Riot Games launched its first creation, League of Legends, back in 2009. Since then it has grown into a multi-game brand, with 1% of the world’s population playing its games at any given moment.
Over the years, the brand has evolved, with multiple teams developing its logo, artwork, and creative interpretations of its classic fist. We were faced with the challenge of turning that creativity into a cohesive brand identity that could scale.
Our task was to create a dynamic and expressive brand identity that connects every aspect of Riot - from huge arena events to one-off social posts - with all of its games and IP while retaining a distinctive and authentic voice within the community.
Riot loves its games as much as anyone. Everything the company does is to make the player experience better. To truly embrace this, the design system had to be built from a mutual adoration of the games.
The new brand toolkit operates on a scale from core to expressive.
The core style represents the foundations of the brand and uses the company’s Riot Sans typeface by Colophon.
The expressive style embodies everything players love about the games.
Every aspect of the brand identity is infused with references to the various games and gaming worlds.
We created a full range of patterns based on effects from the gaming worlds.
The patterns can be used throughout the brand as graphics, frames, masks, dividers, animated textures and more. Instantly bringing a recognisably Riot vibe to any layout.
We also developed a simple guide for people to create their bespoke typographic patterns, adding further range to the potential of the brand toolkit.
We introduced a new expressive colour palette that draws from the familiar tones of maps and environments in each world.
Characters and cosplayers have been brought to the forefront, becoming ambassadors for the brand.
The logo is a living symbol and a fist bump to the community. The fist-bump logo, animated logos, and custom fists were designed by Ilovedust.
Scalable enough to work for a YouTube thumbnail up to a jumbotron in an 80,000 person arena.
The entire brand identity is articulated in a living, updatable brand manual hosted on Google Docs and linked to everything you could ever need. Packed with hyperlinks, downloadables and application examples, it’s not just a brand rule book, it’s a manifesto for what it means to work at Riot.
This manual is flexible enough to be followed to the letter, or reimagined to create something new.