Logotypes and brand identity in games are rarely taken seriously. Generalization of trends within genres makes most of the brands look flat and look-alike - it's a slow process for any medium to learn the value of visual identity. But things change, because it just pays off.
I have always been a fan of design-aware developers - Kojima with the MGS series, Rockstar, and especially Valve. Their approach to logotypes and brands is somewhat unique and shows that they know the value of coherent visual identity. Half Life, Portal and TF2 are all different products with distinctive key elements and are all prime examples of great product design.

Also, you gotta respect THIS.



WHY CHANGE?

There is always a tough marketing decision of whether a game should step out of the genre's frame or blend in. I've been always optioning for the first, believing that The Witcher, with all the great background from the book and an excellent approach in terms of art direction, could become a hit and Geralt himself could be a great anti-hero in our post-modern here-and-now.
I know that the old PC logo had it right for some fans, but I always felt that our Albino-Viggo deserved more.

My main concern was that the old logo is a Mason font-based logotype, with no modifications. It's a good and known font, if not slightly overused. But it's an existing type - meaning it was quite easy for anyone to do his own super version:


Or enhance the menu in his Indian restaurant (stumbled upon in London - it's not white hair in my kebab, is it?):



Another thing is that you’ve just seen it before. Thin, serif, metal-beveled logotypes have became a standard for all good-old-new RPG's. And let's face it, The Witcher's logotype was a mix of Diablo and LOTR. And from a purely marketing point of view, the Mason font was too thin for a brand label that had to stand out on shelves.

So, when The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf became a reality, I was given the task to create a new logo, which had to be fresh, dynamic and somewhat aggressive, and represent the arrival of something new.

BREAKING THE WALL

I have some main ideas of how I perceive the main character. I never thought of him as a typical medieval-fantasy hero, because he's obviously something different - rather than a whimsical do-gooder, he's a cynical, morally bruised, war-dancing, trained killing machine on drugs.

And even if this may seem a bit stretched or irrelevant for making such a technical thing as a logotype, I believe that the deeper you immerse yourself and think through the brand you’re creating, the more the results will stay true to you as a designer.

For the launch of the RotWW teaser site, we came up with the idea of a clickable site launch counter, where day-by-day users revealed a new wolf through the cracks in a crumbling wall with the old wolf engraved on it. It was fun to do, and had a nice deeper meaning - the urge to develop and advance while staying true to what made The Witcher so special.



GO!

Ironically, I took the refurbished non-serif version of the Mason font (1), which is way better than the serif one, and based the new letters on it - so that all principles would remain true to its predecessor. I think it is a good way of doing things, because you have this solid type to base your work on.

Then I designed the letters my way, with a more aggressive W and R (2) and adjusted the boldness (3).


Here are various versions with different boldness of the letters. Though it's not a roadmap for this logo - I created the last one with some confidence - it's good to give yourself a wide spectrum of possibilities to see. It also it also helps you develop technically.



Then I added scratches which kinda stuck to the brand we built with The Witcher: Enhanced Edition.

Finally, I amplified the subtitle to make it less "subtitle-ish". The font used for this was Bell Gothic, which was first introduced on The Witcher flash website and then became the main font for game assets. I like it for its simplicity and height.

The final step is to create a solid Logobook with dos and don'ts for the people that are going to use it, containing information on usage on paper, in web, etc. Creating a logo is only the beginning - there are million ways for an inventive games magazine art department (or business partners) to possibly ruin it!

It took some time, and wasn't an easy task - it's quite a walk on wire when you work with an established brand and yet want to achieve your design goals. Concluding - one can love the new logo or hate it, but it's finally sewn on the size. Hope you like it!

Benedykt Szneider

Update: Since the game was eventually put on hold, we were asked to elevate the work we've done and thus The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was born. The game is dead - long live the game!