Growing and Changing While Retaining Your Identity

In this article, Henrik Andersson talks about rebranding strategy for Kongregate.com and the importance of maintaining your identity.

Maintaining and updating your brand is crucial in today’s competitive business environment. Your brand is the face of your company and is often the first thing people see and interact with. It’s important to remember that throwing out your old branding and starting from scratch can be costly and time-consuming. It can also confuse your existing community and make it difficult for them to recognize and identify your business.

Instead of throwing out your old brand—take a step back and evaluate what is working and what is not. Look for ways to improve and tweak your existing branding to align with your goals. This can include updating your logo, refreshing your website design, or revising your messaging and positioning.

One of the key benefits of updating your branding rather than starting over is that it allows you to maintain continuity and consistency across all of your marketing efforts. This is particularly important if you have already built up a recognizable and respected brand, as it allows you to leverage the equity you’ve already established. A well-established brand can be a powerful asset for any company and it is vital to preserve that asset.

For Kongregate, that meant going straight to the core of our identity — we have pixels in our DNA. From this perspective, we started playing with grids and the binary logic of the internet in which there are only two possible outcomes; either something is true or false, yes-or-no, or on/off. And in true Kongregate fashion, after establishing that grid, we were also eager to find creative ways to break that grid!

The framed option allows the color to give less impact and appear more graphic. Instead, the filled version lends itself well when used in a smaller space and benefits from a more significant hit of the brand red; we use the filled option.

When updating your brand, you want to be mindful of the already established elements that have meaning to your community. In this case, the symbol of the ‘ant’ holds significant meaning and value – not only because it represents the company’s hard-working and dedicated spirit, but also because it symbolizes our community and togetherness. It would be a mistake to eliminate it.

Instead of removing the Kongregate Ant entirely from the logo lockup, we considered ways to make it less visually dominant while maintaining its presence. We simplified it and incorporated it subtly into the shape of the "K" in our logo. This way, the symbol still holds its meaning, but does not overpower the overall design. It reinforces that sense of togetherness that the symbol represents.

The key to this decision was in balancing the updated logo to align with our future goals while protecting the highly recognized and respected identity that our players recognize. By being mindful of these considerations, we created a fresh, modern logo that preserves the company’s spirit.

Allowing yourself to have some fun after you’ve locked in the foundation is essential. Here is an early concept to illustrate how you can break that strict grid and allow your brand personality to amplify a visual to become more engaging.

Branding is not a one-time effort. It’s an ongoing process that requires a deep understanding of your audience, industry, and competition. By taking the time to improve and update your existing branding, rather than throwing it out and starting from scratch, you can create a strong, recognizable brand that stands the test of time.

Henrik Andersson is the Senior Product Designer for Kongregate where he has been focused on redesigning the company brand on every level, from our new logo to a complete overhaul of Kongregate.com.