Spring 2023 — Instructed by Kelsey Elder.
Project Prompt
Task: Develop a flexible identity system for a conference or festival.
Specifics of Identity System: While of your scenarios may differ, they generally share common needs for development and application. Each of your identity systems must include these elements:
- Conceptual Principle: the story or meaning of your identity system; a metaphor, a kind of conceptual gusto that is applied throughout the system.
- Logotype: with variations for static/kinetic, b/w and applied color, and modifications as needed so it works at a range of scales (small, medium, large).
- Additional Assets: a suite of either icons, patterns, or swatches.
- Basic Identity Standards:
Typography: identification of additional typographic treatment for content such as body copy, captions, etc…
Color Palette: identification of color.
Image: identification of image treatments.
Grid: may not be a ‘grid’ in a traditional sense (squares), but describes a relational system for applying/combing elements
Application: a collection of examples of your identity system in-use which could include items such as business cards, stationary, posters, billboards, lanyards, apparel, banners, signage, merchandise, booklets, catalogue, invitation, flyer, brochures, video titles, interstitials, website, stage graphics, etc…. For some of these larger examples (website, catalogue, etc..) a single page or spread will likely suffice to demonstrate your identity.
Scenario & Audience: Your chosen scenario should be an existing one which will provide you with real text, image, audio, video, etc… to work with, along with an audience.
Milestone 1: Inspiration and Selection
Tuesday, January 16th — Thursday, January 18th
Tasks:
- Get inspired: Find 3 branding campaigns/festival identities. Pay attention to typography, motion, etc.
- Define scenario: Select a festival/conference/convention, and collect relevant information (dates, location, audience, schedule, etc.). Create a slide introducing your event, and some key aspects.
I started off by finding inspiration, whether it be real branding campaigns, or student projects. I paid most attention to the cohesiveness and flexibility of the brands created, as I have never tackled a project exactly like this, so I thought seeing identities with a wide range would be helpful.
I then had the more daunting task of actually selecting a festival. I had a few key things I was considering while making my choices:
- Current branding: I didn’t want to choose something that had too strong of a brand identity, or something that was updated too recently (although if it is rebranded every year, that would be fine). I felt like this would be more of a burden to me creatively, as it would feel more like a “rebranding” project rather than a “branding” project.
- Personal Interest: I wanted to select something somewhat relevant to my own interests, since I have the opportunity to select pretty much anything.
- Popularity: Similar to current branding, I wanted to select something that wasn’t too popular or well known, mostly as I thought it would just be more fun. With a smaller audience, there is likely more of a niche, so the brand can be more tailored to the event, and doesn’t have to appeal to a wider audience.
I ended up choosing the SoCal Retro Gaming Expo. What led me to it was the Classic Tetris World Championships, which is actually being held here for the first time, and it met all of my criteria.
“SoCal Gaming Expo is known for its massive marketplace, esports competitions, free play arcade and gaming area, tabletop gaming, cosplay, live music, and Youtube — industry guests and panels. Our marketplace has tons of vendors selling video games, crafts, artwork and much more!
SoCal Gaming Expo is a convention for everyone who loves gaming to attend. We open our doors to people from all ages, races, nationalities to come together and share their passion for gaming, live music and esports. We want your experience at the show to be an amazing one!”
Milestone 2: Logotype Sketches
Thursday, January 18th — Tuesday, January 23rd
Tasks:
- Create a minimum of 25 possible logotype sketches. These instances should be exploratory in spirit and use a variety of typographic styles.
- Focus your attention on the divergent ways letterforms can be expressed, the ways we can arrange it, and the ways these tools natively let us manipulate it; spacing, leading, baseline shift
After looking into the expo a bit more, I started working on some logotypes. It was a bit rough at first, but eventually I started having some promising results. I ended up having a lot of fun making pixel fonts (all pixel fonts shown were made by me), even if they weren’t in an actual font file yet.
Milestone 3: Concept Pitches
Tuesday, January 23rd — Tuesday, February 6th
Tasks:
- Choose 3 core ideas/concepts from your contact sheets. Create a cluster of 1–3 key words, or action words, for each to convey the spirit for each concept. Engage an exhaustive, iterative, and exploratory process.
Concept 1: 3D Pixel Type
The most promising idea I felt I had from my contact sheets was the 3D pixel type. I had some suggestions to make it a mono width font as well, so I first worked on making that as a true font file (so I didn’t have to copy pixels and overwhelm Illustrator/Indesign). I also introduced the idea of these “mega pixels” which were the size of the other letters.
After more research, I ended up keeping “So-Cal” in the logotype directly (as other “retro gaming expos” exist in other cities, but are unrelated), and played around with some different layouts and animations.
Concept 2: Consoles/Controllers
Although I was less hopeful about this idea, I thought I should branch out and try something in the polar opposite direction (no pixels, no custom type). I started by just exploring with the font I used in my contact sheet, and ended up deciding to focus on controllers and consoles (their current logo has controllers, and past branding had them as well).
In the end, I think it works fine on its own, but it doesn’t fit with the spirit of the festival from my research/observation.
Concept 3: 2D Variable Pixel Font
The last concept I explored was the simpler 2D font I created, adding in the aspect of a variable pixel. At first I thought this would end up similar to the first, and while it has a similar feeling, it ended up quite differently.
Milestone 4: Logotype Refinement
Tuesday, February 6th — Tuesday, February 13th
Tasks:
- Identify a core concept to bring forward into final form. Develop the logotype and any additional visual assets your identity system may require.
- Create a static logotype (default and variations) and kinetic logotype (default and variations).
This was a relatively short milestone, so it was mostly spent exploring different ways to combine or expand ideas from the previous milestone. I focused in on concept one, but I also wanted to incorporate the colors and theme of concept three.
Milestone 5: Application & Extension
Tuesday, February 6th — Thursday, February 22nd
Tasks:
- Finalize your logotype and identity system standards.
- Bring your identity to life through application and extension, with a minimum of 5 examples.
During this phase, I found that actually applying my concept onto different designs helped to solidify the design concept and details. At this time, I also created a series of patterning glyphs to add to my font, which helped broaden the possibilities of application.
Milestone 6: Style Guide
Thursday, February 22nd — Thursday, February 29th
Tasks:
- Create a self-explanatory style guide. It should be a multi-page document which covers context, summarizes your approach, and includes design details (title page, running headers, page numbers) which make it easy for others to navigate and reference.
- Prepare a 5-minute walk-through presentation of the style guide.
When creating the style guide, I created an outline to follow, which mostly focused on typography, as well as the application examples.
The style guide was created to both give a general overview of the brand concept, as well as giving specific details and rules about using the identity system.
