IGN, Gamespot, TV Guide, Personal • 2014-Present
Branding work is some of my favorite design to work on and Ive had a lot of experience in multiple types over my years working professionally.
What you’ll see below is a collection of podcast logos, event branding, logo redesigns and explorations from my collective work across GameSpot, Giant Bomb, TV Guide and IGN
The approach for each of these logos varies a bit from each other but my constant is that i tried to start every logo and brand with the same set of questions such as "what do you want people to feel when they see this logo?" or "what are 3 words that exemplify this brand?"
I tried keeping my process consistent from IGN onto GameSpot and its sister brands
IGN Brand DEPT Logo
IGN 2018
The IGN Brand department was established early on at IGN around 2014 as an initiative within the org to have a team of designers and illustrators managing the use of the IGN logo and brand image across our mediums. This group was also responsible for handling the creation of new brands within IGN from shows, events and experiences.
With that came the desire to brand ourselves and thus this logo was born. Playing homeage to IGN brands of past with its saturn-like design and maintaining a sense of professionalism and craft to what we represented.
Game Mess Mornings
Giant Bomb 2022
Giant Bomb was looking to launch a new daily games news show in the mornings starring industry leading journalist Jeff Grubb at its helm. They wanted something that stood out and was vibrant and a little messy at the same time and this was the end result.
Final logo, pixel art by Austin McKinley
2014
Started as a passion project in his early days as a Zelda-obsessed NES gamer in the mid-80s and early 90s, Joe Granato had a vision like most to create a game one day and it wasn't until some 20 years later that his childhood dreams would come to fruition. Mystic Searches was that game and Joe's goal was to create an NES game not just in inspiration or visuals alone, but one that could actually be PLAYED on an NES (and subsequent modern platforms like Nintendo Switch).
I was recruited early on in its development to develop a visual identity for the game. The goal was to evoke a logotype that felt high fantasy mixed with a retro aesthetic of games from the mid-80s era of NES gold cartridge glory.
Jeff Jeff's Bizarre Adventure
Giant Bomb 2022
The crew at Giant Bomb was looking to start a podcast centered around a run-through of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure with half of the cast having seen the series and the other half being new to it. Jeff Bakalar in particular was the newcomer and each week centered around him experience the wild world of Jojo
giant bombathon full lockup
giant bomb 2021
Giant Bomb wanted to create a new event that could be treated as a sub-a-thon style broadcast. This was the inaugural year and it was completely over zoom but it was a great success and thousands of dollars were raised by GB and its community. My inspiration for the logo was the old Jerry Lewis telethons and i had a fun time making some custom manipulation to the typography
up at noon redesign
ign 2019/20
IGN's Up at Noon had been a long running weekly sketch show launched soon after the big push for games media to start transitioning to video happened. In the past it was hosted by IGN's Greg Miller but after his departure, Brian Altano (the lead writer for the Miller version and IGN host himself) teamed up with longtime friend Max Scoville to relaunch the show as something new
The duo wanted to evoke the era of late 90s/early 2000s cartoons and nickelodeon so I leaned heavily into those motifs. The end result is one of my proudest logos to date
TMWiO lockup
TMWIO podcast 2022
Longtime friends of mine Lucy O'Brien and Claire Reilly were looking to launch a new podcast in 2022 based around horror movies. The catch was that Claire was traditionally someone who is scared and very put off by horror movies where as Lucy is a horror fanatic. Together the idea would be that Lucy shows Claire a new gory, horrifying classic (or modern film) and then they hop in the pod to discuss afterwards and talk through their dual experiences.
With their art they wanted to evoke these two sides of the spectrum so i went very horror influenced with the blood dripping and VHS texture but matched it with a more fun cutesy font and color scheme
TV Guide 100 best shows lockup
TV Guide 2022
Every year TV Guide produces a feature around the 100 best shows currently on TV. For this year the top show was ABC's Abbott Elementary. With the show being centered around an elementary school and its teachers i wanted to play up those schoolhouse motifs and i feel like this final logo achieves that
swipe logo lockup
gamespot 2022
GameSpot was looking to launch its own mobile gaming showcase in 2022 and came to me asking if i could assist with branding. I wanted to keep things fairly simple and really play up the swipe motif in a simple graphic form.
The review crew
ign 2020
The idea for the Review Crew, led by former IGN producer Zach Ryan, was to choose a game, movie or tv show from the recent week and get together a group of journalists NOT just from IGN as we had normally done for so long. Instead this would be an industry wide reaching show that would see multiple outlets and opinions represented
IGN1 logo + living logo example
ign 2015
IGN 1 was a bold new idea for a media brand like IGN to try its hand at becoming an always on source of news, reviews, gameplay, events and so on. The idea was to have a 24hr always on channel that would be programmed by someone looking to give the viewers the best coverage on the internet no matter what the IP was
With this came the need for a mark that (like other tv logos) could be recognized instantly amongst a sea of similar logos and channels. Combining custom typography and a simple representation of a screen or tv for its graphic form, the final logo for the network was something that could have easily sat on any tv guide list
ign inside stories
ign 2021
With prestige documentaries becoming more of a mainstay amongst gaming and entertainment brands, IGN wanted to get into the market as well and present something akin to those. This logo, while simple, let the story take center stage while still providing a bold and elegant brand to go with it
The daily fix redesign
ign 2020
IGN's The Daily Fix has long been amongst its flagship shows. When many first come across IGN they might be graced with the likes of Jessica Chobot, Naomi Kyle, Alanah Pearce or Sydney Goodman n their screens representing the face of IGN and games/news coverage of the day
After many years the company wanted to redesign the logo and with it represent The Fix (no renamed) as something that felt modern and spoke to a more modern IGN viewership. Now split into two halves (one for gaming, one for entertainment) the show would look to once again establish itself as a symbol of the IGN brand and a consistent place viewers could come to feel welcome and comfortable amongst the brand they love
summer of gaming 2020
ign 2020
With the pandemic came many new changes for us all, one of those being the fact that in person events took a pause for 3 years so that meant the likes of E3 (gaming's then largest yearly event held in Los Angeles) would not be around for the foreseeable future
With this came the opportunity for IGN to swoop in and create a brand of its own to fill that space and so IGN's Summer of Gaming was born. The idea being to provide respite from the world being shut down and still give viewers something they could tune into and enjoy in place of E3 and the like
summer of gaming 2021
ign 2021
IGN Summer of Gaming 2021
Coming off a successful first run with SoG 2020, IGN again looked to run a Summer of Gaming event in the void that E3 had left. This time around i wanted to go even further into the summery vibe we had hinted at in the first and make something that felt warmer and more inviting while still maintaining the remnants of the year past
ign 2017
Another one of IGN's tentpole shows was Nintendo Voice Chat, a weekly podcast led by a multitude of hosts as well as a regular chair for IGN's co-founder and Amiibo obsessed Nintendo super-fan Peer Schneider
The previously had no logo to speak of and because of that the door was wide open on what we could do. It didn’t take long for me to find an old issue of Nintendo Power and think "hmmm, maybe we can play off this" and after that the colors and typographic style was born that you see above
Podcast unlocked redesign
ign 2018
IGN's dedicated Xbox podcast is one of its longest running and most viewed. Hosted by longtime Xbox writer (and current head of previews for IGN) and a group of like minded IGN staff, Unlocked was a go to for those fans that loved everything Xbox
For its redesign I wanted to do something that spoke to the legacy of Xbox and therefore I implemented a mark very reminiscent of the original Xbox logo from its launch in the early 2000s. This combined with custom typography that boxed in the logo creating a square that was visually emblematic of the xbox itself
Next-Gen Console Watch
ign 2020
The 9th generation of game consoles (PS5, Xbox Series X/S) was highly anticipated and in its run up IGN decided that we wanted to make a show centered around the buildup, release and post release of these consoles.
To make things more fun we added in the backdrop of treating this like a political event since we were in a presidential election year as it was. From its coverage style to the motion graphics and everything in between, we presented the two consoles against each other and debated who would come out on top, who would outdo the other in the lead up and how they would fare post launch
Next-Gen Console Watch 2021
ign 2021
Once the 9th-gen consoles had released we realized we also needed to make a shift from the political race motif we had implemented pre launch so myself and the team got to work on a refresh.
What we came back with represented something that we felt was a clean slate both visually and figuratively for these consoles going forward. We removed all forms of political styling or graphics and instead went with a look that was easy, recognizable backbone to the continuing coverage
IGN GOTY Medallion 2017
ign 2017
2017 was my first real foray into making the end of year coverage for IGN and with it came my first stab at trying to make the IGN brand and specifically its Best of 20xx coverage feel important. This year's motif used low poly shards to create the forms and visuals and in the final logo and awards i wanted that to be represented whether it be full color or monotone
IGN BOTY 2018 logo
ign 2018
2018 was a year where I wanted to push outside of the normal end of year looks and try for something instead that made IGN look different from the rest of the pack. With it came the idea for this very neon and 80s inspired synth wave motif.
ign boty 2019 logo, illustrations: julia rago + angela nguyen
ign 2019
If 2018 was a trial run for making IGN look different then 2019 was the first real step in blowing that out. For this year I wanted to make our logo visually distinct from anything we had previously done and most importantly something that was visually brighter than what we were used to
IGN Best of 2020
Every year presents a new way to tackle the year's best content. This year's logo leaned heavily into the motif we established utilizing grid paper, bullet journals styling and low-fi illustrations.
ign unfiltered
ign 2018
IGN Unfiltered
Ryan McCaffrey (IGN's host of Unlocked and Head of Preview content) is one of the more well connected people within games. He’s been around for decades and at this point has formed relationships with many of gaming's most legendary figures. He wanted to start a show focused around interviewing those people and he wanted to do so in a casual, bar-like setting where two old friends could just have a drink and discuss their lives in the industry
ign NOW logo intro graphic
ign 2019
IGN Now
IGN Now was our take on a short format quick hit news show that we could produce at the drop of a hat with a turn-key in house studio. This brand was created so that we as a news organization could produce news hits multiple times a day with high polish that didn't require the more production heavy Daily Fix or our tentpole weekly podcasts to be spun up
the idea here visually was to evoke early morning news bulletins and a feeling of expediency so the graphics I made reflected that while still maintaining the IGN brand at the forefront.
ng+ logo
ign 2020
News Games + More
Early on in the pandemic IGN was looking to launch a daily news show. This at the time wasn’t something IGN had really done in a live format like this. It was a fun way to explore some custom typography and have an open canvas to make a logo from.